INAYA ZURICH is a local structure independent of the state that stands in direct solidarity with queer people and refugee women. We build alternative support structures, create solidary networks and look after relationships. A priority is redistributing needed money from those who have enough to those who have too little. This way, basic needs can be covered securely and in the long term.
The association closes a gap: most existing state services and NGOs are used primarily by men, do not address the needs of women, children and queer people, and do not take their multiple oppression into account, for example in cases of sexualised or trans- and queerphobic violence. When INAYA is asked for support, the association tries to provide emergency aid through direct financial support and to offer a personal network. The aim is to accompany people into social independence and security through sustainable, personal support. How important our work is shows in the many requests for support that reach us every month and that we unfortunately often cannot meet.
Building solidary, communal and redistributive structures is part of a fundamental critique of the prevailing repressive migration and asylum system; a system that actively denies people the chance of a secure livelihood, excludes them from society and isolates them. Because we are all affected by these structures – but for people who do not fit into the majority logics of society, this has existential consequences.
We also provide this support out of the conviction that gender is based on self-definition, and we take a clear stand against transphobic, transmisogynist and cissexist categorisations. By «women» we mean trans, cis and intersex people who identify as «woman» and/or «female». We use queer as a term to address (non-female) trans, non-binary, agender, gender-diverse and other gendered realities outside a strict binary colonial logic, as well as gay, lesbian, bi, pan and asexual people. In other words: all people who are structurally negatively affected by transphobia/cissexism and queerphobia and who are affected by flight, asylum, migration and illegalisation.