Women and girls in the MENA region continue to be the subject of control in what relates to their dress choices, bodily agency, and all other matters related to their personal choices. This circle will provide a safe space for young women and trans folks to discuss the complex and multi-layered issue of dress code what kind of mobilization and interventions are needed to overcome societal often brutal expectations of what constitutes “accepted dress code”. The outcome of this conversation will feed the process of creating a MENA campaign on liberating all women and girls from the tyranny of the dress code.
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Lawyer, human rights activist and executive director at Dawlaty.
Roula Baghdadi is the Executive Director of the Syrian NGO Dawlaty, based in Lebanon, Turkey and Syria.
General Director of Kayan Feminist Organization in Haifa
Rafah Anabtawi is the General Director of Kayan Feminist Organization in Haifa, which works to advance Palestinian women’s status and end gender-based discrimination. Rafah has been a social and feminist activist for over 20 years. Rafah began her career at Kayan as the Community Organizing Coordinator in 2006 and has now been its director for over seven years. As the director of Kayan, Rafah spearheads a grassroots approach to social change by consolidating a national Arab Palestinian feminist movement that promotes and defends women’s rights and ensures women’s integration into all aspects of the public sphere. Rafah has participated in several prestigious leadership programs, including the Fellowship Programme of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). She holds a BA in Social Work from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an MA in Social Work from the University of Haifa.
Research Assistant @ the Asfari Institute
Ms. Amro is a physics and political science graduate from the American University of Beirut. She is particularly interested in research related to geopolitics and political economy. As a research assistant, she is currently conducting research on gender and politics and women empowerment.
Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto.
Maya El Helou is a Ph.D. candidate at the sociocultural anthropology in a collaborative program with Women and Gender studies at the University of Toronto. El Helou is illustrating her way through ethnographic fieldwork. Her theoretical interests revolve around Necropolitics, Queer Theory, embodiment, temporality, and spatiality along with urban infrastructure. El Helou is the convener for “Entertaining the graphic in the ethnographic” with the aim to bring together all those who are interested in thinking through the salient forms of artistic expression.
