Series # 3
Archiving Feminist Activism in Egypt
Episodes
- Episode 1 -The journey of a feminist from one tool of activism to another
In the first episode, host Reem Abouzaid speaks to prominent feminist activist and professor of English literature at Cairo University Dr. Hoda El-Sadda. Dr. Hoda talks about her legacy of activism as well as her understanding of how the Egyptian feminist movement shifted positions from cooperating with the state from one historical phase to another. In this episode, Dr. Hoda disagrees with experts and academics atomizing contemporary feminist activism with the rise and fall of the Arab Spring. She traces the historical line through which feminist activism evolved per the contextual elements surrounding it and will continue to evolve into a future that reflects such a local character. This lively conversation touches upon feminist activism in Egyptian academia, social media as a tool for activism, and the recent #Guardianship_is_my_right campaign addressing the personal status law.
1:02:58 - Episode 2 -Investigating as a form of organization
In the second episode, host Reem Abouzaid speaks to feminist activists and professionals Salma El-naqqash and Farida Kalaaqi about imagining a feminist justice outside the judicial courts and conventional channels bypassing the authoritarian system in Egypt. Salma and Farida talk about events that took place in 2017 with the earlier trickledown effect of the MeToo global movement through what was known as the “Email incident”: when an email circulated within a circle of female employees in the Egyptian civil society warning about two civil society professionals’ acts of sexual misconduct. In reaction to this incident, a committee was formed by civil society members to investigate the allegations. The investigative committee model became a customary practice within civil society in events of sexual violence. In this episode, Salma and Farida talk about their roles in one of these committees, the process of operating such a committee and their understanding of the power dynamics surrounding their work. In so doing, they shed light on an understudied tool of feminist organization.
57:13 - Episode 3 -Social media as a feminist tool - Available 12/04/2023-
- Episode 4 -Silencing the Tiktok girls - Available 26/04/2023-
- Episode 5 -Believing the survivors - Available 10/05/2023-
Description
Archiving Feminist Activism in Egypt is the Arab Initiative Reform’s third podcast series. It takes a historical approach to investigate a mainstream narrative connecting feminist activism in Egypt with the global MeToo movement. Through its five episodes, the podcast creates an archive of narratives by individuals who were involved firsthand in feminist activism in Egypt in recent years. In each episode, activists recount their experiences and share their analysis of the conditions that shaped their activism.
Part of our Jalsa | جلسة podcast, this series arranges and officialize these narratives to tell a certain story: the story of an Egypt that has witnessed the proliferation of feminist activists who brought different modalities of activism to correspond with the boundaries - the limitations and opportunities - offered in the local context.