Karama Partners in Egypt Raise Awareness on International Women’s Day

21 March 2014 - On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Karama partners in Egypt, including the Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development (ACT) and Al Shehab Institution for Comprehensive Development raised awareness on women’s rights and celebrated the achievement of the women’s movement in Egypt.

On March 8^th, Karama partners Association for the Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development (ACT), in cooperation with Karama, continued the Knock the Doors campaign, which it launched at last year’s women’s day event and set the goal of knocking on 1,000 doors in five governorates in Egypt. ACT also held a closing event celebrating women’s struggles against violence, oppression and discrimination under the title “They are change.” The convening took a stand on challenges facing women and girls in Egypt, and ways to address them, and included music and singing by Jasmine Baramawi. Two films documenting women’s status since the 25^th of January 2013 were also presented.

On March 20th, the Al Shehab Institution for Comprehensive Development, in cooperation with Karama convened 170 grassroots representatives for an awareness day on women’s rights celebrating International Women’s Day in the area of Al Haggana and illustrate positive stories of women survivors of violence from the local community. The day began with women of Ezbet el Haggana expressing problems and challenges they have been facing, including lack of support services for incidences of violence and discrimination. They also shared their experiences in forming an alliance to protect domestic workers. Later, they presented a story telling show and street theatre to demonstrate what women face in public life with regard to harassment. At the event’s close, Al Shehab honored a number of grassroots women from Ezbet el Haggana.