Switching Roles to Understand Others:
On International Women's Day, UN Women launched a social experiment with 20 young men and women from 8 Arab countries. The interviewees had to answer questions as if they belonged to the opposite sex and were instructed to do their best to genuinely find the answers that reflect the attitudes of the majority of their communities.
Men pretended to be women and women pretended to be men and started off laughing at lighthearted questions about how the other sex dresses, walks or stops a taxi. Things got more serious with questions on gender roles in the family unit and economic participation. Some women found the financial expectations of young men unrealistic and unfair as they are expected to be the sole breadwinners and to provide for expensive wedding and marriage costs on their own in some parts of the region.
It grew visibly tense when answering questions about violence against women and girls and the silence imposed on most women through a heavy social stigma. Men were noticeably shaken when realizing their own wives or sisters would probably choose silence over telling them if exposed to sexual violence. Watch a video of the experiment here.
Inspiration for Change:
Telling stories of those who push the boundaries of stereotypes in their communities inspires more to tell their own stories or to start doing the same. UN Women finds inspiration in the women of the region every day and we are determined to share the inspiration with as many people as possible.
Teh Marbota:
In partnership with UNFPA, UNDP the National Council for Women and with the generous support of Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), UN Women has launched a national campaign in Egypt under the name of Teh Marbota- an Arabic letter that is usually added to adjectives to feminize them. The campaign included social media outreach and a number of PSAs that played over some of the most popular Egyptian networks. The campaign aims at raising awareness on different aspects of gender equality with a special focus on violence against women and girls. Follow the campaign here.
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