3.25.2014



 


In partnership with G.A.R.Ç.E.S*
 

When women of Mediterranean seize new media for their rights!”!

Press release- 25  mars 2014

How did Mediterranean women take hold of social networks (blogs, videos, Facebook) to defend their rights?

What are the most innovative campaigns in Egypt, Tunisia, France...? What is the impact on their society?

The Mediterranean Women’s Fund organises a meeting with active women of these campaign. Such campaigns include creativity, diversity, interdisciplinary arts (video, graphics, photos, music, etc.).

Saturday, March 29, 2014 from 9:30 to 1:30 p.m. at Sciences Po Paris.
Room Albert Sorel, 27 rue Saint- Guillaume, 75007 Paris.
Metro: Rue du Bac and Saint Germain des Près.

The Mediterranean Women’s Fund will host
The Egyptian Association HarassMap Communication Officer, Eba'a El Tammami.
HarassMap fights against sexual harassment in the street, via a mobile application.

Founded by four girls,  HarassMap has established online mapping and mobile application that allows victims to alert the association via SMS and receive instant support and advice. And it works! This concept is spreading from India to Brazil.

Farah Barqawi of Women's’ Uprising in the Arab World "the uprising of women in the Arab world " is a Facebook page created after the Arab revolutions which brings together more than a hundred thousand people. From this sentence, " I am for the uprising of women in the Arab world because ... ", this campaign calls on women to post pictures of themselves holding a sign where their demands are written.

Natacha Henry, co-director of animation films for the French association Libre Terre des femmes.10 animated shorts movies available online in 9 languages ​ to inform women of their rights against domestic violence.

Note: All interventions will be in English (no simultaneous translation).


* About the organizers

The FFMed is a fund that supports women for their emancipation, from north to south across the Mediterranean in 21 countries. Currently, the FFmed supports and monitors 100 programs whose priority is to strengthen and to enhance the ability of young women to fight for equal rights, to support innovative projects in this effort, and to help young women's associations to develop.

 G.A.R.Ç.ES (Groupe d’Action et de Réflexion Contre l’Environnement Sexiste) is a feminist collective created at Sciences Po Paris as a result of the mobilization against the retirement’s pension reform in 2010 and, more specifically, after finding that the distribution of speaking time between students in General Assembly is uneven.
G.A.R.Ç.ES suggests bringing together all the people who believe in these values ​​and in this feminist project of social change.

3.24.2014






23/03/2014

MEDITERRANEAN WOMEN’S FUND: Program Grundtvig Meeting

March 28-29  2014 in Paris



Friday March 28th


La Ligue de l'enseignement,

3/5 rue Poincaré 75020 paris Métro  Saint-Fargeau (Ligne 3)


9.00 -  9.30     Welcome Coffee   
9.30 -  10.15   Presentation of the partners and the program
10.15 -11.15   20 years Barakat Campaign.


11.15 -11.30    Coffee Break
11.30 -12.30    Getting  the world out introduction to Mailshrimp,  
12.30 -14.00   Lunch 
14:00 -18:00   Workshop: Forum theatre as a tool to deconstruct the stereotypes
19:30   Diner 
Saturday  March  29th  MWF in partnership with  G.A.R.Ç.E.S.



Sciences Po  University Albert Sorel Room 27 Rue Saint-Guillaume, 75007 Paris

Métro : Rue du Bac (ligne 12) or Saint Germain des Près (Ligne 4)



9.30 - 10:00      Introduction from the Mediterranean Women’s fun  and  G.A.R.Ç.E.S. 
10.00-11:00      SMS against harassment in the street in Cairo 
11.00 -11.15     Coffee breaks 
11.15 -11.45      The Uprising of women in the Arab world campaign
11.45 -12.30       Using animation to combat domestic violence 
13:00 -14.00       Lunch 
14:00 -16:00       Evaluation and conclusion







HarassMap - SMS AGAINST HARRASSMENT IN THE STREET

 

Eba’a El-Tamami is the HarassMap Marketing and Communications Unit Head.
They are Egyptian, very young (about twenty) and fed up with – “at best” - the constant groping to which they are subjected on buses, and – “at worst”- the physical violence, ranging up to rape, in the street and other public places. In Egypt, sexual harassment in the street affects 80% of women.
To put an end to this “tradition” that does not bothers anyone except women, four young Cairo women from the “geek” generation (new technology addicts) came up with a simple but very effective idea in December 2010: a mobile phone application that allows victims to alert authorities by SMS and to instantly receive support and advice. An interactive map was established which identifies the locations where sexual harassment cases take place. Their policy: “We are in the streets, the streets belong to us, and we will do everything we must to make them safe”. If you are on a bus and someone starts to grope you but you do not dare react in front of your aggressor, you send an SMS to the HarassMap number. Immediately, the information (location, bus number...) is identified on the interactive map, which indicates the locations in town where sexual harassment takes place most often. Since the number was set up, messages have arrived in waves. One reason for such high numbers is that, in contrast with complaints filed with the police, the victim's identity remains anonymous if she so wishes. The association also can direct the victim to legal and psychological support that is provided free of charge.
In addition, Harassmap, made up of 300 volunteers, all young, goes into the neighbourhoods where harassment is most frequent to speak with the inhabitants. This awareness raising led to the creation of a touching film clip, made with only male actors. All address the camera, head on and very determined. They say: “Stop harassment in the street”.
Eba’a el Tamamin, set up the HarassMap marketing and communications unit, developing and implementing various integrated online/offline campaigns against sexual harassment and assault.

Video Conference and in duplex (Haidar Diala, Yalda Younes, Farah Barqawi, Sally Younis Zohney)

This campaign was created in October 2011 by a 4 women activists from various Arab countries.
It was an urgent reaction to the social and political developments in the region because they  didn’t want the Arab Spring to be aborted. “From Tunis to Egypt to Libya to Syria to Yemen to Bahrain…, the Arab revolts are led in the name of dignity, justice and freedom, but we cannot reach for those values if women are being ignored or absented from the main scenery”.
United under the slogan “Together for free, independent and fearless women in the Arab world!”, the demands of the Uprising of Women in the Arab World are:- Absolute freedom of thought, of expression, of belief or disbelief, of movement, of body, of clothing, of lodging, of decision making, of marriage or non-marriage;- The right to autonomy, to education, to work, to divorce, to inheritance, to vote, to eligibility, to administrate, to ownership and to full citizenship;- Familial, social, political and economical absolute equality with men;- The abolishment of all laws, practices and fatwas violating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as excision, stoning, lashing, the laws acquitting rapists or tolerating crimes of “honor”;- Protection against domestic violence, sexual harassment and all forms of physical and psychological abuse and discrimination facing women today in the Arab world and beyond.
The campaign of the Uprising of Women in the Arab World aims to:1- Highlight the various kinds of discrimination against women in the Arab world (social, economical, political, judiciary…). Being aware of the injustice they are subject to is the first step to counter it.2- Pin out the fact that women in this region share many struggles. They could then create a common ground for feminist activism, overcoming the borders of the states and building on from each other’s experiences.3- Re-open the debate in the social media on women’s conditions, especially that women have suffered lots of attacks after the success of the revolts of the Arab Spring countries:


Natacha Henry for the association  Libre Terre de Femmes FRANCE

“Libres Terres de Femmes” (Women’s Free Lands) is a feminist organization and part of the existing “violence against women” network. She fights to end male domination vector of violence for millions of women worldwide. They ensure a permanent contact with other associations on this topic in France and worldwide.

Natacha Henry’s books include Frapper n’est pas aimer, an investigation into the help provided to victims of inter-partner violence in France; Les « mecs lourds » ou le paternalisme lubrique, about inappropriate sexual behaviour in the workplace; and Exciseuse, about the fight against FSM in France. A postgraduate in Modern History from the London School of Economics and the Sorbonne, she started out at the Beijing Conference and has taken part in numerous international projects (International Women in Media Foundation, Daphné…). Her speech against impunity at the 57th Commission on the Status of Women in New York in March 2013, brought her international recognition. She is also a Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
She is the founder of Gender Company: gendercompany.com
Films
Natacha Henry is the codirector and executive producer of a series of 6 short animation films on Inter Partner Violence: How to file a complaint; Protection Orders; How to get back your Self Confidence; Marital Rape; Psychological Violence; Domestic Violence, Pregnancy and Children.
They are available in 9 languages: Arabic, Bambara, English, French, Lingala, Mandarin, Portuguese, Soninke, Wolof.
20 Years Barakat campaign: Women Musicians Unite to Overturn Algeria’s Family Code
The collective 20 ans, Barakat campaign, aimed to launch a very flexible campaign and to use new tools to ensure the participation a wide range of groups, personalities, young, old, man, women, illiterate or intellectuals.  Therefore they decided to create a CD song and a video clip telling the story of the family code that even an old woman can listen in their kitchen via the radio. They wanted her to understand that the song and message is also intended for her.
Finally during a magic moment in the summer of 2003 a number of female artists gathered in a recording studio to unite their voices in harmony. Their mission: to overturn Algeria's Family Code -- a set of laws that, for over 20 years, has relegated women to second-class citizenship. Their instrument: a song. “Ouech dek Yal Qadi” (What came over you, judge?).
They amplified the voices of millions of women who have always said no to injustice and who have opposed the infamous Algerian Family Law for the past 20 years. These voices from various regions of Algeria  were laden with intense emotion: 20 ans, Barakat! (meaning 20 years is enough)!
After a one year great campaign in both France and Algeria, involving media, women’s movement and several other organizations, revisions were made to the Family Code, in 2005.
The duty of a wife to obey her husband has been removed, and this is very big. Divorced women now have guardianship rights and the right to custody of their children. For a widow, these things will change her life. They will change the life of women and, men.

Their work aims to encourage and accompany the physical and emotional development of groups and individuals. Each person has a view of the world and their own belief systems some of which they may be only partly aware of. In order to develop, these beliefs and attitudes need to be made clear.
The tool of forum theatre is one of the « theatre of the oppressed » techniques created by during the 1960’s to support communities wishing to change social injustice. We continue to use it today to challenge unfair laws, abuses of power and oppressive systems.


About the organizers of the meeting

 

The Mediterranean Women’s Fund was created in January 2008 through the initiative of women who have been involved for many years in promoting women’s rights in the Mediterranean region.

Starting from their experiences of trying to finance their projects or those of other associations in Algeria, France, Turkey, Morocco and in Palestine, they have found that it is necessary to create a structure in order to provide financial support for the women’s rights movement in the region.

The Fund's strategies are defined in close collaboration with both associations and networks created by women throughout the Mediterranean region. This link enables the Fund to adapt to the region's many different political and social contexts and to keep pace with changes.

G.A.R.Ç.E.S is a feminist collective which was created at Sciences Po Paris following the mobilization against the pension reform at the end of 2010 and, more specifically, the observation that male students dominated the meetings. GARCES object to the conventional wisdom that feminism is obsolete and seek to bring together all persons adhering to a feminist project of social transformation. At Sciences Po, they act by:
  • Informing and educating the community through campaigns and regular publications
  • Organizing public seminars and conferences
  • Denouncing all sexist abuse
  • Mobilizing the users of the institution through concrete actions.