Our Founder and CEO Taban was thrilled to be honoured at the GQ Heroes event at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire recently.
Hosted by British GQ and BMW UK, the event brought together a range of international speakers and guests to exchange ideas around culture, style, business and politics, with the two-day schedule crammed with inspiring talks, round tables and performances.
In recognition of being named one of the magazine’s Heroes for 2024, Taban was interviewed by longtime friend and advocate Josie Naughton, the CEO of Choose Love, which is one of the Lotus Flower’s key supporters.
During their talk before a packed auditorium, Taban recounted her story as a child genocide survivor, powerfully describing her experience of fleeing persecution and being a political prisoner at the age of just four.
Referring to an old photo of herself on the screen above, she added: “By this point, I’d seen what it was like to be in a prison, I’d seen what it was like to see your family members cry, scream, wail and beg soldiers not to kill them. I’d seen them scream at the diggers in front of the buses because we were going to be buried alive.”
Taban also told how of her decision to give up her city job in London to return to Kurdistan as an aid worker during the ISIS attacks in her homeland. “By the time I came back after 15 months, I’m sure you can imagine I couldn’t go back to a normal job,” she said. “There was no way that I could go back to a 9-to-5.”
“So I set up the Lotus Flower with zero money on my own, and today it’s just flourished into an amazing organisation. I’ve got 200 staff in Iraq implementing projects, and seven in the UK. We’ve gone from zero to impacting on 84,000 women, girls and community members directly.”
Other speakers at this year’s GQ Heroes included Hollywood actors Russell Crowe, Emma Corrin, Joseph Quinn and Anya Taylor-Joy, as well as footballing legend Ian Wright, F1 star Jenson Button, campaigner Esther Ghey and paediatrician Seema Jilani, whose incredible work with children has taken her to conflict zones including Afghanistan, Iraq, the Balkans, Sudan, Gaza and the West Bank.
There was also musical performances from DJ Charli XCX, Jordan Rakei and Rachel Chinouriri, and loads of brilliant opportunities for building connections and starting important conversations.
Thank you so much to everyone at GQ and BMW for allowing the Lotus Flower to be part of such a special event – we hope to be able to return next year with updates on our growing impact!