“How Empower Women for Change Rewrote My Story…”

I didn’t join Empower Women for Change because I had everything figured out. I joined because something inside me whispered that I was meant for “more” - more confidence, more community, more courage than I had ever allowed myself to claim.

When I moved from Iran to Scotland, I carried both hope and heaviness. Starting over in a new country meant learning how to rebuild my sense of belonging from the ground up. I was navigating a new culture, a new language rhythm, a new way of being seen. And in the middle of all that change, I was still trying to hold onto the parts of myself that felt familiar.

At the time, I didn’t know what “empowerment” truly meant. I thought it was a word people threw around in motivational speeches or printed on tote bags.

But EWFC turned that word into something living, breathing, and deeply personal.

Walking In as One Version of Myself…

When I first stepped into the EWFC space, I carried a quiet version of myself. The one who second-guessed her voice. The one who played small to make others comfortable. The one who didn’t always believe she belonged in rooms where decisions were made.

EWFC didn’t try to change me. Instead, it held up a mirror and showed me the parts of myself I had forgotten- my strength, my softness, my resilience, my fire. 

It reminded me that empowerment isn’t about becoming someone new; it’s about returning to who you were before the world told you to shrink.

A Community That Felt Like Home

What surprised me most wasn’t the workshops or the opportunities - though those were incredible. It was the “women”.

Women who listened without judgment.

Women who celebrated my wins like they were their own.

Women who understood the weight of expectations, culture, identity, and ambition- and still chose to rise.

The Moment Everything Shifted

There wasn’t one dramatic turning point. It was a collection of small moments:

The first time I spoke up in a room and didn’t apologise for it.

The first time someone said, “I see potential in you,” and I actually believed them.

The first time I realised I wasn’t alone in my struggles - or my dreams.

Those moments stitched together a new version of me: a woman who stands taller, speaks louder, and dreams bigger.

A Final Reflection

If I could speak to the woman I was when I first arrived in Scotland, I would tell her this:

“You were never meant to walk alone. You were meant to rise - and to rise with others.”

And that is what EWFC gave me: not just confidence, but companionship; not just courage, but community; not just empowerment, but a HOME :)