Stephanie Taibi awarded the Sophie von La Roche Prize 2018 for women's sport and violence prevention

Her credo is "Be true to yourself and set yourself goals", and Stephanie Taibi has achieved a lot in her life with this motto. 10 years ago, she founded the school and the Song Moo e.V. association, where Offenbach women of all ages and with a wide range of backgrounds train in martial arts. Anyone who thinks that Taibi is simply concerned with women's "self-optimization" has completely misunderstood this year's winner of the Sophie von La Roche Prize. The music teacher is much more concerned with respect, mutual support, getting to know and recognizing differences, commonalities and overcoming the self-limitation that girls are often brought up to.

According to Sunny Graff, Taekwondo grandmaster and expert in violence research from the Frankfurt-based association Frauen in Bewegung, saying no, as part of feminist self-assertion and self-defense concepts, has been proven to stop violence in attacks on women and girls and reduce the risk of injury. In her laudatory speech, Graff informed the audience of politicians, educational organizations, sports clubs and women's groups about the award winner and the motives behind her commitment. Lord Mayor Dr. Felix Schwenke called on Taibi to continue her commitment to empowering women and girls in Offenbach and was delighted that the prize was being awarded for the first time for commitment to women's sport in terms of gender equality.

Stepanie Taibi thanked the city council for the award, which comes with prize money of 1500 euros. She paid tribute to the commitment of the Chairwoman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, Councillor Marianne Herrmann, who had been campaigning for the establishment of this prize since 2008.

The Sophie von La Roche Prize for Equal Rights for Women is awarded every two years by the City of Offenbach, explained municipal women's representative Karin Dörr as the managing director of the award jury.