Swotting Up on Gender Issues

It is examination day. In a classroom overseeing the river Nile in Upper Egyptian Luxor, sits a group of women, aged 20 to 25, awaiting the start of their exam with nervous excitement. In the next five hours, they will have to pen down what they have understood of the values and principles conveyed to them in the past days and months, as well as present their own project ideas, which will be discussed, assessed for viability, and adapted where necessary. If the exam goes well, they will all go home as certified gender trainers.

In the Luxor Gouvernorate of traditional and conservative Upper Egypt, 670 km South of Egypt’s capital Cairo, Maha Khairallah and Hoda Kandil work as trainers for the Women and Gender Projects of the Goethe-Institut. Their efforts go in several directions at the same time: They qualify young women between 20 and 25 years as gender trainers, raise public awareness of gender issues, and encourage the involvement of men in the process of society’s rethinking of social roles.

Preconceptions – About Women and Gender

“Gender is frequently misunderstood as defending solely the rights of women,” explains Hoda Kandil, who holds a degree in psychology. “We try to change that by emphasising the importance of men’s involvement – especially if we want to renegotiate the social roles within a society,” she continues.

To this end, Khairallah and Kandil have recently implemented two workshops: a training for women and one for men. “Ultimately, everyone is benefiting, because gender is a humane concept that includes both sexes equally,” says Kandil. Both have previously attended a workshop of the Goethe-Institut on civic education themselves. They are working now as freelance trainers to raise awareness about gender. 

Their training-of-trainers courses for women touch on a variety of topics relevant for gender trainers, such as pluralism, non-discrimination, as well as project planning and implementation. The training for men is primarily aimed at heightening their awareness of what gender means and how it is important for society as a whole, women and men. Exchange between the sexes is key, and thus have the women from the first training taken part in the men’s sessions as well.

Long-Term Changes in Societal Structures

The Women and Gender Projects of the Goethe-Institut, in which Khairallah and Kandil are active, were already initiated in 2012 to raise gender awareness, and are funded by the Federal Foreign Office. What is new, however, is the long-term focus on a small target group in one city. All training courses build on each other as they aim to support long-term changes in societal structures in Upper Egypt. The women of the training-of-trainers workshop in Luxor had thus already participated in workshops in April and June, introducing them to the concept and significance of gender, and making them aware of their own role and possibilities to shape the society they live in.

One of the newly certified trainers is Kholoud Mohammed, who moved with her family from Cairo to Luxor ten years ago. As a journalist for a local newspaper she is very well aware of the oppression, exclusion, physical and psychological violence that women suffer – particularly in Upper Egyptian villages and rural areas.

“The majority of village women can’t go to school. Female genital mutilation is also still widespread, although it is illegal,” says Mohammed. She painfully remembers her visit to a woman in a village whose daughter had died from the complications of her circumcision.

A Stewardess from Upper Egypt?

“One of the main goals of the project is to achieve the transition of women from passive receivers to active senders,” says trainer Khairallah. She continues, “We are placing the necessary knowledge and skills in their hands so they can actively participate in moulding society.”

Nada al-Qadi, for instance, another workshop participant, now offers psychological councelling in villages together with some colleagues. She dreams of becoming a stewardess one day – an aspiration unusual for Upper Egyptians, which most families reject as option for their daughters. Because Al-Qadi would travel and be absent from home a lot, it was difficult at first to convince her family of the idea, she explains. But she succeeded and is now waiting for the results of her cabin crew aptitute test.
 
Al-Qadi is not the only training alumna who wants to pass on her knowledge and experience on gender and civic education for the benefit of her society. Others are currently preparing the establishment of a psychological and social care centre to raise the awareness of women about their rights and roles in society, while making sure men are included in the ongoing societal transformation. Men like Mohammed Abd Al-Wassa.

Men’s Empowerment

As lawyer at a human and women’s rights organisation, Mohammed Abd Al-Wassa is familiar with gender issues and the struggles of women in Upper Egypt, which he thinks are exacerberated by a multitude of economic, cultural, social, and political problems. To effect change in this region, he says, will require hard and continuous work.

“Family, customs, and traditions are sacred in Upper Egypt. Every attempt to change the roles ascribed to men and women in society is seen as a threat to these sacred concepts,” Al-Wassa explains. He has recently taken part in the Goethe-Institut training “Inclusion of Men in Gender Issues in Upper Egypt.” Together with 24 other men, aged 19 to 50 years, he engaged in a discussion about gender, diversity, justice and equal opportunities.

Women of previous workshops have contributed to the men’s training as trainers and coordinators. “We have two objectives when it comes to the training for men: The inclusion of men, on the one hand, and giving women the opportunity to have a go as gender trainers, on the other,” says Michaela Eckart, coordinator for Female Empowerment Projects at the Goethe-Institut Cairo.

When participants start out, they think that it is the woman’s role to have and raise children, while the man has to find a job to take care of family and spendings. A few workshop days and many discussions later, they understand, however, that these roles are social constructs that vary in place and time.

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