2020 SHORTLISTED

Maryan Abdulkarim

Writer & Artist

Maryan Abdulkarim is a feminist, freelance journalist and a columnist for the Finnish National Broadcast Company Yle and Hufvudstadsbladet and is a member of Yle's Jury of the Wise Programme. She has a background in anti-racist work and is the founder of a national network against racism and xenophobia called Rasmus. She is a member of the Miracle Workers Collective, which represented Finland in 2019 at the Venice Biennale with The Great Miracle of Perception piece. She is also the co-author of About 10 Myths About Feminism book which received the Minna Canth award. Born in Mogadishu, she moved to Finland as a child and grew up in Tampere and Helsinki. In her work, Maryan focuses on issues that relate to the intersection of gender, ethnic, class, religion and ability. She holds that all women do not face discrimination in the same way or reason, nor all minorities yet the structures that uphold hierarchies are similar in manifestation of power. She is a member of the Steering Group at the Equinox Initiative for Racial Justice.