Glasgow Girls (activists)


The Glasgow Girls are a group of seven young women in Glasgow, Scotland, who highlighted the poor treatment of asylum seekers whose rights of appeal had been exhausted. In 2005, the group campaigned against dawn raids, raised public awareness and found support in the Scottish Parliament. Their story has been told in a musical and a film.

History

The group all attended Drumchapel High School in Glasgow and formed in 2005 with the support of their teacher Euan Girvan, in response to the detention of one of their friends, Agnesa Murselaj. The name came from two of its members, Amal Azzudin and Roza Salih. Pupils at the school signed a petition, then 26 MSPs signed a parliamentary motion praising the pupils' actions.
By September 2005, their efforts had gained national attention. The girls challenged the then First Minister Jack McConnell on the matter and publicly voiced their concerns as more children at their school were being dawn raided, detained and deported.
After visiting the Scottish Parliament twice, The Glasgow Girls obtained cross-party support on the issue.
The group won the Scottish Campaign of the Year Award in 2005 at the annual Scottish politician of the year ceremony for their hard work. However, it did not stop them from demanding to know just what had happened to the "protocol" that Jack McConnell had promised to obtain from the Home Office that social services, education services, and the Immigration police would be consulted before any decision was made on the removal of a family.
Two documentaries have been made by the BBC about their campaign- Tales from the Edge won the Nations and Regions Award in the Amnesty International UK Media Awards.
It took until September 2008 for the Murselaj family to be granted permanent leave to remain. Salih gained a place at Strathclyde University and studied law and politics. In 2014, the university announced scholarship funding for three asylum seekers to enable them to study there. In January 2017 Salih announced that she would stand as an SNP candidate in the local elections later that year.

Depiction in popular culture

In 2012, the National Theatre of Scotland presented a modern musical at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow depicting the life of the Glasgow Girls. The musical then had a run at Stratford East Theatre in London and returned to the Citizens in 2014 as part of the Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme.
BBC Scotland created a new musical television drama which aired on BBC Three on 15 July 2014. It won an award for drama at the Royal Television Society Scotland Awards 2014 and best TV drama at the BAFTA Scotland awards in November 2015.