Nazra for Feminist Studies is a group that aims at contributing to the continuity and development of the Egyptian and regional feminist movement in the Middle East and North Africa, where the group believes that feminism and gender are political and social issues affecting freedom and development in all societies. Nazra aims to mainstream these values in both public and private spheres. Nazra’s team, believes that integrating gender and feminism will be achieved through the efforts of believers in the validity of these values and in the necessity of their implementation in both spheres. Nazra believes that youth, in their diversity, struggle to integrate their issues, which include gender-related issues, in their societies. And so Nazra generally works to provide all actors who strive to achieve gender related causes with all forms of support needed; and focuses, specifically, on supporting youth groups who strive to achieve those causes.

Nazra aims at implementing its vision through adopting a gender perspective that works on analyzing and critically engaging feminist questions on the power relations in society and how those relations affect the political, social and economic situation of women. Moreover, Nazra works on considering the concept of masculinity as a premise, based on which men could be engaged, where Nazra believes that this concept could provide an analytical lens in terms of understanding the social roles that are assigned to males. Nazra for Feminist Studies works on deploying various strategies and techniques to implement its vision and contribute to the development of the feminist movement locally and regionally based on that vision such as working on personal freedoms and bodily safety from a feminist perspective in addition to supporting the active participation of women in the public and political spheres, where Nazra believes that the feminist movement is not separated from the social and political mobilization that aims at establishing the values of democracy. Nazra is also keen on providing all means of support to women and mainly women human rights defenders and women who are politically engaged against all forms of violence and discrimination that they are subjected to in public and political spheres. Moreover, ending sexual violence against women is one the main priorities of Nazra for Feminist Studies since this violence stands as a threat to women’s right to actively participate in a safe public sphere. Believing in the role that should be played by the state and its different foundations in terms of strengthening a safe society and an environment that is free of exclusion and discrimination, Nazra aims at engaging feminist and gender related issues in all the activities that are conducted and which attempt to urge the state to deploy the necessary techniques and measures needed for playing such a role. Also, in order to mainstream the feminist values that Nazra believes in, the group’s various initiatives and programs  work on providing spaces, through which, young men and women could be effectively engaged. Nazra also believes in the importance of contributing to producing feminist knowledge that is able to respond to the specific nature of the local and regional contexts; this feminist production of knowledge should be accompanied by continuous efforts that aim at developing the Arabic terminology in relation the feminist cause in Egypt and also in the Middle East and North Africa.

Nazra’s various activities and initiatives mainly aim at supporting women’s participation in the public sphere while strongly acknowledging the intersection between the private and the public spheres and how violence and discrimination against women in the private sphere affect their participation in the public sphere. Nazra for Feminist studies also believes that the continuity and development of the feminist movement is strongly connected to a public sphere where rights and duties of social and political citizenship are equal and where women could engage their causes in the process of democracy making.

Fields of Work:

1- Producing knowledge on women’s and gender rights based on documentation, research, and analysis in addition to working on Arabic terminology that is strongly connected to those causes.

2- Supporting women human rights defenders through providing legal, psychological and medical support.

3- Supporting women’s political participation and their contributions to the public spheres in order to mobilize women’s rights as social and political rights.

4- Working on strategic litigation in relation to gender rights within the Egyptian, regional and international legal systems in addition to working on policies and legal reform from a feminist perspective.

5- Launching campaigns that would aim at engaging women’s and gender issues within the political, legal, cultural and social agendas.

6- Providing opportunities of networking among young feminist groups in order to contribute to the continuity and the decentralization of the feminist movement.

7- Supporting the role of arts in addressing feminism and gender rights.

8- Launching initiatives that aim at engaging young men and women in order to mainstream feminist consciousness and culture.

9- Providing psychological, legal and medical support to women survivors of sexual violence in the public sphere.

10- Supporting bodily safety and freedoms from a gender perspective.