V-Day Special Representative Hibaaq Osman with women from the girls' Dream Project
Beginning in 2005, V-Day is proud to make Cairo home to the Secretariat for V-Day Africa, the Middle East, Asia as well as the hub of our Karama Program in the Middle East and North Africa.
In 1997, an Egyptian government survey found that 97 percent of all ever-married Egyptian women have undergone Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a cultural practice that is deeply imbedded in social norms regulating women’s role with regard to their marital and reproductive lives.
[1] The hazardous practice of FGM has been linked to numerous health problems among women that adversely affect their reproductive capacities, self-esteem, and in some cases their mortality.
Egyptian groups including the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) and others are spearheading a campaign to stop the practice of FGM by means of a three-year initiative focusing on 60 villages in Upper Egypt. The campaign faces steep challenges due to seemingly inflexible social attitudes and practices deeply rooted in tradition.
In addition, the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW), a Cairo-based organization and partner of V-Day estimates that one in three Egyptian women suffer domestic abuse. As an example of the fierce resistance to women’s safety and equality, a male columnist in
Al Akhbar reviewed ADEW’s pamphlet containing stories from abused women and wrote: “
I give every man the right to do what [these men] have done.”
[2] He goes on to suggest that only “ugly” women are abused.
Many women’s organizations in the region struggle in this cultural context to address gender-based violence as a violation of human rights. V-Day will link these groups to the international movements against violence against women, and build their capacity to define, confront, prosecute, and prevent it.
Momentum for change is apparent and exciting. In February of 2004, Cairo audiences flocked to three private, sold-out performances of
The Vagina Monologues produced and performed by Egyptians as well as young women from Lebanon, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Despite a deliberately quiet publicity campaign, the performances drew overflowing crowds and raised money to furnish a women’s shelter, one of the first of its kind in the Middle East. The shelter will open officially in mid-2005.
The case of Egypt is a superb example of how V-Day’s unique strengths can have dramatic impact on the lives of women and girls – the combined approach of art and grassroots activism is the essence of V-Day. Violence and the attitudes toward it are equally insidious yet the V-Day approach is effective in the effort to change both. It attempts to reach the core of people’s attitudes through the medium of art and creative thought to enhance initiatives for concrete and sustainable action.
Lana, a 25-year-old Saudi member of the Cairo cast of
The Vagina Monologues. expressed, “
It is important for us to do this because women in Egypt and in the Gulf area don’t ever speak of what they want.” Sophia Al Maria, a 20 year-old student from Qatar, also the director and producer of the V-Day Cairo performances, added, “
These issues are relevant everywhere.”
V-Day Founder Eve Ensler with women from the Girls' Dream Project
ADEW (Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women)
ADEW promotes the central philosophy of empowering women in low-income communities socially, legally, and economically, focusing on female heads of households. ADEW recently constructed a shelter, one of the first of its kind in Egypt, to open in mid-2005.
ADEW (email)
http://www.adew.org/
1The Egypt Demographic and Health Survey, 1997, reported by the UNDP Programme on Governance in the Arab Region.
2 Muhammad Omar’s column in Al Akhbar, reported by The Cairo Times, 2/24/2004
