Today, Nazra for Feminist Studies launches “Our Struggles Continue” campaign in the occasion of the 8th of March, the International Women’s Day.  The day that is considered an opportunity for women, for the feminist movement and for the women Human Rights Defenders all over the world to highlight different forms of their struggle and recall not only their achievements, but also the prices they pay to improve women’s lives and establish their rights.

Within the current situation in Egypt and the MENA Region and nearly 10 years after the eruption of a number of revolutions, uprisings and mobilizations across the region, women, the feminist movement and women human rights defenders had accentuated their roles and their ability to demand change and create a reality that is more fair and democratic. A reality that cannot be ignored … A reality which punctuates that the recognition of their rights is a must and asserts the necessity to secure and enhance their participation in the public sphere …A reality that maintains their rights in the private sphere, after what they have achieved in favor of women, bearing in mind that they are still paying the highest prices in order to achieve more.

This year witnesses the persistence of a reality other than what we dreamed of, an aggravated and unsupportive reality towards women human rights defenders, including feminists. A reality that swings between conflicts, stability of undemocratic regimes or ascension of sectarian and religious powers, along with the patriarchal societies that do not welcome the presence of women outside the traditional frames.

This is a reality in which the feminist movement and women human rights defenders are exposed to various forms of targeting, harassment, marginalizing and backlashing against women’s achievements and gains. The women’s human rights issue is still followed by several risks and forces that work hard to silence it or limit it within rigid frames that does not allow the movement to develop or flourish and thrive.

Thus, Nazra launches this campaign today, to bring the attention towards women human rights defenders and the feminist activists in the region who are being targeted, violated and those who are unable to be among us because they are imprisoned for their activism defending human rights and women human rights. This campaign advocates for the jailed ones and demands their immediate release and for those who are targeted, shuttered and violated within an unfair reality.

This campaign highlights the situation and struggle of women human rights defenders in the MENA region, during the period from the 8th of March, the International Women’s Day until the 16th of March, which marks the Egyptian Women’s Day. It also affirms that our struggle for women human rights did not and will never end.

The campaign includes daily visual designs through our social media platforms: “Facebook and Twitter” to cite the status and struggles of women human rights and feminist activists. We invite you to join us supporting, advocating and writing about those women and others.