YOUTH

EXCHANGERS
PROGRAMME

2016

Designed by:
Studio 39
Cairo
Print House:
Alazazy Press,
Cairo

YOUTH
EXCHANGERS
PROGRAMME
27-30 May, 2016

2-3

STRUCTURE & CONTENTS

ABOUT YEP

ALEXANDRIA OVER
TIME

Programme Introduction
p8-9

Some History
p18-19

SWEDALEX & DEDI

ALEXANDRIA SPOTS

Descriptions

Must see !

p10-11

p20-25

INSTITUTES
FOR DIALOGUE
Directors Words
p12-13

ORGANIZERS
Biographies
p14-15

PROGRAMME &
SCHEDULE

SPEAKERS

Happenings

Biographies
p38-45

p28-35

PARTICIPANTS
Biographies
p46-67

4-5

INTRODUCTION

ABOUT YEP
PROJECT STATEMENTS
Swedish Institute Alexandria and the Danish Egyptian Dialogue
Institute are cooperating in a joint activity on engaging young
people from the region (age 22 32) to address gender equality
as perspective for their organizations and societies. The inspiration of the Programme comes from the UN SDGs with gender
equality as a cross cutting issue. Both institutes has conducted
the activity last year on the topic of entrepreneurship as solution
for unemployment in the region.
VISION
To bring together young people from the region around a specific
topic that pertains to the interest of both regions (EU-MENA),
MISSION
To continue sustaining and enlarging the network of youth in the
both regions for better understanding and exchange on topics of
common interest. The activity will provide them with tools, ideas
and knowledge to enrich their experiences and enhance their
capacities.
OBJECTIVES
To create the network of young people with shared values across
the region / to promote dialogue as tool for development and
understanding / to enrich the capacities and create opportunities
through exchange and learning

Swedish Institute Alexandria, 2016

8-9

SWEDALEX & DEDI

The Swedish Institute Alexandria (SwedAlex) was established
following an agreement between the governments of Sweden and
Egypt in 1999. It was inaugurated, on the 3rd of October 2000
by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Sweden and Egypt, Ms Anna
Lindh, and Mr Amre Moussa. The Institute is an autonomous part
of Swedens Foreign Service. Its main goal is to promote dialogue
between Europe and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) in order
to make Europeans and people in the region better understand
each other.
Swedish Institute Alexandria is housed in a building on the
Corniche in the Eastern Port, which was built during the period
between 1921 and 1925 it has served as the Swedish Consulate
and later also as a Seamens institute. As part of the establishment of the institute the building has undergone a comprehensive renovation.
Currently the focus of the institutes activities is on promoting
values and practices with special attention to gender equality
and representation of youth. The institute is a platform for exchange of experiences and ideas based on the idea of dialogue
between philosophers, religious leaders, researchers, politicians, civil servants, students, journalists, opinion makers and
other experts.

The Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute (DEDI) is an intergovernmental body, established in 2004 by an agreement between the
Danish and Egytpian Foregin Ministries with a strong dialogue
mandate under the Danish Arab Partnership Programme (DAPP).
DEDIs core mandate as a centre of excellence is to promote political and cultural understanding between Denmark and Egypt on
one hand and Europe and the Arab World on the other hand.
DEDIs comparative advantages in dialogue competence and its
unique intergovernmental status allow for a broad scope of governmental and civil society partnerships to be brought together
to build long-lasting networks and co-operation between Egyptian and Danish partners. DEDIs projects and activities are based
on three programme areas:
- Politics and Democratization
- Culture as a Means of Participation
- Media in an Open Society
DEDI unique nature allow for on-going dialogue facilitation
as well as project based dialogue activities within the priority
areas. For more information on the program areas and projects,
please visit http://dedi.org.eg/

10-11

INSTITUTES FOR DIALOGUE

The Swedish Institute Alexandria was formed 16 years ago to provide a permanent platform for dialogue between European perspectives and countries and the Middle East North Africa Region.
Dialogue means talking with each other, not about each other.
Dialogue means being ready to discuss all burning issues that
needs to be discussed.
Dialogue means developing our thinking and understanding, both
in Europe and this Region.
Dialogue means overcoming ignorance and misunderstanding.
And this is valid for everyone, not least for the person we see in
the mirror every morning.
In a world with no boarders, growing migration and constant
interaction, we have no alternative to living together in pluralism, with our differences. The instrument to achieve the needed
tolerance is dialogue.

Peter Weiderud
Director of SwedAlex

Day by day the relationship between Europe and the MENA region
becomes closer and closer. In all fields being it trade, economic interdependency, migration, cultural exchange, shared
knowledge, scientific exchange and lately refugees and radicalization, just to mention a few, the two regions are getting more
and more integrated and thereby face common challenges and
often forgotten - also opportunities.
Dialogue in all its forms - is therefore more necessary than
ever to secure that we may benefit from the exchange of regional
experiences and knowledge, to overcome differences, to clarify
misunderstandings, and first of all to secure a way of interacting
that is inclusive and engaging, between the two regions and within the these, to involve and engage as many as possible in this
development, which shall eventually shape our common future.

Hans Chr Korsholm Nielsen

Director of DEDI

12-13

ORGANIZERS

Javeria Rizvi Kabani

Waleed Mansour

Is the deputy director of the Swedish

Institute Alexandria since April 2015, her
passion comes in intersection of leadership, innovation, education, sustainability, design and social networks in addition
to her experience in public diplomacy and
strategic communication.

Waleed Mansour is a programme officer

at the Swedish Institute Alexandria since
February 2014; he was previously working
for various international organizations including the United Nations and the German
International Development Cooperation.
he has a M.Sc. in environmental and energy
management from the University of Twente
in the Netherlands.

Javeria has worked extensively in establishing youth leadership programmes at the

Swedish Institute Stockholm, such as SHE
entrepreneurs and the Young Leaders Visitors Programme, she is a graduate of SOAS
with a strong passion in middle eastern
affairs and south East Asia

Shahdan Arram

Reem Abu-Zaid

Shahdan Arram is heading the Political

Programme area at the Danish Egyptian
Dialogue Institute in Cairo for the past two
years and managing diverse portfolio of
projects addressing womens empowerment
and gender equality, citizenship education, youth empowerment, and promoting
multi-party political platforms.

Abu-Zaid is a project officer at the Danish

Egyptian Dialogue Institute. Her work
involves capacity building of political parties, parliament staffers, and parliamentarians. Also, her work delves into fields of
Gender Mainstreaming, Welfare Economic
Policies, and Cross-culture Dialogue.
She has pervious professional expertise
in Journalism, Public Policy, and Budget
Monitoring.

From 2004 till 2014, she worked for several

UN agencies; first at the ILO Sub-regional
Office for North Africa in Cairo, afterwards
worked for the UNDPs Technical Support to
the Ministry of Local Development to adopt
a comprehensive approach to decentralization, and then joined UNDPs Social
Contract Center at the Egyptian Cabinet.

Abu-Zaid has a Masters degree in Comparative Politics, and an LLM degree in

International and comparative Law. she is
specialized in fields of popular politics,
institution building, strategic litigation,
and international law.

Arram earned both her Master of Arts and

her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science
from the American University in Cairo with
Highest Honors in 2009 and 2004 respectively. In 2004, she was awarded the prestigious Ahmed Zewail Prize for Excellence in
the Sciences and Humanities to recognize
her academic accomplishments and her
strong commitment to scientific inquiry
and the affirmation of human values.

14-15

ALEXANDRIA & SWEDEN

ALEXANDRIA OVER TIME

Located by the Mediterranean Sea,
Alexandria is the second largest
city in Egypt and its major port.
Founded by Alexander the Great
in 331 B.C. the city has been an
important part of world history,
being witness to different eras and
several historical events.
Alexandria remained the capital of
Egypt for ten centuries, until the
Muslim conquest which moved the
capital to the current-day Cairo.
Alexandria was well known for
its Lighthouse and the Library of
Alexandria, turning it during the
Hellenistic period into a major
center for science and philosophy,
where thinkers from around the
world gathered and studied.
During the rule of Muhammed Ali
Pasha in the early 19th century,
Alexandria regained its glory of
the Greco-Roman period, becoming a major industrial and
trading center. The Egyptian
economy thrived during that
period as a result of modernization. The city attracted several
traders, workers and scholars from
different nations. A cosmopolitan
community was gradually formed,
including Arabs, Greeks, Italians,
Jews, Armenians, Turks and many

people from other areas such as

Morocco, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine,
France and Spain. This distinctive
flavor of Alexandria remained until
mid-twentieth century, when World
War II erupted, followed in the
fifties and the sixties by political
and social changes in Egypt, which
changed the demographics of the
city. The diverse communities
started to diminish, with only a few
traces remaining.
Nowadays Alexandria is a vibrant
city with its population exceeding
5 million. It is a major industrial

and trading hub, and also a cultural and recreational destination for
many people. The establishment of
the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina in
2002 gave a boost to the cultural
scene in Alexandria, in addition
to several cultural and artistic
initiatives working collectively
and individually to contribute to
the community.
With a history exceeding two thousand years, Alexandria has several
touristic attractions and landmarks
from different eras. From the Greco-Roman period you can visit the

Catacombs and the Amphitheatre

downtown, while on the western
part of town by the sea you can
visit the Citadel of Qaitbey which
dates back to the Islamic period
500 years ago. In the eastern part
of town, admirable 20th century
Italian architecture can be seen in
the masterpiece of Montaza Royal
Palace, and Montaza gardens which
became a public park after the
monarchy was abolished in 1952.
Several churches, mosques and
other buildings all over Alexandria
give you a sense of the diversity of
the city and its wonderful history.

Alexandria Heritage Map. ource: i.isaksson, 2015

18-19

HOT SPOTS & CULTURAL PLACE

ES

20-21

HOT SPOTS IN
ALEXANDRIA

mediterranean sea

The Citadel of Qaitbey

Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa

Bibliotheca Alexandrin
Alexandria National
Museum Project
Roman Amphitheatre
Pompeys Pillar

Montaza Palace

Royal Jewelry Museum

na

The Swedish Institute of Alexandria

Alexandria spots

22-23

The Citadel of Qaitbey

The Qaitbay Citadel in Alexandria is considered one of the most important
defensive strongholds, not only in Egypt, but also along the Mediterranean Sea
coast. It formulated an important part of the fortification system of Alexandria
in the 15th century AD.
The Citadel is situated on the eastern side of the northern tip of Pharos Island
at the mouth of the Eastern Harbour and it was established in 1477 AD (882 AH)
by Sultan Al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Qait Bay.

Alexandria National Museum

The National Museum of Alexandria contains about 1,800 artifacts that narrate the story of Alexandria and Egypt. The museum mainly focuses on three
collections: Ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and the Muslim world. The building is
located in a restored Italian style palace in Tariq Al-Horreya Street (former
Rue Fouad) and used to be home to the United States consulate.

Pompeii Pillar
Pompeys Pillar is a Roman triumphal column and the largest of its type
constructed outside the imperial capitals of Rome and Constantinople. The
only known free-standing column in Roman Egypt which was not composed of
drums, it is one of the largest ancient monoliths and one of the largest monolithic columns ever erected. Erroneously dated to the time of Pompey, the
Corinthian column was actually built in 297 AD, commemorating the victory of
Roman emperor Diocletian over an Alexandrian revolt.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a major library and cultural center located on
the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It is both a commemoration of the Library
of Alexandria that was lost in antiquity, and an attempt to rekindle something
of the brilliance that this earlier center of study and erudition represented.

Montaza Palace Garden

The Al-HaramlikMontaza Palace is a public museum of the Muhammad
Ali Dynasty family history and objects dart. The Salamlek Palace is now an
adjacent hotel. The Al-Montaza Park, the former expansive royal gardens of 150
acres (61 ha), are open as a public landscape park and forest reserve.

Roman Amphitheatre
The Roman Amphitheatre of Alexandria, which is considered to be one of the
most important Roman architectural achievements in Egypt, was discovered by
mere coincidence in the year 1960. The Roman Amphitheatre we see today in
Alexandria was constructed in the 4th century AD and it was a common feature
of the Greco Roman period. Amphitheatres were special roofed theatres that
were built to host music ceremonies and poet competitions during the reign of
the Romans in Egypt.

Royal Jewelry Museum

The Royal Jewelry Museum is an art and history museum in the Zizenia
neighborhood, located in the former palace of Princess Fatma Al-Zahra. Its
halls contain an inestimable collection of jewels and jewelry of the Muhammad Ali Dynasty. 19th-century paintings, statues, and decorative arts are also
exhibited in the rooms and lobbies. The museum was first inaugurated on 24
October 1986. After several years of renovations and expansion it was reopened
in April 2010

24-25

AGENDA

PROGRAMME & SCHEDULE

DAY 1 :

27 May, 2016

10:00

Meeting and Assembly at the hotel

10:30 - 15:30

Tour in Alexandria

15:30 - 16:30

Lunch

19:00 - 22:00

Welcome Reception at SwedAlex

Introductions by the Programme Team

DAY 2 :

28 May, 2016

THEME 1 : WHAT IS A GENDER AGENDA ?

08:45 - 09:00

Introduction to the agenda & dialogue sessions

09:00 - 11:00

SESSION 1:
Understanding Gender Agenda
- Current gender situation in Egypt, aspirations of the
parliament in gender issues

- Anti-sexual violence movements: Gains, Limitations, and

Insights from the feminist movement in Egypt

- Gender Agenda from a European Perspective,experiences

from transition countries, why is it good,successful experiences from implementation, main obstacles

Hans Chr Korsholm Nielsen, Director of DEDI/

Peter Weiderud, Director of SwedAlex
Javeria Rizvi Kabani and Waleed Mansour, SwedAlex
Shahdan Arram, DEDI

Waleed Mansour and Rana Gaber

Anisa Hassouna, Egyptian Parliament

Dalia AbdelHamed, Head of gender studies unit at the
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Rep. Venice Commission
Chabane Nela / Valentina Pellizzer
President of One World Platform
28-29

10:40 - 11:00

Q&A

11:00 - 11:30

Coffee Break - SwedAlex

11:30 - 01:30

SESSION 2:
Idea Market
- World caf workshop on inspirational characters/ ini-

tiatives that left an impact: Participants to present ideas,

policies, and projects that tackles gender issues

01:30 - 02:30

Lunch Break - SwedAlex

THEME 2 : EQUALITY AND/OR FEMINISM

02:30 - 04:30

SESSION 3:
Arab& Muslim Feminism(s): Gender Equality in
the Law
- Breaking the one sided perception of History: Re-reading
Arab History from a gender sensitive perspective.

- Islamic Feminism: between theory and application

04:10 - 04:30

Q&A

04:30 - 05:00

Coffee Break - SwedAlex

11:30 - 01:30

SESSION 4:
Dialogue Workshop Session: Sum- up of the day

08:00

Surprise Dinner

Facilitated by: Ambassadors for Dialogue

PhD. Hoda El-Saady, The Women and Memory Forum,

and Professor at the American University in Cairo
PhD. Marwa Sharaf El-Dien

30-31

DAY 3 : 29 May, 2016

THEME 1 : GENDER EQUALITY IN PUBLIC SPHERE
09:00 - 11:00

SESSION 1:
Challenges facing female activists in politics
- Feminist Foreign policy (3R) in Sweden
- The culture of Gender based violence in the Arab World
Video and Exercise (GIZ - OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION)
- Gender Equality in Europe: The Case of Denmark:
History of Equality in Denmark.
The womens movement in Denmark

11:00 - 11:30

Coffee Break - SwedAlex

11:30 - 01:30

SESSION 2:
Round Table
- The impact of international donor agenda:
- Gender, Youth and the SDGs

01:30 - 02:30

Lunch Break - SwedAlex

02:30 - 03:30

- Gender issues & politiczal participation:

03:30 - 05:00

SESSION 3: Dialogue Workshop Session: Sum-up

of the day
Dinner Chez Gaby

08:00

Rep. the Swedish MSA

Anna Wrange
Youssry Mostafa
Majken Lundberg
Rep. the Womens council in Denmark

UN-women:
Emad Karim and Lena Karlsson

Dina Wahba, The Egyptian Social Democratic Party

Katrine Manfred Swets, Danish Journalist and researcher

32-33

DAY 4 :

30 May, 2016

09:00 - 10:30

Working Groups: Seminar Statement preparations

10:30 - 11:00

Coffee Break

11:00 - 12:00

Presenting& Validating seminars statement

12:00 - 01:00

Lunch on the go

07:00 09:00

Library of Alexandria

07:00 09:00

Farewell Dinner (Optional)

34-35

BIOGRAPHIES

SPEAKERS

Neila Chaabane

Hoda El-Saadi

Neila Chaabane is a lawyer, academic and

Tunisian politician. Associate lecturer in
public law at the Faculty of legal sciences,
political and social of Tunis, University of
Carthage; Director of the graduate school.
She was also the Secretary of State for
Women and Family: Execution of public
policies on women, family, children and the
elderly. Member of the Steering Committee
of the national strategy against corruption.

Hoda El-Saadi a co-founder of the woman

and memory forum and adjunct faculty
member in the Department of Arabic and
Islamic Civilization at the American
University in Cairo (AUC). She received
both her BA and MA from the American
University in Cairo and her PhD from Cairo
University in Islamic History. Her field
of specialization is early and medieval
Islamic history. She developed an interest
in gender issues in the Islamic tradition.
She is specifically interested in the roles
and positions of women in Arab/Islamic
history, from pre-modern to modern, to
highlight and analyze womens presence in
public life before the pre-modern period,
exploring their changeable roles through
the ages. Her aim is to use history (and its
interpretations) to strengthen the position
of Muslim women in the present, as well as
formulate a culturally Islamic discourse
that incorporates womens perspective and
an awareness of gender. El-Saadi is working
on a project to produce a series of occasional papers on the work of women.
The objective of her research is to empower
women by making available historical
information that demonstrates womens
involvement in public life.

38 -39

Anisa Hassouna

Emad Karim

Anisa Hassouna is an Egyptian Parliamentarian, diplomat and economist. She was

selected in the list of the top 100 most
influential Arab Women, in addition to that
Hassouna writes regularly on public affairs,
she was the first woman to be elected
on the Board of the Egyptian Council for
Foreign Affairs where she held the position
of Secretary General and currently she is
Treasurer. She is a member of the Executive
Council of the Pugwash Conferences on
Science and World Affairs and sits on IDEA
International Advisory Group for West Asia
& North Africa (WANA). She is a member of
both the Consultative Boards of the Arab
Thought Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon and
the Arab Forum for Alternatives Cairo,
Egypt.

Emad Karim is the Regional Coordinator for

EmpowerWomen.org
Regional Office for Arab States UN Women,
he has more than 10 years of experience
and academic background in designing and
managing youth programs and technology-based solutions for development.
Having obtained an M.A in Educational
Communication & Technology from New
York University. He has been working
globally as a trainer and capacity building
expert for UN Women, the League of Arab
States, the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF,
ILO, the British Council, and the Anna Lindh
Foundation. He was selected to facilitate
many regional and global forums to engage
youth in global policies and decision-making process such as the Global Youth Forum in Bali, the Euro-Mediterranean Forum,
and the Arab Youth Platform consultation
meetings.

She is the Founder & Chairperson of

Enlightened Egypt Foundation which
promotes the values of citizenship and
gender equal rights , a founding member
of the Think Tank for Arab Women, the
Forum for Arab Citizenship in Transition
Democracies , the Front for Protecting
the Freedom of Creativity & Expression
and the Arab International Womens Forum
in London, UK . Hassouna is also a member
of both the American Chamber of Commerce
in Egypt and the British Egyptian Business
Association (BEBA) in Cairo.

Lena Karlson

Yousry Moustafa

Lena Karlsson, Programme Manager for UN

Women in the Arab States Regional Office,
in Cairo. Lena is managing a regional program, Men and Women for Gender equality
in four countries in the region; Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Morocco With the overall
goal to enhance gender equality in the
region. Lena is a business economist with
a Masters Degree in Aid and Development
and with significant global experience in
womens and childrens rights. Her professional experience consists of 25 years of
progressively responsible positions in Europe, Africa and Asia, for UN agencies and
international NGOs. She has been the gender advisor for several organisations with
engaging boys and men for gender equality
as a focus area for the past 15 years.

Yousry Moustafa is a project manager at

the German International Cooperation GIZ
-Egypt. His work experience in the Arab
region includes several years with local,
regional and international human rights
and development NGOs. His work experience includes management, research, and
capacity development. He has several publications and articles on issues related to
culture and human rights, gender equality
and identity politics. He is a board member
of Arab Human Rights Fund and member of
the Arab advisory board of Open Society
Foundations.

40-41

Valentina Pellizzer

Anna Wrange

Valentina Pellizzer is the president at

OneWorld Platform, an organization that
tackles and researches the intersection
between Internet Rights, Women Rights and
the Transformative power of technology. As
activist she connects women rights, sexual
rights, and the Internet politically and
practically and advocate for the feminist
principles of the Internet.

Anna Wrange, Deputy Director, is the

Focal Point for Gender Equality at the
Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, since
October 2014. She has also worked at the
Department for Multilateral Development
Cooperation and the Department for Public
International Law and Human Rights.
Previous postings include the Swedish Embassy in Kampala, Uganda, and the Swedish
UN Mission in New York. She has a Master in
Law from Uppsala University.

Specialist of Western Balkan political,

Civil Society environment an d Womens
Right Movement from within, with more
than 20 years spent working and living in
the region, currently Team Leader for CARE
international, Balkans on the European
Refugees Response.
She is also a facilitator on strategic use of
ICTs in particular free and open source software, citizen journalism, digital security
and privacy. as well as a facilitator of visual
methodology for social change (digital storytelling, and participatory video, methodologies that combine feminist solidarity
with digital technology and its powerful
peer-to-peer co-production, distribution
and outreach).

Dalia Abd El-Hameed

Majken Lundberg

Dalia Abd El-Hameed is the Gender and Womens Rights officer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). Her mandate
at EIPR includes national and international
advocacy for sexual and reproductive health
and rights, documentation of sexism in the
public space and other issues related to
Gender Based Violence and gender-mainstreaming within EIPR programs. She holds a
masters degree in sociology and anthropology from the American University in
Cairo, Her award-winning thesis is entitled
Ultras Ahlawy and the Spectacle: Subject,
Resistance and Organized Football Fandom
in Egypt

Katrine Manfred Swets is an associate

professor at Gender and Sexuality Studies,
DIS in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is also an
academic researcher in Women and Political Representation (Aalborg University) and
a danish journalist at Kvinfo. She is working
with Professor Drude Dahlerup (Stockholm
University) on scientific research about the
danish womens movement as well as women
and gender representation in politics in a
historical perspective. At DIS Katrine facilitates courses on Gender, Sexuality and
Ethnicity. As a journalist Katrine works with
an intersectional and feminist perspective
exploring race, gender, class and sexuality
in popular culture and public debates.
Katrine is also working as an activist that
connects normcritique, gender equality and
feminism.

42-43

Marwa Sharafeldin

Rana Gaber

Dr. Marwa Sharafeldin is a scholar activist

based in Egypt working on womens rights.
She has a PhD in Law from the University of
Oxford. Her research covers Islamic law, international human rights law, civil society
and womens rights. She is a campaigner
for the reform of personal status laws in
Egypt and a board member of the Musawah
Global Movement for Equality and Justice
in the Muslim Family (www.musawah.org).
She serves on several other advisory boards
of international feminist organizations
such as the Global Fund for Women and the
Asian-Pacific Resource & Research Centre
for Women (ARROW).

Rana Gaber, has accumulated 9 years work

experience in the field of youth development through working in several youth led
NGOs in Egypt, most importantly working
as Director of Programs in the Egyptian
Youth Federation (an umbrella organization
for youth led NGOs and the NGOs that work
in youth development). Rana is a Political
Science graduate of Cairo University and
holds a diploma of International Relations
from the American University in Cairo, and
is currently a Masters Student of Middle
East Politics and Society.

Dr. Sharafeldin is also co-founder of the

Network for Womens Rights Organisations
and of the Young Arab Feminist Network,
as well as NGOs such as Fathet Kheir and
Nahdet el-Mahrousa in Egypt. Dr. Sharafeldin has published several articles and
chapters, the most recent was Islamic
Law Meets Human Rights: Reformulating
Qiwama and Wilaya for Personal Status Law
Reform Advocacy in Egypt.

Dina Wahba

Katrine Manfred

Dina graduated from the faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. She is a Chevening scholar completed
her Masters Degree (M.A.) in Gender Studies at the School of Oriental and African
Studies (SOAS), University of London. Her
recently published thesis topic is Gendering the Egyptian Revolution. Dina is
currently pursuing her PhD in Free University, Berlin in Politics, Emotion and Affect
within the dynamics of Tahrir square. Dina
is a womens rights activist who worked
with several local, regional and international organizations such as International
Rescue Committee (IRC), UN Women, the
League of Arab States and Women Living
Under Muslim Laws (WLUML). She worked on
a number of gender issues such as sexual
and gender based violence, leadership,
political participation and empowerment.
Dina worked in several countries among
them United Kingdom, South Sudan, Egypt
and most recently Germany.

Graduated from the Faculty of Geography, Development Studies, University of

Copenhagen, Denmark. Has studied, worked
and lived in different parts of Africa and
South-East Asia. Studies on aspects of
development and trade, regional development, multinational cooperations and
relationships between countries in the north and south and their roles and positions
in international organisations. Working in
Ngos and UN agencies on ie. childrens
rights, womens rights, monitoring and
evaluation.
Presently working in the Womens Council
in Denmark - a more than 100 year old
organisation working with womens rights
and gender issues in a national and international context. Focus of work is amongst
others trafficking/prostitution, womens
representation in boards, politics etc,
mainstreaming and labour market issues.
Writing and coordinating the submission of
shadow reports to the UN CEDAW committee
and the UPR process under the UN Human
Rights Council. Majken has in partnership
with Jordanian organisations undertaken
projects focusing on womens political
participation in Jordan.

44-45

PARTICIPANTS

Sarah Abdallah
Sarah has five years of experience in the
consultancy sector, three years of experience in the nonprofit sector, and earned a
Bachelors of Telecommunication Engineering from Saint Joseph University in
Lebanon.
While working as a senior consultant with
Murex company, and in addition to the acquired technical and soft skills, she had the
chance to work on many projects located in
Europe, Far East, and Middle East and thus
to meet people from different cultures and
backgrounds.
Throughout these experiences, she
developed strong project planning and
implementation skills, but most important decided to converge her passionate
volunteering activities in empowering both
youth and women, to build a strong career
path and get such fruitful opportunities as
hers. For that purpose she worked closely
with Women In Front, MEPI- LAA, IECD and
Blessing Foundation organizations and was
elected starting 2015 as a member in the
Youth Advisory Council in the U.S.embassy.

Amr Adel

Ali Ahmady

Im Amr Adel , 28 years old , graduated

from faculty of Economics & Political
Science Cairo University in may 2010 (
Major : Political Science & Minor : Public
Administration ) .

My name is Ali Ahmady. I am 28 yrs old and

I live in Sweden since year 2000. I am born
and bread in Afghanistan and I had always
a passion for politics, activism and human
rights. I hope I will soon see you all in person and that we shall have nice constructive
diskussions about gender equality and
other interesting subjetcs.

Im working as HR Section Head in Island

For Contracting . I participated in political
seminars in Faculty Of Economics & Political Science during the period from 2007
till 2010 , Also I participated in IAF Rule
of law & Fundamental Rights Seminar in
Theodor Heuss Academy ( Gummersbach
Germany ) during the period 31/01/2016 till
12/02/2016 .

46-47

Kholoud Al Ajarma

Wael Al-Khatib

I am an award winning Palestinian photographer, film-maker and refugee-rights

activist, researcher and anthropologists.
I am a graduate of International Studies,
Anthropology and Development Studies. My
primary work centers on refugee studies,
international migration, visual culture,
knowledge production, and immigration in
Latin America, and the Middle East. I worked with Palestinian refugees in Palestine,
Europe and Latin America. In Palestine, I
lead projects in the field of refugees and
youth empowerment including the Refugee
Youth Forum, an innovative platform for
active youth participation within human
rights research, media, conflict resolution,
and social justice. Presently I work and
study between the Netherlands, Morocco
and Palestine.

My name is Wael Al- Khatib, I have a MA in

socio cultural anthropology, with 8 years of
professional work experience in building
local democracy among youth and women
and women economic empowerment in
both of Egypt and Jordan. In addition to
my societal activism as women, youth and
vulnerable groups advocate.

Nehal Ali

May Baaklini

Nehal Ali is a Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist at the Egyptian Center for Womens
Rights (ECWR). She has joined the center a
year and half ago. Her work is closely linked
to both the Programs Unit, responsible for
the field work, and International Relations
Unit, responsible for international outreach.
Nehal has a masters degree in Public
Policy from Sabanci University in Istanbul,
Turkey and a bachelor degree in Economics
from the American University in Cairo.

May Baaklini graduated with a B.A. in English Literature and Linguistics from Notre
Dame University in 2016.

Apart from academic and professional life,

Nehal has recently joined the Youth Committee in the National Councils for Women.
She is also attending the gender seminars
offered by Choice for Gender Studies and
Research.

She currently is the Program Coordinator

and Content Developer at the May Chidiac
Foundation (MCF) in Beirut. In 2014, May
was responsible for writing the report regarding the UN 1325 resolution implementation in the Middle East that was presented
at the Austrian Parliament in Vienna. She
has helped organize several MCF conferences in Beirut with the presence of highly
distinguished guests such as Amr Moussa;
Former President of the Arab League and
Alec Ross; Senior Innovation Adviser to
Hilary Clinton.
She is committed to countering to countering violent extremism (CVE) and promoting gender equality in the Middle East.
She hopes to gain her masters degree in
international affairs and security studies.
Her inspiration comes from having worked
closely with Dr. May Chidiac, the only Arab
female journalist to be targeted for political assassination.

48-49

Charlotte Bilo

Rebekka Blomqvist

I am a German postgraduate student at

the Institute of Development Studies in
Brighton, UK, where I study Poverty and
Development. My research focus lies in
gender-sensitive social policies. In my
Masters dissertation I plan to conduct
a political economy analysis on unpaid
care work concerns in social policies in
South Africa. After my Bachelors degree in
International Relations and Development
Studies in Maastricht, the Netherlands, I
worked in several governmental as well as
non-governmental development organisations in Costa Rica, Brazil and Mexico.

Im currently doing an internship at the

Permanent Representation of Denmark to
the EU as a part of my master in political
science at University of Copenhagen. My
internship is focused on development, and
through this work my understanding of the
global gender agenda has grown extensively. Before I went to Brussels my work
has primarily been in civil society organizations through my student job working at a
homeless organisation and volunteering.
A lot of my volunteer work over the last
five years has revolved around integration projects for ethnic minority women
in Denmark. Though my work with gender
right now is centred on development policy,
my involvement with feminism is much
broader.
I hope to contribute with knowledge about
the international political debate about
gender equality and the academic discussions on feminism as well as the wave of
clever pop culture feminism that is on the
rise.

Stella Christiansen

Olivia Cummins

Stella Christiansen is a student of the

Liberal Arts and Sciences Program majoring
in Culture & History at University College
Freiburg. She wrote her Bachelor thesis on
the role of women in Athenian society by
examining the ways Aphrodites power is
portrayed and undermined in Greek mythology. In the age of globalization, increased
migration and the refugee crisis, different
perceptions of womenhood across cultures
can become a source of conflict. Reflecting
on the ancient Greek cultural image of
women is a relevant topic today, as Ancient
Greece is often perceived to be at the
root of European culture and influenced
perception of femininity in Christianity. An
increased awareness of ones own cultural history can benefit the cross-cultural
debate around womens issues. In the
womens rights group of Amnesty International, Christiansen organized a podium
discussion on the conflict potential of
different cultural images of women in
context of the refugee crisis in Germany.

My name is Olivia Cummins and I am

a second-generation British woman of
Afro-Caribbean descent. I was born in London in 1988 and grew up in an area called
Tottenham, which is known as the most multicultural community in Europe. I studied
English Language & Communication with
English Literature at Kingston University,
which gave my first real introduction to
gender theories.
After graduating, I became secondary
school Teaching Assistant for Spanish and
humanities classes, which was followed
by a career as Project Administrator on the
Global Learning Programme a national government-funded programme that
promotes themes of global learning (e.g.
gender, poverty in schools); and then my
current role with the British Red Cross as a
Diversity Project Assistant.
In my spare time, I enjoy exercising and
I am currently working towards an A-level
qualification in Spanish, which will enable
me to communicate within the language at
a higher intermediate level.

50-51

Anna Drude

Rut Einarsdttir

My Name is Anna Drude but I call myself

Drude. I am 26 years old and I grew up
in an island in the North Western part of
Denmark. As a child I liked to sail, which
my summer holidays consisted of together
with my parents and my sister. I enjoyed my
childhood but as I grew older I felt an urge
to get away from the small and somehow
closed society. After I graduated from
High school I went on a 5 months backpacking trip to Argentina, Peru and Brazil.
I also traveled to Tanzania to volunteer at
an orphanage and after that I started at a
danish hjskole where I played a lot of
music, started a girl band and found out
that I wanted to study Arabic at Copenhagen University. I moved to Copenhagen and
it took me almost 5 years to finish my BA.
During this period I lived in Cairo for two
semesters where I met my husband (from
Tanzania, who lives with me in Aarhus now
where he studies Human Security). Also my
mother got sick with cancer and I lived with
her for 5 months until her death. Now I have
started a master of Global Gender Studies
which is combining my different interests. I
am planning to go abroad next semester to
do an internship in a gender oriented organisation in the Egypt, Jordan or Lebanon.

I come from Patreksfjordur, a small town

in Iceland, and am currently attending Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Japan.
With the organization that I founded there,
I ventured to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to raise
awareness about waste management. The
initiative got great response and we were
joined by the major of Dhaka, along with
other officials, as well as being featured
on all major media in the country, where I
held speeches on the national television.
In November 2015 I attended the One
Young World conference in Bangkok on a
full scholarship as the only representative
for Iceland, where I met and discussed
with people from 196 countries. There I
participated along with Kofi Annan, Sir Bob
Geldof and others in Call on COP where I
addressed the head of Icelandic government about taking concrete and sustainable
action at COP21. I have work in several
service jobs, as well as many organisations
within my current university. I engage in
volunteer work whenever I can and am devoted in making this world a better place,
by any means possible.

Rayan El Batlouni

William Elias

My name is Rayan El Batlouni and I hold a

B.A. in Social Work from Haigazian University, Lebanon. I graduated in June 2013 and
have been working in International Organizations with Syrian Refugees in Education
and Health emergency response projects.

William Elias has worked in Emergency

Response, Disaster Recovery and Sustainable Commodities. He has worked in
Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and Taiwan with
organizations including UNDP, FAO, ILO,
IOM and GIZ. Throughout his work, William
has focused on mainstreaming gender
into programme and project planning and
implementation though his position as
Monitoring and Evaluation officer. To date
William has overseen the reporting of 23.5
Million USD worth of projects and joint
programmes, including oversight of two
externally managed evaluations. He has designed and led training focused on enhancing field staffs gender awareness. He sat
on UNDPs gender focal team and led the
Sustainable Palm Oil projects contribution
towards UNDP Indonesias Gender Equity
Seal. Currently William is living in London
conducting research into the sustainable
production of Palm Oil in Indonesia and
looking for new opportunities.

I chose this domain because I like interacting with people and getting to know
new cultures. I have a relatively influential
job where I work with people/refugees on
a daily basis, getting to know their needs,
their problems and providing educational
opportunities for out of school youth.
Through my experience in the emergency
response projects, I noticed the need for
gender sensitive approaches and decided
to do my masters in Gender Mainstreaming
topics. I believe that learning is an ongoing process and it should not stop when a
person graduates from university.

52-53

Meriem Fatnassi

Urszula Fijalkowska

Meriem has a Masters degree in English for

communications from the Highest Institute
of Languages in Tunis. During her Masters
studies Meriem joined for the first the
public sphere with I Watch organization
then after obtaining her degree in 2013
Meriem was recruited by the International
republican Institute as a program coordinator, where she got the chance to work closely with the civil society and the political
parties in a crucial time for her country.

I am a law student from Poland. I am

co-founder of International Forum for
Empowerment Women (IfWe) in Europe. Our
goal is to spread ideas and awareness of
gender equality through every country and
region in the world. In future, I would like
to work in an international organization
solving the global problems with a focus on
women in sustainable development. I am
currently writing my master thesis on the
influence of non-governmental organizations on international law. I love traveling
and exploring new cultures. I am very
interested in soft skills and management
I take part in trainings and workshops
concerning management and interpersonal
skills. In my opinion, only effective and
creative actions can bring desired results
in the future. I am definitely a team-worker, I personally believe that if you want it
faster - go alone, if you want to go further
- go in a team.

Meriem is currently working with the German NGO Friedrich Naumann foundation, as
a junior program coordinator. Ms. Meriem is
focusing her effort now to empower women
within the party structures to allow them to
be well prepared for the challenge of the
municipal elections due to the importance
of the women participation in local political institution for the countrys development and prosperity.

54-54

Brinda Gangopadhya

Maje Girona Magraner

Brinda Gangopadhya Lundmark is 25 years

old and currently lives in Stockholm. She
recently finished her studies in Politics at
the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), University of London where she
focused her research on international politics, regional politics in the Middle East
and South Asia as well on development,
gender issues and local resistance movements in the mentioned regions. She has
just completed an internship at the Embassy of Sweden in Amman Jordan, where she
was working with monitoring political and
humanitarian developments in the MENA
region against the background of the crisis
in Syria, as well as with implementing the
current feminist foreign policy in Jordan.
She is co-founder and co-editor of the international feminist periodical HYSTERIA,
which is based in London. At the moment
she is working as a freelance journalist for
Swedens largest gender oriented newspaper, and at the Swedish Migration Agency.

My name is Maje Girona Magraner. I live in

Madrid and Spanish. President of the Young
Womens Federation; I have two degrees
(nurse and anthropologist); I am finishing
my PhD; I am an expert on gender and have
good language skills.

My career has generated have a good
knowledge about the situation of young
women in my country. I am currently researching on young women inequalities in
health, gender and human rights.

My stay at the United Nations has enriched
my profile at work Agenda 2030, the role
of feminism and working with sustainable
development goals, as well as being advising the Youth Council of Spain on issues of
equality and human rights and networking
in various state womens organizations.

Marina Gorgy

Noureddine Id Amjate

Marina Gorgy is a research assistant at

the Women and Memory Forum (WMF), a
research NGO based in Cairo, Egypt. She is
graduated from English Department Cairo
University. She is concerned with gender
studies and gender equality in Egypt. She is
also working on several projects in Women
and Memory Forum: she is part of the Oral
History project. In this project, they document Womens stories in the public sphere
and especially after the 25th January
revolution. Not only the research work that
concerns Marina but also Theatre. As a
member of the English department theatre
group, she particiated at many theatre
performances as an actress and a producer.
She participated at the Global Shakespear Festival that was hosted by New York
University in Abu Dhabi in years 2014 and
2015. Since 2012 she has beed a member in
a scout group in Agouza, Giza in Egypt.

Noureddine Id amjate is an artist, women

advocate, youth activist and educator and
School Clubs coordinator with the Public
Sector in the Moroccan Ministry of National
Education. He has participated in many national and international events in Morocco
and abroad on painting, women equality,
sustainable development, peace and education. He has received a number of awards
for his artist creativity and selected as one
of the best Moroccan artists. Nourdeddne
was chosen as World At School Global Youth
Ambassador in Morocco for education. As
Curator of Global Shaper Community of
Meknes Hub at World Economic Forum, he
has launched many projects and supervised
many initiatives. His mission is it Devote
outstanding efforts to promote sustainable
development, gender equality, education
for all and peace.

56-56

Imane Ibrahim

Hajar Idrissi

Iman Ibrahim (b. 1990, Alexandria) is a

visual artist. As an Art student she was
interested in the human figure in painting,
as well as in feminist Art. She received
her BA in Painting in 2012 from Alexandria
University. And recently, shes working on
her Masters thesis on the impact of the
feminist ideologies on the contemporary
visual arts.

I am Hajar IDRISSI from Morocco. I am 24

years and I am currently a doctorate student
in the Department of Discourse, Creativity
and Society at the faculty of Letters and
Human Sciences, University of Mohamed
Ibn Abdellah, Fes Sais, Morocco. My
research interests are: political discourse
analysis, citizenship education, cultural
anthropology. I represent the youth socialist organization. We defend the interests
of various disadvantaged and marginalized
popular groups, and the general citizens
who believe in human right values. I consider myself a dynamic team leader; able to
bring energy, enthusiasm, and humor to motivate team members to achieve potential
and meet objectives; able to communicate
effectively with people of all ages and
backgrounds; fluent in Arabic, English and
French languages. A flexible professional,
who enjoys learning new skills and can
quickly adapts to organizational changes.
Lifelong love of travel and the cultural and
educational insights it provides.

Most of her works explore initially the

notion of Control, along beside the notions
of destruction, construction and reconstruction and their relations to construction
drawing. Her recent project looks into
prison structures through imagined visual
studies, such as isometric construction
drawings, painting, texts, and installation.
As part of her recent research; she uses the
simulation as a fundamental notion through
writing. Yakov Perelmans Mathematics
can be fun is her document where she is
simulating selected riddles from its chapters into her booklet of Riddles series.av

Ihab Elwy

Rachid Farhan

Ihab Elwy Currently serve as project assistant on the Catholic relief Services organization. His job includes being organization
generate leads and assist all the projects
activities. As a board member, Ihab has
been able to contribute best in refugees
issues among UNHCR projects, livelihood grants and interfaith actions beside
protection and gender related issues. He
has served on CRS since 2015 and has been
a member of voluntary group of Bedayaa
organization through Ikhtyar Choice
for Gender Studies and Research where
presented material and knowledge on how
to create awareness and avoid violations.
Ihab firstly became involved with these
activities five years ago as his preference
and area of interest.

My name is Rachid Farhan, I am 26 years

old, and I was born August 17, 1989 southeast Morocco. After a Bachelor of Arts
and Human Sciences (option: letters) in
2008, I did a degree in French Language
and Litterature, wich I obtained in 2011
from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of
the University Ibn Tofail in Kenitra. After
that, I attended to the Faculty of Education
Science at the Mohamed V University in
Rabat where I did a Master in Pedagogy
of Cultural Mediation of Arts and Science,
that I gained in 2013. Since then I work as
a freelancer in the mediation sector in various cultural events in Morocco. Parallel to
my studies and my work, Im a human rights
activist notably through my work within the
Collective Aswat to fight against discrimination based on gender and sexuality wich
works on different issues to the rights of the
LGBTI people; and the union of Students for
Change of the Educational System (UECSE),
with a focus on education rights.

Hamed Jemel

Piotr Kalkowski

Since his birth in Sfax-Tunisia, Hamed

has made it a point to strive for his goals ,
which were nothing less than his grandest
dreams. One of Hameds dreams is to join
the Doctors without borders network.
As for now, he is taking strides in making his imagination become a reality.
Hamed attended the Faculty of Medicine in
Sfax-Tunisia. Actually in his third year of
studies, he is getting closer to become a
doctor and realize his goal.

As medical student I intend to specialize

in psychiatry and sexology. During my university years, Ive realized that the key of
building a healthy and prospering society
is to prevent things from happening. The
best solution seems to be education. From
the first year, Ive been volunteering in International Federation of Medical Students
Associations, making classes on equality
and sexual education in high schools. After
widening my horizons through encounters with LGBT+ community and gaining
insight in gender studies, Ive expanded
my activity in the field of gender equality.
Furthermore, Im working on creating a
research evaluating the effectiveness of
Peer Education on Sexual Education in
schools of Poland and Europe. My goal is to
scrutinize and compare the knowledge of
European students with each other.

Apart from that, Hamed established himself

as a self-starter and a leader through his
volunteer experiences. Having an unstoppable passion to sexual and maternal
health, he has started getting involved
with many organizations and associations
working around this field since high school.
In a few amount of time, he acquired a
lot of social experience and personal
development thanks to several trainings
and discussions. And quickly, he made out
a huge network of friends around the whole
globe through online debates and exchange
programs, enabling him to evolve and
discover other interests such as politics
and lobbying. In few years, Hamed sees
himself as an active young leader in gender
equality issues.

58-59

Peter Mosaad

Noor Mousa

My name is Peter Mosaad, Im 23 years

old, A Student at Faculty of Arts English
department. There nothing special with me
Im only ambitious and have vision which is
making world a better place, and this is one
of the reasons why Im applying for the program as I believe that we are all equal we
have equal rights to learn to develop etc..,

I was born in Iraq- Najaf in March 30th,

1992. Raised between Baghdad and Najaf,
in two cities that have deferent perceptions
for life made me question what is the true
about everything. It pushed me to question
and seek for answers, and it created a love
for knowledge in me. Now I am almost 24 I
still cannot make a decision on what master
program I should apply for? I am interested
in many different fields and I cannot prefer
one over another yet.
I chose the scientific studies in high
school , then Education and English in
collage, and at work I chose to be involve in
Volunteering, project managing, training,
teaching, mentoring, radio shows hosting,
even YouTubeing. I achieved many of my
professional dreams like working with the
UN, hosting a radio show, have my own
public speaking platform, training for the
American embassy and many other.
I believe that my love for knowledge and
transferring it to others can lead me to
places I cannot even think of like it did so
far, even if I seem to be purposeless right
now. I am sure that these different questions and answers I can think of or come
across, can someday lead me to achieve
what then I can find out to be the purpose
of my life.

Maria Rabunal

Damin Rodrguez Prez

Maria is the Local Development and

Governance Specialist in the Programme
of Assistance to the Palestinian People of
UNDP , an agency which seeks a
sustainable human development based on
self-determination, equality and freedom.
Based in Palestine since two years ago,
Maria is working in the design of a
decentralization process at economic and
political level. Before working in United
Nations, Maria was working on
enhancing Palestinian women s rights in
a grassroots organization and advocating
for Human Rights when she was in Spain.
Maria holds a BA in Law and a Master degree
in International Decentralized Cooperation.

I am an artist from Canary Islands that

works and lives in Bilbao, Spain. My career
have been focused in gender and feminism view in contemporary art and culture.
Actually Ive been studying cultural and
social anthropology and I am a part of a
collective called ANT-ESPACIO with two
female coworkers that we develop specifics
projects that affects in the community, multi-ethnical reality, gender, sexual equality
and social questions about the environment and culture. We make publications,
mini-festivals, workshops and exhibitions
which always attend that social and cultural
realities.

60-61

Lilian Seffer

Rami Shamseddine

Lilian Seffer is a MA student at the Hertie

School of Governance Berlin, in the International Affairs program, majoring in security
and sustainability. She studied Political
Science at the Freie Universitt Berlin and
the American University in Cairo. Since
2014 Lilian works as a student assistant at
the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at
the Freie Universitt Berlin. She combines
her academic and political interest as
german ghanaian women in her position at
the board of the Berlin Debating Union and
as Member of the District Commission for
Integration in Berlin Mitte for Bndnis 90/
Die Grnen (The Green Party). Since she can
remember Lilian is playing football.

Education in Emergencies and Disaster Risk

Reduction expert. Have been working in the
domain of humanitarian aid and relief since
2008. Started his career with the Lebanese
Red Cross and moved ahead to working with
local, regional and international non-governmental organizations and UN agencies
such as the Norwegian Refugee Council,
Relief International, Arab Foundation for
Freedoms and Equality, UNESCO, ICRC,
UNICEF, etc.
Founded WILL Association in 2009, a Lebanese NGO that focuses on addressing the
gaps within the humanitarian relief sector
in Lebanon and on fostering Euro-Med
collaborations through joint projects with
European NGOs.
Took part of the emergency response works
for the Van Earthquake in Turkey 2011, and
in the Nepal Earthquake in 2015.
Currently works with GIZ in Lebanon as a
Program Advisor on a program focused on
Gender and PSS in support of the Lebanese
Ministry of Education and other key partners
within the program.

Anita Sorrentini

Anja Cecilie Bech Spillemose

My name is Anita Sorrentini, I am Italian

and I am graduated from the Masters
degree in International Science, with
major in MENA region at the University of
Turin, Italy. Prior to this, I graduated from
the Bachelors degree in Languages and
Cultures of Africa and Asia in English and
Arabic at the same university. I wrote my
bachelor thesis about the honour killings
in Palestine. The title of my thesis was A
new concept of honour? Palestinian women
in modern context. I translated the new
amendment made by Abu Mazen to abolish
the honour as extenuating circumstance of
the murder of a woman and I conducted the
analysis of the social and economic context
of the West Bank.

My name is Anja, and I am 31 years old. I

have a bachelor degree in the History of
Ideas, and I am in the midst of finishing
my thesis about LGBT Muslims in Europe, as
a part of the Master Programme Religious
Roots of Europe at the University of Copenhagen. I have been dealing with several
topics concerning questions on gender and
sexuality within especially Christianity
and Islam. I have been sitting as a board
member at Society of Equality for three
years now, and besides that I am writing for
the webpage www.religion.dk owned by the
Danish Newspaper The Christian Daily as
well as working as a piano teacher.

After graduation in September 2015, I

worked as Communication and Fundraising
Intern at New Horizons Association for Social Development (NHASD) in Cairo for three
months. I wrote a project for the empowerment of the creation of women in New Valley Supporting sustainable development
by empower women in the New Valley.
I am currently an advocacy intern at the
European Centre for Democracy and Human
Rights in Beirut. My tasks include promoting human rights in Gulf area and Mena
region in general.

62-63

Sofia Strive

Soufiane Taabani

To support women, girls, men and boys to

get access to pressing needs and fundamental human rights in a central part of who
I am and what I like dedicating my time to.

Soufiane Taabani, a made in Morocco

ambitious global citizen who believes in
making a positive change in the world,
especially in his mother country, and he
eagerly wants to take part in it.

My name is Sofia Strive and I am working as

a group leader for the Swedish organization
Kvinna till Kvinnas. This responsibility
includes arranging meetings, events and
lectures where the topic of gender equality
and womens rights are raised and discussed. Kvinna till Kvinna works internationally, supporting 130 different organizations, to increase womens participation in
peace negotiations and policy making, improve womens mental and physical health
and support womens rights defenders.
Prior to this job I have both practical and
academic experience on the topic of gender
equality. I have, for instance, worked with
gender equality and human rights in Kosovo
and Georgia together with the Swedish
embassy and different womens rights
organizations.

In parallel to his engineering studies in

renewable energy, he started his change
journey by working with high-impact organizations, such as The Moroccan network of
social and solidarity economy, ENACTUS,
Young Moroccan Leaders...
Commitment, adaptability, self-reliance,
coachability, These qualities allowed him
to hold senior positions such as :
- President of the national Olympics for the
engineer-entrepreneur.
- Trainer and training manager in national
and international Projects : Tamkeen initiative MOROCCO , Lovely Social Entrepreneur
INDIA ...
- Team leader at ENACTUS
Furthermore, Soufiane TAABANI the alumni
of the Future Leaders Academy, co-founded
STEVE JOBS training center which is a creative training center that aims to include
the soft skills in the Moroccan educational
system with an international dimension ,
in order to empower and inspire young men
and women with innovative ideas and to
help them going extra miles in their personal and professional achievements.

Salma Takky

Mohamed Zaky Elkarany

My name is Salma Takky.I am currently holding a post graduate studies in Cultural

Studies : Cultures ,Identities and Media ,
my masters thesis is titled:The politics of
Gender ,landscape and religion in Western
Documentary films: Discourses of Power and
Hegemony,from Mohammed Ben Abdellah
University,Fez, Morocco. I have received
a grant from US embassy to be part of an
American Organization called GLOBAL
Girl Media, where I received an in-depth
training in Journalism and Digital media.
Moreover, I was honored to join African
Women Writing for Social Change workshop
that was held in Kampala,Uganda.

I am Mohamed Zaky Elkarany, Student

in Faculty of medicine in the last year,
I engaged in volunteering work since
2011, through local initiative for youth
empowerment, Step up youth initiative,
where I hold presidency for one Year, a
team member in Ambassadors for Dialogue
project and Now the secretary of Alexandria
for Egypt Freedom Party, I hope to build a
remarkable career in politics, and proceed
my post-graduate studies in Healthcare
policies , looking forward to make a true
social change in Politics and Healthcare
services in Egypt

I do have various experiences ,leading

and coordinating different projects mainly
serving as the training coordinator for the
US-Middle East Partnership Initiatives
Empowering Unemployed Women and
Youth through Entrepreneurship. I also
have a perfect record in social work. I
worked for a number of NGOS as well as participating in many local and international
social activities and projects, particularly
on Media, Education, Women, Peace and
conflict resolution Social entrepreneurship
and Youth.

64-65

Mouna Zebidi

Lisa Taeb

Mouna was born and raised in Tunisia,

where she pursued her higher education at
the University of Tunis in English language
and had a Master of Advanced Studies (MAS)
in British and American Cultural Studies.
She is currently International Relations
masters student.

She earned a Masters degree in international law with a minor in Human Rights from
the School of Law in Poitiers (France) as
well as a Bachelor Degree in International
law from the University of Law in Poitiers
(France). She was a first year graduate
student at Oregon State University (United
States) where she sudied for one year and
did a reseach about the relative universality of the Universal Declaration of the
Human Rights.

Her commitment and engagemnt in the

civil society is obvious in her affiliation
to local NGOs and youth-led organizations
such as Young Leaders Entrepreneurs within
which she focuses on helping young people
especially females in their educational
and social entrepreneurial endeavors and
MasterPeace Tunis Club where she serves as
HR manager. She is also a United Nations
volunteer managing fundraising proposals
strategy for two NGOs: Goodness & Mercy
Missions and Umbrella of Hope Foundation,
Uganda.
Mouna is UNAOC-EF summer school alumna
(New York, from June 13th to 20th 2015) and
Fellow of Generation Change Leadership
training; fellowship program powered by
the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

While working with UN Women in Cambodia

under the Womens Economic Empowerment
programme, she helped improve the access
to decent work and sustainable livelihoods
for marginalized women in rural areas of
Cambodia.
In 2014, she created Women Wor(l)ds, focusing her work on womens empowerment
in rural areas of the world through legal
and economic security. Besides, Lisa has
volunteered at UNICEF as an ambassador
to promote awareness on Human Rights and
peace on campus.
Through these experiences, Lisa has developed a strong knowledge of gender issues
and fundamental Human Rights principles.
She has a strong project coordination as
well as research and implementation skills.
She enjoys focusing on the topic of gender
and development and she has a strong
passion for Womens Human Rights.

Simon A. Herteleer

Sofia Liby-Nelson

Simon A Herteleer is currently pursuing a

Masters degree in International Relations
and Diplomacy at the University of Antwerp
in Belgium. He is writing his dissertation
on the influence of political systems on
gender equality. He grew up in Quito,
Ecuador and moved back to Belgium in
2011. He has worked with various NGOs and
international organizations. He is currently
a steering committee member of YSAFE, a
European Youth led organization that works
towards forwarding SRHR at a Eurasian
level. He is currently also coordinating the
formation of a youth alliance with various
organizations in Europe and central asia.
He enjoys travelling the world and meeting
people from all around the world; last year
he visited over 17 countries. In the future
he hopes to work in fields related to human
rights and diplomacy and he hopes through
this he will be able to build a better future.

I have obtained my bachelors degree in

security policy from the Swedish Defence
University. Currently, Im studying my masters degree in Human Rights at Uppsala
University, while work-ing as a research
assistant at the Institute for National
Defence and Security Policy Studies in
Stockholm. My professional expe-rience
also includes working as an intern at the
embassy of Swe-den in Washington DC
where I wrote a large number of reports with
considerable breadth. Additionally I have
been the secretary of the Student Union,
Swedish Defence University. In this role,
I was responsible for integrating a gender
equality perspective in all the student
activities. My bi-cultural background as
French and Swedish has led me to a greater
understanding of cultural differences
always pursuing alternative perspectives to
come up with new ways to solve problems.
When Im not at work or in school I spend
time working out and indulging my love for
seeing new places.

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IN-SESSIONS NOTES

Day 2 28 May 2016

Theme 1: What Is A Gender
Agenda?
Session 1:
Intervention 1:
Current Gender Situation
in Egypt, Aspirations of the
Parliament in Gender Issues.
Anisa Hassouna, Egyptian
Parliament
Aim: To present the current status of the
Women representation and engagement in
the Egyptian parliament.
The presentation depicted figures and
statistics in relation to the Egyptian women
situation within the opposing challenges
that hinder their realization.
In addition, the presentation addressed
the following questions through the Q/A
session
1- How does the media landscape perceive
this women movements?

2- How do you try to change the mind set?

3- What is the percentage of the hijab
women in the parliament?
4- Do you believe you are backed up by a
national platform?
The session provided an insight from a parliamentarian on the gender discourse and
challenges facing promoting gender equality and the role of women, the aggravation
of the economic situation in the last five
years at least have pulled down the gender
equality achievements reached post 2011,
the role of culture and education is extremely undermined and there is much work to
be done towards conceiving the role of women and the importance of gender equality
in society. Issues such as birth control and
early marriage remain to be highly debated
issues; the highlight conservative societal
culture supports those ideas and makes it
hard for progress to show in those areas.
This seriously impacts much of the work
done by the state institutions especially
after the achievements reached until the
year 2010

Session 1:
Intervention 2:
Anti-Sexual Violence Movements, Gains, Limitations,
and Insights from the Feminist Movement in Egypt
Dalia Abdel Hamed, Head
of Gender Studies Unit at
the Egyptian Initiative for
Personal Rights
The deteriorating sexual violence situation
increased the motivation of the women to
form groups to combat this increase in rate
of violations.
Various movements were established since
then and some of their achievements which
goes to the increased social movements
are:
- Movements ended the social denial regarding the sexual violence problem in Egypt
- Increase in the male involvement in
supporting the battle
- The level of political awareness imposed
by the social has increased.
The Egyptian government has now issued
an official strategy for combating violence
against women, this is a multi-stakeholder
strategy based on the cooperation between
both the government and the civil society.
Dalia explained that as civil society they
had a successful model of a legal change, a
grass root activism that influenced the policy level. This is better than the opposing
module that the state tried to implement in
terms of women circumcision.
It took 5 years to have a single court case
for circumcision from 2008 since it was
legislated until 2013. This shows how hard
we need to work on the gender stereotypes
to promote a change.

The success goes back to the idea that in

the younger generation, there are different
values of the gender system, we have the
cyber space, but we do not have the social
space. In addition, we hope this will get
better.
Questions:
Q- You are working on the results but not
on the root cause, what are the strategies
that you try to improve before the problem
escalates and reaches a sever state, like
what are the mitigation measures?
A- The national strategy is ambitious
and it tries to promote gender equality,
but it does not mention at all the sexual
harassment problem in Egypt and they
just avoided it totally. After one year of
the issuance of the strategy, we noticed
lack of political will to support it and we
are worried if this strategy will actually
yield results in incorporating the gender
awareness issues within the national school
curriculum
There are many obstacles that we are facing
and they go back to cultural and religious
norms of the society, as a first step we
should try to enhance the curricula because
there is a lesson in the school curriculum
saying that a discussion group with the
children asking if they think women should
be working or not. So first we clean the
brains and then we try and work on the more
advanced issues such as comprehensive
sexual education.
Dalia explained that the cultural violence
against women is there due to the power
dynamics played in the society as well as
the acceptance to the idea of young men
harassing because they can do so and they
see that they can get away with it. This in
fact should not only be discouraged but it
should be set as a crime.
Addressing the trend of Feminism and
stereotype behind; it happens to be for
some parts of the society feminism is
kind of a trend, socially it is supported

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on FB and other social media platforms

which has helped in creating a different
approach in media, songs and day to day
culture. Harassers in open media platform
or advertisements are being constantly attacked if they present material to audience
that is discriminating on gender or ethnic
backgrounds.

Session 1:
Intervention 3:
Gender Agenda from a
European perspective,
experiences from transition
countries, why is it good,
successful experiences
from implementation, main
obstacles.
Rep. Venice Commission
Neila Chaabane / Valentina
Pellizzer
President of One World
Platform
Discussing the situation of the representation of women in Tunisia.
We have rectified lots of conventions
for any kind of mistreatment for women
and in 2014, we have officially lifted all
reservations and have followed the UN in
that but the constitution is not enough, we
need laws to enforce what is written in the
constitution.
One of these main rules / laws is the
electoral law where till now we do not have
a quota and we should have in every list of
elections a man and a woman to be elected
together, this is to be implemented on the
field level and in all parties.
I think that the challenges are huge and I
will give you some figures for that which
can exhibit the size of these challenges; for
example when addressing the economical
level, social and political index;
The contribution of women to the national economy impacts there participation
ability, for example women who are actively
working are 25% in Tunisia and it has been

stable for the past years, this sort of engagement allowed for political participation.
The unemployment is 23% for women while
13% for the men, this is for as many reasons
and yet it reflects in political participation
of course. However access to school reached
99.5% which is fairly well but when looking
at universities the percentage drops down
to 16.7% for women
When looking at the level of violence,
where these figures are from 2010. It was
found that 47.6% percentage of violence
is directed toward women, this means that
1 out of 2 women are being exposed to
violence.
However the last parliamentary elections
resulted in a 30% of the parliament elected
as women, the percentage is roughly high
and gives a lot of signals.
Finally, it is important to focus on the
fact that the experience of Tunisia could
be looked at as a leading experience in
promoting gender equality, this is due to
the fact of increased rate in election and
political participation of women.
It is unfortunate however despite this
success that there are many movements
trying to suppress us from political developmental within parties, they are very
conservative when it comes to talking about
the rights of women. On the contrary those
challenges can also give hope and in the
presence of a civil society which plays an
important great role in protecting the rights
of women and providing necessary support
to mainstream human rights with a focus on
the rights of women.
However in the absence of laws that can
protect and strengthen the role of women we
cannot really talk about any human rights
whether for men, women, and children.
(This was mainly about the political
situation in Tunisia and its relation to the
women situation in Tunisia)

Valentina:
The challenge with addressing gender in
parliaments is not the gender balance but
rather the agenda promoted. When looking
at a country like Bosnia we cannot forget
harsh experiences like the war and its
impact on the people which doesnt leave
them the same as before it.
Laws that are supposed to help combat the
violence and discrimination dont necessarily happen to exist. There are even laws
that naturally discriminate, for example
a law existed to support combatants who
served even if for 3 days, but nothing for
the women who were raped while participating in the war. This justifies much of the
violence that is around till now.
When looking at this moment it is too early
to talk about LGBT, the pressure of organizations is rising for certain rules, this is why
we have a government from the European
Union who support us and provide somehow
the LGBT matters.
We will use all our available resources and
will keep trying to increase the female quota for women and the LGBT issue is highly
controversial because when you put accent
on women it is very important and you try
to enforce all these kinds of femininity. If
you cannot even push for a maternity law for
the women, how will they have it in terms of
their reproductive rights and their careers?
As for the digital security, we are all facing
the same kind of situation and the internet
has accelerated and created the possibility to access all information. The mobile
phones are the best tracking device for
those who want to track you, at the moment,
when a woman is violated, arrested or
attached, you will have the entire world
looking at it on the spot. But the more
that you are known that more you will be
attacked, especially by other women who
dont share these beliefs.

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We can fight and try to have

a law and we need to show that we have real
personalities and I always advocate for
the feminist internet and there should be a
political law for this.
Presentations: 7 presentations were selected and presented by the participants out of
the group of presentations collected earlier
through the application process.
1. Anita Sorrentini - (A trial for rape)
2. Hajar Idrissi - (Refugee Youth Forum)
3. Maria Garcia - (Clara Covpower)
4. Olivia Cummins - (Linda Bellos)
5. Piotr Kalkowski - (Together for Equality)
6. Sarah Abdallah - (Women in Front)

Day 2 28 May 2016

Theme 2: Equality and/or
Feminism
Session 3: Arab & Muslim
Feminism(s): Gender Equality in the Law
- Breaking the one sided
perception of history.
Re-reading Arab history
from a gender sensitive
perspective.
PHD. Hoda El Saady, the Women and Memory Forum and
Professor at the American
University in Cairo
PHD: Marwa Sharaf El-Dien
Revolving on medical literature: Relating
how does the biological nature of women
affect its ability and how are some things
referred to as heritage but when you go back
to history books and the medical literature
for example you will not find any kind of
talk about the nature of the women, it was
introduced later in the modernity era.
So in the modern era when medical students came back from Europe and wrote
about women, this is where they introduced
these concepts that are referred to as heritage but they are not actually.
You choose what heritage is telling you,
you choose your beliefs no matter what
you hear. It is the diversity of heritage that
gives it its beauty. We need to determine
what we mean by Islamic heritage when
we talk about it. We need to closely look
at history and the fact is that, women have
always carried the burden of heritage
throughout history. We need to look at this
in a new perspective, one that promotes
equality for both men and women.
All historical books have been written by

people who were affected by that specific

context. When you look at the context you
will understand that there are reasons for
why he wrote in such a way and why are
his opinions like this. Therefore, history
reflects the historian views of reality and
not the actual reality.
Always keep this in mind when you read
a primary source with data that this is
relevant to the background of the writer and
not to the actual era in which he lived and
at least it cannot be generalized to all days
after and generations.
We might discover in history challenging
ideas that emphasize the role of the women,
so look at the history in a new way and think
from where is the source of this document,
what is the context of it then you will
understand what is this concept and why is
it there.
The most strict Islamic law books and
one of the most famous of them across all
ages, is called the rules of women and for
example when someone reads it, he might
think that women were always kept at home
and this is how it was like back then. At the
same time, you will find other books of him
that will say something else, not for him,
but for other writers of his time. So which
is reflecting the reality, some books talk
about women doing transactions in the market, which means that they were working,
but how come do some people consider the
reality in relation to a certain author and
not the other.
He who writes history selects what to write
in the books, this means that since men
were always writing books throughout history, this means that they purposely omitted
women out of their writings and this cannot
be referred to as proper history.
It is not a problem of women it is a problem
of historiography, the writing of history.
An example was given to show how does the
context of the writer affect his writings and
how his various key factors will influence

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his books content then historically these

will be looked at as a heritage and will be
referred to as a standard or a rule sometimes while if you read for other writers
from the same era you might find very
contradicting information or stories.
Marwa Sharafeldin
Started with a video on how certain rules
related to women rights in Muslim countries are been set in place years ago as a
celebration of successful introducing of
such laws in action.
The session is about Feminism and that
it is a kind of awareness and it includes
actions, which is why there are womens
movements.
Tackling the Shariaa and the way it is
defined and understood.
Listing the differences between the Sharia,
the Fiqh, Law and Practice.
In these four fields of theory / practice,
examples were given on certain issues like
polygamy, divorce, and such and how do
each of them views it and applies it and
interprets it.
In any conversation between Islam and
Feminism, both parts should acknowledge
each other as equal before they get into
the discussion. The Islam should not look
inferior at the feminism and the Feminism
should not look at Islam or any religion as
outdated and invalid.
When you respect that people who are in
front of you that they all have journeys, and
we have to respect the other person, it is not
just that this other person is falling under
false consciousness, but everyone has his
own journey.
Then the presentation continued explaining about Qiwama, which is maintenance
for obedience reflected in law; marriage
guardianship, husband permission, maintenance, polygamy, disciplining, custody fee
and breast feeding fee, financial guar-

dianship over children, etc.

The explanation of these terms was done
through reflection and explanation of specific Quran verses.
Wrap UP Session:
What did we learn?
Women in parliament
Islamic feminism
Women in politics
Sexual harassment
Reconstructing history
Various experiences from the participants
presentations
Talk to your partner
Find out what you are curious about and
write it down then find a group and discuss
with it these ideas.

Day 3 29 May 2016

Theme 1: Gender Equality in
Public Sphere
Session 1:
Intervention 1:
Challenges facing female
activists in politics
Feminist Foreign Policy (3R)
in Sweden
Rep. the Swedish MSA
Anna Wrange
Swedish Foreign Service
action plan for feminist
foreign policy 2015 2018
including focus areas for
2016.

of girls and young people

- Strengthen the economic empowerment
of women and girls and their access to
economic resources
- Promote the participation of women as actors in peace processes and peace support
operations.
- Promote the participation of women and
girls as actors for economical socially and
environmentally sustainable development.
- Combat gender based and sexual violence
against women and girls in conflict and
post conflict situations and impunity for
such crimes.

How there is an effort by the government

to incorporate gender in all sectors and
levels.
Discussing feminism in Denmark and how
is gender incorporated in all levels and
enforced by the government.
All governmental proposals are not accepted if they are not accompanied by a gender
analysis.
All embassies and ministries have gender
focal points constituting of a man and a
woman.
The long term objectives of the action plan
objectives (some):
- Full enjoyment of human rights
- Freedom from physical psychological and
sexual violence
- Participation in preventing
The action plan has several focus areas, for
example:
- Violence in conflict and post conflict
situations
- Strengthen the human rights of women and
girls in humanitarian settings
- Strengthen sexual and reproductive rights

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Intervention 2:
Youssry Moustapha
- The culture of Gender
based violence in the Arab
World Video and Exercise
(GIZ Open Society Foundation)
Culture and Gender Equality
Intersection between the legal, the cultural
and the social levels.
Difference between culture and nature. And
is culture really fixed or can it be changed.
The notions of social levels and how to they
intermix and how rights are being constantly negotiated and how are we constantly
picking and selecting and choosing rights
at the time they are all right and we should
not select some and reject some and how
does time make certain things acceptable
at the time before they were totally unacceptable.
When we analyze violence against women,
poverty is a main factor.
Law tradition and culture: this is a chart and
in it are circles within circles. The inner
circle represents the state and condition of
feminism within the customs and traditions
circle while the outer circle represents the
law and is the state where feminism is enforced and modernized. T between the inner
circle and the external circle is a series of
levels mentioned below.
- We have the law (the biggest circle)
- Then the legal disorder: appears either
in legislation (like family laws based on
Shariaa) and the other main factor is the
enforcement of the law.
- Chaotic zone
- Cultural disorder
- Customs and traditions (the smallest
circle)

Rights and laws are directly related to the

political power in the society. The fact that
we lack social and economic rights is a
reflection.
We have rules about cultures, there are
various relations amongst them, and when
we view human rights from political perspective, we will better understand how to
deal with it. So at least at the end we have
to insist that all human rights should be
enforced because it is our future.

Intervention 3:
Katrine Manfred
- Gender Equality in Europe.
The Case of Denmark.
History of Equality in Denmark
The womens movement in
Denmark
The history of Danish womens movement.
Shed the light on how history is interpreted. Who writes history and who interprets
history and who has the right to influence
this history?
IN Denmark women had the right to go to
the national parliament in 1915, so we just
celebrated 100 years of this memory.
A brief about how did the women in Denmark get to participate in the parliament
finally in the form of being able to vote and
that came after 40 years of struggle and
how did the men try to call it the thank you

parade but women refused because this

should have been their right for a long time
ago not just now after the struggle and the
pushing for it for 40 years.
In 2015, a great celebration was done to
commemorate this event, thousands of
people came to the parade, but the feminist
group met with this parade and their banner
said: we were not given the right to vote,
we fought for it. Because all the media
were re-mentioning that in 1915 women
were granted the right to vote and it seemed
as if they were reopening the issue and as if
they were saying thank you for the men.
In 1918 the first election happened in
Denmark after the law in 1915, but the political parties were not very women-friendly
so it accept women still to be sitting as
members with them).
We need to work with the cultural and
political parties because it is still a male
dominated area and it is always remember
that the feminist movements are pushing
for social reform and we should keep in
mind not to take history books for granted,
as they do not give justice to the actual
reality. Explanation of the Sustainable
Development Goals:
- Broad consultative process including with

Session 2:
Round Table
- The impact of international donor agenda
- Gender, Youth and the
SDGs (sustainable development goals)
UN Women
Emad Karim and Lena Karisson

youth
- Focused on ending poverty and leaving no
one behind, quality as well as quantity
- Universal and apply in all countries
regardless of development status
- Three dimensions of sustainable development economic social and environmental
and goal 16 on peace and security
- Explicitly founded in human rights, strong
focus on inequality and non-discrimination
- Strong gender goal
- Strong focus on data and disaggregation
to leave no one behind
- Focus on mobilizing financing from all
sources including domestic resources.
And the presentation tackled the call from
youth on gender equality youth forum
2015 where they asked the governments to:
- Prevent gender stereotypes
- Undertake decisive actions to end gender
based violence
- Youth to start inclusive conversation on
gender equality
- Etc.
The SDGs promote Gender equality and the
measuring progress for them includes 9
targets each with specific indicators like:
- Proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments and local governments,
- Etc.
Then the example of the SDG 5 in Kuwait
was given which is ensure women full and
effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of
decision making in political economic and
public life.
The SDGs were there because the MDGs
failed to:
- Consider the root cause of poverty
- Overlooked gender inequality
- No mention of human rights
- No holistic responses
The SDGs were chosen by starting with
an open working group representing 70
countries to kick off with a draft then they

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Day 4 30 May 2016

Working Groups: Seminar
Statement Preparations
organized global consultations and national consultations, e-surveys, door to door
surveys, etc.
____________________________________
____________________________________
______
Activity:
2 groups 1 men, 1 women Europe, 1 women
MENA
Write down what are the things that make
you feel safe that you would take with you in
the morning when you leave your house.
Then the safety requirements of the different groups were discussed and compared
showing how more cautious women need to
be and all the precautions related to their
safety that should be addressed.
Then ideas were collected on how does the
different societies envision men and what
do they mean by being a man.

Participants were divided into groups and

they discussed the 6 main topics of the
seminar:
1- Legal Framework
2- Challenges & Lessons Learned
3- LGBT Rights
4- Exchange of Experience / Ideas
5- Definition & Perception of Feminism
6- Implementation (Programs & Projects)
The recommendations for each of the topics
were noted down and discussed through
the World Caf approach, then the final
statements / products were shared with the
organizers.
These would constitute the basis for the
follow-up and recommendations of the
seminar.
Facebook Group:
Participants of the seminar created a Facebook group called:
Gender Equality now! Youth Exchange

66-81

NOTES

NOTES

THE SWEDISH INSTITUTE ALEXANDRIA

The Swedish Institute Alexandria (SwedAlex) is an autonomous part
of Swedens Foreign Service. Its main goal is to promote dialogue
between Europe and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) in order to
make Europeans and people in the region better understand each
other. To work for this development SwedAlex arranges seminars,
workshops, debates, trainings and exchange programmes.
Sweden Abroad Website: www.swedenabroad.com/alexandria
SwedAlex Local Website: www.swedalex.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SwedAlex
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SwedAlexOrg
Word press: https://swedalex.wordpress.com