Event Details
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Time
09:00am
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Date
19 Nov, 2014
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Location
- Global Online
- Bethesda, MD
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Contact
WLP
WLP presents four activists from around the world who share stories to expose the impact of sexual harassment on women in their countries. Challenges and breakthroughs are discussed, as well as positive experiences in building safer societies for women through art, public protests, journalism and advocacy campaigns. Speakers include: Sondos Shabayek (Egypt), Pallavi Gupta (India), Betty Yeoh (Malaysia), and Zosia Sztykowski (United States).
This is a webcast event only. Join us from your computer, tablet or smartphone!
Following the speakers’ comments, the audience is invited to participate in a live Q&A via video, audio or chat box.
Join the event Facebook Page and follow #ExposeSexualHarassment on Twitter
Up to 7 in 10 women around the world experience physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lifetimes. Sexual harassment is a social phenomenon that women face in their daily lives across the globe. In the workplace, at schools, in public places, and even in their homes, women face unwelcome comments, sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other forms of physical and verbal harassment that often go unrecognized and unaddressed.
This event will feature the following speakers:
Sondos Shabayek is Writer, Theater Director, and Storyteller for the Tahrir Monologues and the BuSSy Project, part of Monologue: The Storytelling Project, Egypt. Sondos studied mass communication and broadcasting, and she began her career copy editing for a televised youth program. She later became a writer and editor for the Arabic youth magazine E7na (“Us”). As a writer, Sondos focused on exploring, exposing and discussing social taboos in Egyptian society. Since 2007, Sondos has been a driving force behind the BuSSy Project featuring annual performances telling the real stories of women in Egypt. In 2011, powered by her Bussy experience, she produced the theatre play “Tahrir Monologues” – an event that recreated the 18 days of protest in Tahrir Square, from its initiation on Facebook to Mubarak's step down from power. The play consists of real-life stories from the battle ground and brings both tears and laughter. Sondos also wrote and directed ‘Girl,’ a 5 minute film about harassment; ‘I am not my veil,’ a short self-portrait video about the conflicting reactions of the Egyptian society towards the veil; and ‘Oh fear,’ a short self-portrait video about inner fears.
Pallavi Gupta Director of Chityala Ailamma Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (CACIR), the research wing of Asmita Resource Centre for Women, India. She has been working at Asmita for over seven years as a core team member involved in decision making, strategic planning, staff management, fundraising, and grant writing. She coordinates initiatives to address women's human rights and violence against women through workshops in colleges, counselling and legal aid. She is a feminist counsellor and has undertaken cases within Asmita and from partner organizations pertaining to violence against women and sexual harassment at workplace. She works with students from both urban and rural contexts on the increasing violence against women – both in the public and private sphere. She has undergone training on CEDAW and Women's Human Rights organized by IWRAW-AP and has facilitated sessions on CEDAW and international human rights obligations. As part of Asmita she was involved in the IV and V India CEDAW Alternative Report. She holds degrees in law and social work and is a member of several complaints committees on preventing sexual harassment at the workplace. She has published articles and conducted trainings creating awareness on a new law to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace.
Betty Yeoh Project Director of WLP Malaysia/All Women’s Action Society (AWAM), an independent feminist organization committed to improving the lives of women in Malaysia and creating a society in which women are treated with respect and free from all forms of violence and discrimination. Betty has been an active founding member of AWAM since 1985. She assisted with developing the Telenita Helpline and its para-counseling services for survivors of violence against women, in particular, domestic violence. As a trainer/facilitator for AWAM, her key focus areas are combating sexual harassment at work; building the capacity of policy makers through programs on violence against women; the rights of women; and gender sensitization. An advocate for women’s rights, she was Secretary of the Women’s Section of the Malaysian Trade Union Congress. Betty has co-authored training manuals on combating sexual harassment at the workplace, violence against women, and women’s rights.
Zosia Sztykowski Director of Community Outreach and Events at Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), USA, a grassroots organization that empowers the DC metro area to end the public sexual harassment and assault of women and LGBTQ community members. As a DC-based community organizer and educator, Zosia works on issues of sexual violence prevention, particularly in public and urban spaces. Her work to engage her community in anti-harassment activism has been covered by the Washington Post, Slate, and NPR. She has dedicated her career to creating a vision for a community in which people of all backgrounds, gender expressions, and identities can feel safe occupying public spaces.