In preparation for the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day (March 8), we are hitting the streets on Saturday, March 5, 2011 and Sunday, March 6, 2011 to talk to women about the challenges they face in Lebanon and what changes they would like to see.

We’re calling our action: Hello Women, that’s #HelloWomen for all you tweeps out there.

Throughout the weekend, we’ll be roaming the following areas to talk to all the women we meet:

• Hamra, Bliss Street, Furn el Chebbak, Chiah, Sassine Square, Dawra / Nabaa, Bourj Hammoud, Tareeq el Jdeedi, Haret Hreik, Sabra Camp, Downtown Beirut, Tyre, Saida, Jounieh, Jbeil, Zahle, Tripoli, and Saida.

The objective of our action is:

1. For us, as feminists, to listen, grow and learn from what women have to say.
2. To let the women we meet to express themselves, think about the questions, voice their opinions, concerns, and stories.
3. To let women know that our collective is out there and is supporting them and that they are welcome to join us and work with us.

We’ll be updating this page with regular posts throughout the weekend. You can also follows us on Twitter using the hashtag #HelloWomen or on our own account @nasawiya. You can also check our Facebook Page for updates.

And don’t forget to join us on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 at 6:00 PM for our Take Back the Night March on International Women’s Day.

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Hello Women Update 1: Day 1 – Saturday, March 5, 2011

Layal and Zainab talk to women in Chiyah

The feminists were out all day today talking to the women they met on the streets. To see pictures of our preparations for “Hello Women” and our feminists’ work on Day 1, click here.

Throughout the day, we’ve been tweeting some of the women’s thoughts on life in Lebanon as women, and the changes they wanted to see. You can read all our tweets by following the hashtag #HelloWomen. In the below, we list a selection of the women’s impressions and opinions, as well as other passersby who wanted to give their two cents, as they were tweeted by our feminists:

>> Voices from Batroun

• “الأم تعطي الجنسية لأولادها، هيدا إسمه فلتان”

>> Voices from Bourj Hammoud

• An Armenian man: “In 5 years, women will rule but this will be bad for the marriage.”

>> Voices from Chiyah

• “People think that if a woman is “mouhajaba” (veiled) she should obey!”

>> Voices from Downtown Beirut

• “كل شي غلط بلبنان. بدّو نفضة ما بتفهم”
• “يسطفلوا. ما بهمنا”

>> Voices from Furn El Chebback

• “Women have enough rights!”
• “The situation of women in society is nil, in politics, double nil.”
• “Violence only happens with ‘Arriérés’ (Retards).”

>> Voices from Jbeil

• “المجتمع الشرقي هيك، الزلمي رأس المرأة ورأس هونيك شغلة”
• “الشعب يريد إسقاط الحريم”
• “أنا آخدة حقوقي بإيدي. مش ناطرة الدولة”

>> Voices from Hamra

• “وضعنا تعتير ونحنا منشتغل وعندنا ولاد – نحن بحاجة لقانون للعمل أحسن ومتفهم أكير”
• “الرجّال بخاف من طاقات المرأة”
• “النسوان في البرلمان ما بمثّلوني”
• When asking a girl in Hamra about the law against domestic violence، a man interrupted and said: “Women are the ones who are violent.”
• “الأم العاملة خارج المنزل لازم تتقدّر أكتر”
• “Domestic violence and abuse rarely happen in Lebanon. It’s a problem women elsewhere face.”

>> Voices from Sassine

• “If I were a minister I’d grant the right to nationality.”
• “If I was the president, I would dig a hole and put in it all the people with patriarchal minds and burn them.”
• “You get harassed everywhere: at work, in cabs… even your husband harasses you.”
• “SOIS BELLE ET TAIS TOI: المرأة عندها كل حقوقها. شاطرة تنمحن”
• A nun – “ما بجاوب على هيك سؤال. روحي إسألي المرأة”
• “بدنا حرّية جنسية”
• “المرأة أصلا مش عارفة شو بدّها”

>> Voices from Tarik El Jdideh

• “Why would I become worthless when my man dies! I am a person. I have power. Give it to me! I am a woman!”
• “My kids speak Lebanese better than I do and they’re not Lebanese. They can’t own a house, they can’t work.”

>> Voices from Tyre

• “Women should get married at 20 because of their hormones.”
• “Rebellious women need violence!” – a woman claiming to be very open-minded.
• A man we ran into: “المرأة عندها كل حقوقها. روحوا إنضبّوا”

>> Voices from Zahle

• “Women have the right to go out without having to worry about harassment or anything.”
• “مظلوم الرجّال. كل النسوان مشلّفين”
• “We’re single women, why would we care about women’s rights?”

>> Miscellaneous Voices

• “قانون الأحوال الشخصية من أصله لازمله محي”
• “Women keep comparing our situation in Lebanon with that of those in Arab countries and concluding we’re better off. Women wake up!”
• “I’m 74. I’ve been been begging for 10 years now. People disrespect me and all I want is my medicine. Who represents me in parliament?”
• “An NGO is nice for women but going to parliament is too much. She is feminine, she can’t handle it!”
• “بعد في كتير قمع وإستبداد”

For more Hello Women interactions, play the below video.

-Language Classes
Classes to be taught each Sunday in Hamra for Arabic, English, and French (and maybe computer). First class will be February 20 at 1230 PM. T Marbouta kindly offered their library space.

- Poster Translations
So far, we got Malagasy, English, Tagalog and Ethiopian.
If anything is added by today, it is good to go. Anything we do not get by today, we will go on without it at this stage. Please someone translate to proper Arabic and French and send me so I print.
Farah will be printing and photocopying the papers. We need to post them up in Hamra, Bourj Hammoud and Dawra by Saturday maximum so they are up and readable by this Sunday.

- Weekly Meeting
We will have our last meeting next Wednesday at 530 at Nasawiya. After that, we will make our weekly meetings every Sunday before or after class. We will look into that.

- Guide book idea
Will be put on hold for now.

- Organizational issue
We currently have 3 running initiatives on board: vigils, marches, classes. So as not to spam people who are not interested in all of them with emails, we will create 2 new google groups for the vigils and the marches. For people who want to be on those groups, let me know so I add you. This would keep the MWTS group specifically for language classes related issues and a space to propose new ideas.

We will have coordinators for each initiative. So if you have a question about something in specific, you know who to ask.
March- Alex
Vigils- Ali
Classes- Janie

- Vigils
The initial idea was to target the homes of migrant workers who have been abused, murdered, or have committed suicide in the Beirut area with vigils and information so as to stigmatize this violence and inform communities about its presence.
Vigils are protests that happen right after, hopefully 1 day after, a migrant worker dies (killed, suicide, regardless).
If the location the death happens is accessible to people, we will have the protest under the employer’s house/ agency.

If it is far away, we will have it somewhere symbolic in Hamra which so far will be the Ministry of Interior.

We came up with the most brilliant idea in the meeting *light bulb* which is that we need to create our own symbolic space. What will it be? Just like we have tons of statues around the country for different “martyr” politicians in Lebanon (who all happen to be male martyrs because our history never included any female martyrs but that is another topic:)), we decided that it is high time we change the formula for this and we create the statue for the “unknown female migrant domestic worker” (just like the unknown soldier).

So the priority now goes to finding a brilliant artist who is willing to work on doing this project on the spot. When we have this statue, it will be a moving statue which we take with us to each vigil we do (until one day in the future, Lebanon accepts to let us put that statue up somewhere forever to honor all those who have died on Lebanese soil with no one to investigate their deaths ro remember their many names). The statue will be the thing that will create meaning for us to be protest on a specific location. So next time we have a vigil, we will say next to the statue (we need a name for it) in Hamra or Ash or Korniche for instance, and people go there and search for it. When they find the statue, they find the place for the vigil.

But until we do that, Ministry of Interior is our space.

- Marches
The difference between marches and vigils, is that we do not know how many vigils we might do. It might be one every 2 weeks or one every 6 months (I hope but doubt). Vigils happens as a reaction to a case. Marches will happen regardless of the death toll. We will decide to have them lets say every 1st Sunday of the month or something like that.
They will be a walking protest to highlight the situation, specifically also in terms of uninvestigated deaths of migrant workers. We will build a symbolic coffin and walk with it. So the idea is to have a trumpet funeral march around Hamra, a couple of people holding the coffin (and names are always being added to that coffin), someone with the trumpet, someone putting out fliers, and someone talking to people. We will work on the coffin next Wednesday meeting.

- Tasks
Putting posters up for classes
Confirmation on who is coming to classes
Finding an artist
Finding a trumpet guy/girl
Feedback?

If you would like to join any of the present initiatives, ask questions or suggest ideas, please write us at farah@nasawiya.org

As you know, the Nasawiyas moved into a new center in Achrafieh a couple of months ago. The apartment is old but artsy and has a beautiful energy about it. It is now home to our everyday discussions and meetings, in addition to many feminist initiatives. Also as you know, the prices for rent (and everything else) have gone up tremendously in Beirut. We gathered the funds to cover a year’s rent from various projects and donors and now we are looking to raise the funds to buy some furniture. We need couches, desks, shelves, air conditioners, lighting, and meeting tables.

So here’s how we’re going to raise the funds. One of our supporters has offered to donate 500L.L. (around $0.33) for every new fan we get on Facebook between November 7 and 22. That means we can raise anything between a few dollars (if we get a few more fans) to thousands of dollars (if we get thousands more fans). At the same time, more subscribers to our Facebook page means more people will receive daily links about gender in Lebanon and the region.

You can help us raise both money and awareness by simply suggesting our page to your friends.

• We’ve only got two weeks and our target is 4000 new fans, which translates into $1,330 to buy furniture.
• Go to our Facebook page and click on “Suggest to Friends” under the Nasawiya logo.
• Choose some friends who would be interested in receiving gender-related news from Lebanon and the Middle East.
• Add a personal message telling them that by liking the page, they are automatically donating $0.33 to buy furniture for the Nasawiya House.
• Post this page on your social networks to encourage others to do the same.

If you are also interested, you can also add a financial pledge to our challenge. Even one cent per fan will make a difference and will encourage people to help us. Contact farah@nasawiya.org for more information or to make your own donation.

Updates

November 7: At the time of posting this call, we have 1,120 fans.

On this year’s International Women’s Day, over 100 people answered Nasawiya’s call to take to the streets to take back the night. For roughly two hours, feminists made their way from Mar Mikhael, Gemayze to Ain el Mraiseh, marching past bedazzled onlookers, curious drivers who ground to a halt, and wary police cars and officers who trailed the march. They were chanting:

- For freedom, for nationality, a feminist revolution.
- One word, shout out loud, feminism won’t die.
- Feminists against sectarianism, racism, sexism, classism, capitalism, Zionism, rape, harassment, patriarchy.
- For Lebanese women in Tripoli, in Byblos, in Saida, in Tyr, in Beirut… a feminist revolution.
- For Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, Filipino, Sri Lankan women and women of all nationalities, a feminist revolution.

Our words won’t do the event justice. So we thought we’d let these images do the talking instead.

The revolution continues…

Video: Nasawiya International Women’s Day March – 2010

For more videos, check out our YouTube Channel.

Photo Gallery: Nasawiya International Women’s Day March – 2010

For more photos, go to our Facebook Fan Page.

On this year’s International Women’s Day, we decided once again to take our actions to the streets to interact with people and raise awareness about women’s issues.

After weeks of rehearsals, two groups performed over the weekend of March 6-7, 2010 “Invisible Theater” actions in several locations around Beirut. The scenes performed were about sexual harassment, and a brother meddling in his sister’s life. Go to our YouTube Channel to see videos from the sibling meddling group’s performance in Costa, Hamra and ABC Mall, Achrafieh.

Developed by Brazilian activist and theater director, Augusto Boal, the “Theater of the Oppressed and Invisible Theater” technique consists of performing a previously rehearsed play in a public space without the public’s knowing that it is a play. It addresses a precise theme concerning social injustice, such as sexism. It is intended to provoke debate and to clarify the problem with the people who experience it.

We also printed over 40 congratulatory banners which were hung in and around Beirut. You may have spotted them while you were out and about.

Members and friends also distributed 3,000 Happy IWD stickers in streets, offices and universities.

Through a special partnership with the progressive daily Al-Akhbar, other members contributed articles to the paper’s March 8, 2010 issue, celebrating International Women’s Day.

And while the Nasawiya hive was buzzing, another group of activists documented the collective’s preparations for IWD 2010 in a do-it-yourself video.

Our actions will culminate tonight at 6:30 PM with a “take back the night” march for all women’s rights.

“How many times have we thought twice about leaving our homes at night?” said Farah Salka, General Coordinator. “How many times have we dreaded the walk back home, even from the car up to our apartment? How many times have we walked at night, always looking over our shoulders? How many times have we been silenced, just because we were women? That’s why we’ve decided to take to the streets to demand that the night be a safe time for women and remind people that gender equality is an integral part of human rights and that there’s still a lot to do for women’s rights and social justice.”

Our march calls for the elimination of all forms of gender-based violence, be they verbal, physical, and sexual must be eliminated; the elimination of sexism and all forms of discrimination, and exploitation that are based on gender, sexuality, able-bodiedness, ethnicity, race, religion, class, etc.; the right of women to their bodies and sexualities; and the abolition of all laws that violate women’s rights.

Whichever way you’re celebrating International Women’s Day, we wish you all a very happy one.

The revolution continues…