Women of Egypt..the Foundation Voices for Peace Initiative explains to “Al-Bayan” the objectives of the initiative and the reasons for its launch
"Al-Bayan" website presents a series of Egyptian women who participate in making the Egyptian future, which in turn contribute to supporting the basics of empowering Egyptian women, asserting their social existence, and waving the lights about their activities and efforts through which they contribute to building the nation and strengthening its entity.
The “Women of Egypt” series is pleased to speak with the founder of the “Their Voices for Peace” initiative, researcher at Dar Al Iftaa, Heba Salah, who in turn, through her initiative, contributed in a serious attempt to break the social stereotype that women suffer in Arab societies.
What are the motives for which the "Voices for Peace" initiative was launched?
The main motive behind launching the "Their Voices for Peace" initiative is the outcome of a set of views, attitudes and the way of life that women and girls live and go through in our Arab societies; We can say that it is a group of accumulations created by social images or stereotypes in our Arab societies, and unfortunately most of them are caused by wrong interpretations of religious texts, because religion is an essential part of our Arab identity, and this is not a defect, but the defect is to take the patriarchy or patriarchy approach to be the main determinant of the relationship Between women and men in society. The meaning of patriarchy for those who read this term for the first time is the control of men in society and for them to have the upper hand in controlling women. Therefore, the initiative came to take society out of this narrow space into a broad space where there is no difference between a man and a woman, and it is the first basis that religions came with.
Can the "Voices for Peace" initiative defend the rights of disputed women, such as their right to education and work?
Any initiative or volunteer work related to community issues needs time and patience for the message to arrive and begin to bear fruit, and the reason for that is that what has been passed down through generations over centuries, it is not easy to change in a few days or years, and I think that this is the first step on The right path to change, which is to start and sow the fruits of raising awareness and not rush to reap the fruits. As for the term “women's rights”, I have reservations about using this term because, in my opinion, it establishes the idea of the absence of these rights, and the truth is that society knows perfectly well that there is no difference between men and women in rights and duties, but this is deliberately forgotten due to the spread of social stereotypes. Women in education and work have come a long way in them in civil societies, but in rural societies we still find these customs are deeply rooted, and even spread whenever a movement emerges that resists them, represented by this kind of initiative, for example.
We must start from scratch in these societies and the goal is to "raise awareness" of human rights and not women, until we end these images that exclude women from being a "human being" who has rights and duties, and I always mention in this context the noble hadith: "Start with yourself, then with whom Count ”.
Why can't we change the cultural legacies that have always distinguished men from women?
Everything is subject to change, because change is the year of life. We all know this saying, which is: “The state of affairs is out of the box”, but the idea is always: “Is change positive or negative” or in other words, “is it a change for better or worse”. All societies have changed and changed and will continue to change until God inherits the earth and those on it. However, in issues related to women, we must start with "the women themselves". In fact, the machine of customs and traditions has identified a path for women that they do not deviate from, especially in rural societies, so what I found while researching this issue is that women, by their actions, return the circle of violent practices against each other involuntarily, for example issues of circumcision and early marriage and their perception of the girl who She did not marry ... etc. This is the strong reason for the reproduction of these legacies by "the women themselves".
What are the achievements and activities of the initiative since its inception until now?
- The initiative was announced in early September 2019, and as I stated by the initiative, it targets social media pioneers, women and men alike, from various disciplines. One of the most important achievements that I consider distinguished during the months of September and October is the participation of men with me in the initiative by displaying content that supports the issues it raises. The initiative.
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