My visit this week at the NGO was very (mind widening) as they gave me their latest publication that talks about women who are being sexually harassed by their superiors. In the publication you will find a lot of case studies that are mind blowing and astonishing, it really made me think out of the box and get into this other stated of mind. The fact that these women were not only subjected to sexual harrassenment at work by their superiors but that they also put up with it because they cant afford losing their jobs; hence their need of income, was just heart aching. The more I kept on reading, the more i felt that I am demanded to defend those women in the future as I am given a better education and social status (a more privileged person), it makes me responsible to defend them, represent them, and enable them to get the rights and equality that they deserve. On another light, those women have absolutely no power; they are defenseless. The New Women Foundation is now working on providing them a better life by fighting for their rights.

 

    As I got fervently attached to the topic and personally interested in each and every case that is mention in this publication, I suggested to my NGO that I translate their publication and write a brief in English, to enable other women who don’t speak Arabic to know what is happening in the world they live in (what other women from different backgrounds have to go through to survive) and to engaged them in activities and organizations that can help unprivileged women to be respected at work and to get fair pay.

 

New Woman Foundation second essay

As of now, I have logged in a total of fifteen hours at the New Woman Foundation. I am not working on the campaign team like I hoped. Most of their work requires that you know Arabic and unfortunately I do not. Instead I am working with the website team. They are currently trying to beef up their English page. They are translating a lot of the works they have on their Arabic page into English. This is where I come into play. I am not translating but I am correcting the translation and checking to see if it makes sense and that there are no grammatical errors. I am also writing my own essays on issues that effect Egyptian woman. So far I have written three book reviews. One that focuses on female genital mutilation, one on family planning, and another on woman's role in literature. Now I am currently conducting research into a woman's rights to her own reproductive organs as well as her right to an abortion and her sexual rights. The material is extremely interesting.

Before interning at the NGO I did not know anything about Egyptian women's rights to any of these issues. This has been a very rewarding educational experience. The women at the NGO have provided me with different books from their library as well as different websites. I have also done my own research on the topic. I just finished writing a report about abortion in Egypt. I found it a bit difficult to find current information on the issue, but I am satisfied with the work that I did.

New Woman's Foundation is trying increasing the material on the English website to attract foreign investors. The women on the website say that they need funding and they get most of it from European countries or interest groups or private investors, yet they hope that with more access on what they are doing and the problems that Egyptian women face more outside investors will be interested in their work and want to help.

In terms of development, the NWF is more participatory. They do not look at society and decide what needs done. They work with the women in the society and decide what it is that needs to be addresses, fixed, and the goals to worked toward. They do not just give society what they want. They teach them methods on how to obtain their goals.

I really like working here. The women are really friendly and helpful. They want me to understand exactly the work that they are doing and take the time to make sure that I understand everything. By working at this NGO, I feel like I am learning more about the culture and the people and the issues, specifically women deal with.

Some african Amercian feminists felt marginalized by the Women's Liberation Movement. in 1960's

New Woman Foundation first essay

On Wednesday September 30, I had my first meeting with the New Woman Foundation. The NGO is located in Mohandeseen, just minutes away from my dorm, depending on traffic.

The New Woman Foundation’s slogan on the front of their brochure states “NO Compromise On Women’s Rights.” The NGO focuses on women’s unconditional rights to freedom and equality in terms of women’s social, political, economic, citizenship and reproductive rights. They believe that woman’s rights are not separate from the struggle of nations and people for freedom and liberation from oppression.

As Heba stated in her post, NWF is an Egyptian feminist non-governmental organization, founded in 1984 but was recognized by the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2004. Their mission is to abolish all forms of discrimination against women in all levels of society. The NWF hopes to obtain this goal through advocacy, action-oriented research and mobilization of women around gender specific issues. Some examples listed in their brochure include:
-Targeting women’s empowerment and self-determination
-Raising social awareness and information dissemination
-Challenging taboos regarding women’s issues and adapting uncompromising positions
-Mainstreaming women’s rights issues on the social and political agendas

The week of my fist meeting, NWF was holding conferences at Hotel Flamingo to raise awareness on the inequality of women. The conferences were both in English and Arabic, and they discussed a wide variety of gender discrimination.

In my meeting, the women working at the NGO told me that their goal is to help women obtain their rights not necessarily do it for them directly. NWF provides the tools and knowledge for women to be able to change the circumstances they face today. They want to help empower and support marginalized women to express themselves and become positive actors in changing their conditions. The objectives of NWF are to play an active role in impacting policies and legislation that have had a negative effect on women in this society. They hope to help change the patriarchal culture that affects the society. A few ways the NWF obtains their objectives is by conducting research, monitoring violations of women’s rights and launching campaigns; organizing seminars (which they were doing two weeks ago), provide training to the community, and promoting involvement of new generations. While at the NGO, the women there gave me several materials that their organization has printed. They were all in Arabic, so unfortunately I could not read it. Yet, several junior New Woman Foundation members write a monthly article. In this booklet, the young women talk about the discrimination they observe and experience first hand. This is just another tool being used to expose society to the injustices. One article that they translated for me, if I recall correctly, was titled “My Brother, My countrymen”. It talked about how sad it is that Egyptian males see how Egyptian women are constantly taunted and yet do nothing about it. It said what if that was your sister would you stand by and do nothing? It should not matter that we are not related, we are the same, I am your Egyptian sister. The girls, writing the piece, said that they should be able to call out to these men, their brothers to help stop this, yet at this time cannot rely on them to help. I remember Heba telling me that this particular article really meant a lot to her. I can understand that, being American, I really do not encounter these problems, yet while being here in Egypt, I have been taunted on the streets and can say that it is a very uncomfortable experience. If this ever happened to me back at home I would hope that someone would step in to help me. This is not to say that America is great and that American men never do this, I am sure that it does occur.

After going over what the NGO is and what it wants to do and the possible way I can help, I was able to sit around with several women roughly around the same age as me and talk about personal things. I found this part of the meeting, even though it was not professional or perhaps planned, very rewarding. I found that these women are just like me. They have the same hopes that I do, the same feelings about life and love that I do. These conversations made me feel like I was really connected to these women, I was not just some foreigner.

At this time I still do not have an exact job description determined by the NGO. My next meeting will include this. I hope to be working with their campaign team.

 

 

Heba Serag Eldin

Pols. 310

New Women Foundation’s first Essay

 

 

 

New Women Foundation

NWF:

Is an Egyptian feminist non-governmental organization? Was established in 1984 by a number of women (who were focused on issues of democracy and social justice) as in informal study association. NWF was recently registered as a formal foundation in 2004 by the ministry of social affairs; in accordance with law 84/2002.

 

Their vision:

They believe that the struggle for women’s liberation is part of a wider struggle for democracy and social justice, it is also a struggle against all forms of discrimination based on gender, class, race, ethnicity, or religion And against all forms of oppressive power relationships on the national, regional, or global levels.  NWF also believes in women’s unconditional rights to freedom and equalities, starting of from women’s social and political freedom to women’s citizenship issues and reproductive rights (as an integral part of human rights). Moreover, NWF believes that “the struggle for women cannot be separated from the struggle of nations and people for freedom and liberation from oppression.” 

 

Their objectives:  

Play an active role in impacting policies 
and legislation, which have a negative
 affect on women.

 

Contribute to changing the predominant 
patriarchal culture, which prevails in society.

 

Empower and support marginalized women, who suffer most from the impact of different policies and prevalent 
conservative discourse, in order to express themselves and 
become positive actors in changing their conditions.

 

Help develop women's social, economic, political and 
cultural rights. Promote the establishment of democratic practice in 
society and the enhancement of a civil society based on the
 full participation of marginalized and deprived sectors.

 

Contribute to the feminist discourse nationally, regionally, and globally from the perspective of the impact of the present conditions on 
women's lives.

 

Activate mechanisms of solidarity among global efforts aiming to 
empower women in practicing their rights as means of achieving 
social justice in societies that refuse to grant women equality. 

One of the biggest campaigns by the NWF was to promote (Cedaw)

(Cedaw) ; Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, is often described as an international bill of rights for women. Consisting of a preamble and 30 articles, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

 

This convention defines any kind of discrimination against women, any distinction, exclusion or restriction that are made on the bases of sexual gender. Which has the purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status.

“The Convention defines discrimination against women as "...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field."

By accepting the Convention, States commit themselves to undertake a series of measures to end discrimination against women in all forms, including:

_To incorporate the principle of equality of men and women in their legal system, abolish all discriminatory laws and adopt appropriate ones prohibiting discrimination against women;

 

 

_To establish tribunals and other public institutions to ensure the effective protection of women against discrimination; and

to ensure elimination of all acts of discrimination against women by persons, organizations or enterprises.”

 

The convention aims to provide women an equal access to equal opportunities in political and public life as men. Moreover, the right to vote, get elected, education, health, and employment.

 

This is the only human rights treaty that affirms the reproductive rights of women- targeting cultural and traditional issues that mainly give rise to gender inequality. Also affirming women’s rights to acquire, change or retain their nationality and the nationality of their children. Countries that have ratified or acceded to the Convention are legally bound to put its provisions into practice. They are also committed to submit national reports, at least every four years, on measures they have taken to comply with their treaty obligations.

There are about 185 countries and over 90 % of the members of the United Nations are participants of the Cedaw convention.

Egypt signed in 16 July 1980.

 

 

Second:

NWF adopts the first lawsuit against sexual harassment.

“On 25/6/2008, 5 p.m, in refaa st. from El Khalifa El Mamon…… Noha – 25 years old – was exposed to rude sexual harassment while walking with her friend in the mentioned street. As a driver dragged her from her breast, then he tried to escape by his car. Yet Noha tried to catch him calling for the help of the walkers and threw herself on his car attempting to stop him by all means. By the help of some walkers, she was able to take the man who harassed her to the police station. Noha refused the driver’s apology and the conciliation attempts to avoid “scandals”, and insisted on writing a minutes and taking her right, which was violated. The minutes (registry) was written and transferred to Misr El Gidida prosecution where the testimonies of both of plaintiff and defendant were taken (minutes’ no. 11652).” Apparently, the police officials didn’t want to take any legal action against the man so in Noha went to the NWF asking them for support and asking them to claim her rights.

The NWF adopted the lawsuit and raised it to the Egyptian judiciary.

 

My job description is not yet determined by the NGO but it will probably take place in their law office (attending cases in court and writing legal reports).