Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:04 Hello, and welcome to woman off of the middle East podcast. This podcast relates the realities of Ableman and their rich and diverse experiences. It's aims to present the multiplicity of women's voices and it wishes to break cultural stereotypes about women of the middle East, as well as educate and empower the younger generation of middle Eastern women who are stripped off their historical reference. And weren't necessarily raised to believe in their agency and power to create their own destiny. Um, I'm an <inaudible>, I'm a feminist scholar and educator. I'm also the author of Arab woman and Arab news, all stereotypes. And you meet you. I created this podcast to be an extension and an update of the book and its main topics.
Speaker 1 00:00:54 Hello, and welcome to a new episode, uh, alpha foreman of the middle East podcast, uh, to begin with. I'd like to apologize to everyone. I know I'm a bit of a lazy podcaster. I'm not one that, um, is, um, has been abiding by a certain time lines or deadlines. I'm really sorry. Um, it's what I do is I, I do it out of passion, definitely. Uh, and I'd like to connect more often, um, yes, work and family during COVID 19, hasn't been easy, uh, but I've been always thinking of ways of creating new content and, um, relevant and interesting content for you. So, um, I'll try to do better this year, starting from this month and let's begin. So March, 2021, we have celebrated international women day on the 8th of March, uh, which marked a beginning of a challenge under the theme of I choose to challenge and I do, I have committed to a new challenge.
Speaker 1 00:02:14 I choose to challenge the vilification of feminists and feminist movements and my region feminists brave and determined, still function within the thorny boundaries of patriarchy and capitalism and within political systems that are lending their fire ability to maintaining the status school, including the rigid traditional structures. These structures still attempt to discredit women and their struggles and their cold for claiming their rights. They still strive to confine women to the private sphere by making the public one as insecure and us unsafe as possible to them. How many times have we heard that feminists are men haters, that feminists are a direct threat to the family values and our society's values. How many times have we heard that feminists are political defense and disguise and work with outside foreign governments when we hear that and, and, and yes, as much as we think that those claims are ridiculous, but they are not so ridiculous because they've been used as an excuse for hatred enticement for characterized fascination and for political reasons through throwing feminists in jail, hundreds and hundreds of examples can dimensioned from countries in the region.
Speaker 1 00:03:49 I'm in Norway, interested in responding to these silly and ignorant claims about feminists and feminist movements and the Arab region or in the MENA region. But I'm aware of their danger as they feed the ignorance of people by playing on their fear of philosophy, religion, and culture by vilifying us. So as a proud feminist who believe in the cause I choose to challenge and I intend to celebrate women and feminists and feminist movements in the Arab world and shed the light on what they are and what they stand for. As much as I can using this podcast, as one of the venues I have available, I will let them talk for themselves when whenever I can, uh, or I'll tell their stories. So this year I'll be doing three parts to, um, fulfill my challenge. The first one would be educating others about feminists and feminism in our part of the world. The second is amplify their voices by using this podcast as a platform and third, make sure I would present myself as a feminist and all the venues
Speaker 0 00:05:08 <inaudible>.
Speaker 1 00:05:40 So I began my challenge. And in this episode, we will hear, um, several testimonials from, uh, amazing, uh, feminists, uh, from, uh, the MENA region who will be, um, telling us what feminism means within their context and why they consider themselves proud feminists. We have shaman, <inaudible> sell me a Milky from Tunisia, Dr. <inaudible> from Kuwait shaman blue sheet from United Arab Emirates, lawyer AZA. So they from Egypt and Bannon, <inaudible> from Jordan. So he must have gone from Katara from a context that is conservative and traditional. Uh, she's a brave young woman who, uh, is proud feminist as well. She's a writer, social and human rights activists. Talk to us a bit about who she is and what she stands for.
Speaker 2 00:06:45 We keep receiving this question, are you a feminist? Why are you a feminist? And there is very simple answer to this question because our movement, I have to be a feminist on a daily basis. And just because we, women ICO or whites being squandered robbed, diminished, and marginalized, and I'm all for those rights and taking this to any injustice that would be full as woman. And I think that we have to speak up and say what we have to say. I think that our goal today is to bridge the gap between the term for medicine and what we want in terms of rights and bring into closer to our revision. That's a sense of from our values and morals, uh, this is not by wasting our time and just defying a narrative, the history of feminism and the direction of where it's going, but, uh, by highlighting our positions and voicing our views, clearly this is the right that's, uh, that's what we want. And this is the way to restore it.
Speaker 1 00:07:55 <inaudible> let's hear now from Samiya. Mulkey from Tunisia, the president of <inaudible> organization.
Speaker 2 00:08:40 Hello, my name is Samuel Milky. I'm a Tunisian civil society activist. I've been involved with civil society relatively early. I was 16 when I started I'm Jenny Zen, but I like to call myself a global of the world. I'm the president of <inaudible>, uh, women rights, NGO, uh, which is a member of African and Arab women networks and feminist groups, uh, works to change discriminatory laws. We are currently working on the domestication of the Maputo protocol that Tunisia has ratified two years ago, besides pushing for changes in laws that discriminate women. We also advocate for the implementation of the laws, which is not very easy. Um, for me being a feminist is about being against injustice. As simple as that, uh, I know that the term feminist tends to be associated with negative connotations of women who hate men, but, uh, of course this is, uh, not true because feminism is really, um, the fact of striving towards equality, uh, for everyone, it is of course, ensuring equal rights as well as opportunities for women, um, trying to empower all women to realize their full rights. It's a, uh, a struggle, um, a daily struggle, uh, to improve the conditions of women.
Speaker 0 00:10:35 Let's hear now from know the shadow, who is a scholar, a researcher, and activist, and a pro feminist. She is an outspoken advocate. The foreman writes, and she is the director of <inaudible> consultancy.
Speaker 2 00:10:51 To me, a feminism is many things. It's schools of thoughts, it's academic theories and it's political movements that highlight human rights issues. From a gender perspective, I had a conversation with a colleague a few years ago, whether I was a self-proclaimed or a self-evident feminist, I believe it must be the latter because there are so many discriminations against women based solely on sex. There are so many unfair practices and unequal opportunities that I don't think it's a choice. You have to be a feminist. You have to, uh, you know, raise your voice and, and demand to be recognized and included. I believe that there's room for study and research on highly G feminism and what that means exactly, uh, in the different GCC States and how it intersects with historical and political situations in each state and how it differs from state projects of women's empowerment. And I, I think there are many different political movements and schools of thoughts that could fall under the title of highly G feminism, but haven't been explored in studies.
Speaker 1 00:12:36 No one let's hear what <inaudible> has to say about being a feminist. She is a, she is the co-founder and executive director of <inaudible>, which is an NGO and a feminist organization, and Jordan and Lebanon
Speaker 2 00:12:56 And banana was editing a feminist. And one of the founding members of the <inaudible> and it's executive manager to me, feminism is a lifestyle, something, I live daily choices, decisions. I make experiences I go through, which reflects on how I support women around me and in my community. Feminism is a school of thought and knowledge we use to face our reality, our way to free ourselves from the reality we live in, where we reject all kinds of discrimination and practices that happened to us as women and girls, it's just the accumulation of feminists history and their struggle in order to build a revolutionary movement that rejects the oppression of women and marginalized groups. The intersectionality of our issues with these groups is based on suicidality, love, strength, and our support for each other. This is the way to pressure change and achieve equality, justice, security, and freedom for women and all spectrums of society foreman in the Arab world throughout history have been struggling and facing all forms of oppression and discrimination.
Speaker 2 00:14:01 These seas, many rights and many achievements that we celebrate today. How do we exist? Raise our voices and have a place in the public's fair facts to them and their struggle. Unfortunately, our feminist history in many places is being overly iterated in contrast to the abattoir documented Western feminist history. However, this still does not eliminate all the struggle that women and feminists have carried out in our countries, which we continue today through the efforts of the generation before us, by the daily presence on the ground and permanent support for women's rights, which is based on strategies, different tactics and ideologies, such as feminists all over the world and doing so, it considered quite healthy and certainly not harmful, but we also faced various challenges related to the context that prevents us being more organized and influential through our discourse, our work and our journey. This is why we still have a lot of work to do in order to build a successful feminist movement and reach more achievements and developments for women and young girls with all the experiences we go through in our daily lives.
Speaker 2 00:15:10 As a woman and young girls, the stories we hear about women's suffering, discrimination and injustice that befalls them simply because they are women. I'm part of the society from oppressive practices and unfair Lowes against us, which leaves us with limited options just because we are women and girls. We witnessed the authoritative power exercised on us, the guardianship of our bodies, the limitation of our choices, and all is dealing with us as second class citizens by all standards, just by being within these regimes, that construct fate male power over us, all this prompts me to be a feminist, an angry feminist loudly rejecting those reality for me, feminism is an intellectual movement and practice through which we valued justice, equality, and freedom for women and all spectrums of society. <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:16:18 What does feminism and being a feminist mean to us, this layman, who is an Egyptian lawyer, a woman's human rights, um, uh, defender and feminist. She founded the center, uh, of Egyptian woman's legal assistance in 1995 to offer legal support to victims of abuse and domestic violence.
Speaker 2 00:16:39 Yes, feminism is an assembly of ideas, a school of thought that that started due to women's oppression and their sense of inequality throughout history. It was fighting violence against women and discrimination that happens in all fields, such as the comics, social and politicals fair. Therefore, the concept of feminism came to light. I'm a proud feminist because I'm against discrimination and injustice more so when it comes to women, also, I'm working through history to achieve justice and equity, specially foreman, furthermore, feminism fights all types of discrimination against any member of the society. As for the new generations. I think they are very impressive. In fact, in the past, we used to feel stigmatized where we couldn't reveal that we are feminists out of fear with the society and its looked to feminism. It was believed that feminism was a licensure, this ideology based on immorality and everything that will demolish it, the values of family and society. So we were feeling ashamed nowadays the new generations are strong, brave, and able to reveal that they are feminists against discrimination on fighting against all types of violence.
Speaker 2 00:18:17 And now last but not least, I'll leave you with the shame of the blue sheet, who is an exceptional young woman from the United Arab Emirates. She's also the co-founder of inequality exposed. My name is Shane Miller, blue BlueShield. And as cliche as this may sound, I first and foremost, identify as a human being. We sometimes forget that that's what unites us. We are so focused on our differences, like religion, race, and gender that we forget that if there's no humanity, we are left with nothing but insanity. I'm also an academic. I have three master's degrees and two bachelor degrees. And hopefully soon I'll have them. I'll have a PhD as well. I'm a senior consultant, one of the big four companies and I am a feminist. I have an online platform called inequality exposed that talks about, um, women achievement and woman rights across the world. I believe that we are all sharing the same struggle and that struggle is to live in an equitable and equal society. And I believe that once we start understanding how this exists across the world, we can become more loving towards one another. And this is my golden life.
Speaker 2 00:19:40 Feminism means everything yet, nothing to me. And when I say it means nothing to me, it's because I have been blessed. And honestly, I am privileged to live in a family that has never restricted me because of my gender and sex. I lived in a family that never really perceived me as less than my brothers. I lived in a family that never inhibited my outreach, never inhibited me from reaching my full potential. Yet feminism means everything to me because the truth is sometimes your gender and your sex restricts you from everything. Some women cannot even ride the car. Some women cannot even go out with their friends and enjoy the convenience of having coffee in a coffee shop with their friends. Some women get taught that narrative rape is not a thing. And therefore feminism to me means everything because I know that these women unfortunately can be voiceless because they have been silenced by society and they have them silenced by their families.
Speaker 2 00:20:46 I have not. And therefore I am privileged in many ways. And this takes me to the second point of why I am a feminist. I am a feminist because I can be a feminist because I have the tools, the weapons and the equipment to face the words and to face the patriarchy and to fight for those who are defenseless. I am shield and protected by my education, by my family, which does play a very important and strong factor in our Arab worlds. Many do not have this privilege. And somebody has to pick up that sword and fight, if not me, then who, and this is why I'm a feminist. Unfortunately feminism has become a taboo. It's become a bad word, but people think about feminists. They think about men painters. They think about women who are sets out to destroy them. The truth is we are not battling month.
Speaker 2 00:21:44 We are battling the patriarchy. We are battling a system that has failed both men and women, but specifically women. So what does feminism look like in my world? It's not something you want to be in the eyes of society. It means you are transgressing and trespassing, social norms and the status school. But what I would like to propose is to reconsider how status school and how social norms have failed us in many ways today, the financial burden falls completely on men. This has failed men. For example, today, many women have to make a choice. Do I want to have a career or do I want to be a mother? It doesn't have to be this way. It can be a word that suits men and women. And if we restructure feminism to suit our reality, then feminism can be very vital to everybody living in the Arab world. And this is what I set out to do. I'm here to make sure that feminism reflects our reality and that we don't adopt a Western concept of feminism wide Rustin. Feminism has worked greatly in the West it's Western feminism. And our reality is slightly different feminism right now is taking shape in a different way across the Arab world. And I believe that in time we will be able to transform the whole and the entirety of the middle East into a feminist society. If we continue to redefine feminism in a way that reflects our reality.
Speaker 1 00:23:29 So I tried to compress, um, and this short episode, uh, what feminism is to several prominent, um, and young, uh, feminists from our region and what feminism means to them. And again, in an attempt to, um, eradicate certain stereotypes this time, uh, from, within as much as it is from the outside world about feminism and feminists, we come to an end, but I do promise that, um, I will be working and I've actually started working on the next episodes. And as I told you, I've been creating new content, uh, with, uh, brand new ideas and reaching out to different speakers. So next episode definitely will be soon until then take care and stay safe.
