Nazra for Feminist Studies

The undersigned Egyptian rights organizations condemn the treatment of sit-ins and demonstrations in Egypt from the time of the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak until now, as a result of which hundreds have been killed and thousands injured and detained. We note that increasing social violence is linked to the insistence of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) on pursuing policies of suppressing freedom of expression and using the military judiciary as a tool to subjugate civilians and harass peaceful activists.

Executive Summary- The Women Human Rights Defenders program at Nazra for Feminist Studies is launching its manual on Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs). Rather than translate into Arabic manuals that have been produced by other organizations, the WHRD program opted to produce it’s a manual that is especially tailored to the Egyptian context.

In May 2011, the Women and Memory Forum has initiated the "Women & Constitution Working Group". The working group saw the light after the January 2011 Revolution and is part of the Coalition of Egyptian Feminist Organizations.  The working group has been working in coordination with the "Let's Write Our Constitution" initiative and the "Popular Committee for Constitution Writing". The "Women & Constitution Working Group" has studied gender relevant articles in Egyptian constitutions and in other countries' constitutions.

Maryam Al-Khawaja, a 24 year old woman human rights defender from Bahrain, has been doing extensive work on documenting human rights violations prior to and during the February 14th uprising in Bahrain. She is the head of international relations and advocacy officer at the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and left Bahrain in March 2011 to testify about violations in Bahrain. She has not been able to go back to Bahrain since for the fear of detention and torture.

The undersigned human rights organizations declare their utter rejection of the new draft law on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), prepared by the Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs and which aims to nationalize civil society. Under this law civil society would be considered an institution of the government, and NGO staff would be regarded as civil servants. Furthermore, the new law would impose several new arbitrary restrictions aiming to terrorize civil society activists.

This is the thought constantly running through my head.

As a human rights defender I have learned to numb my emotions and continue working. I have been working on covering human rights violations in Bahrain for more than two years now, documenting all the arbitrary arrests, systematic torture, rapes, kidnappings, extra-judicial killings; the list goes on.

Nazra for Feminist Studies invites you to attend the lecture of the activist Sussan Tahmasebi about “Iranian Women: changing Culture, Building Movements” on Wednesday 28 March at 6 pm at Nazra’s office 44, Talaat Harb st., Down Town, 8th floor.

Nazra for Feminist Studies invites you to attend a lecture by Researcher Julie Pruzan-Jørgensen , Researcher at the Danish Institute for Internatioanl Studies, to discuss her research “Islamic Women's Activism in the Arab World” which was published on February 2012. The lecture will be held on Thursday, March 15 at 6 pm at Nazra for the Feminist Studies, 44 Talaat Harb Street, 8th Floor.

The undersigned organizations today stated that the acquittal of the military doctor accused in the 'virginity testing' case did not come as a surprise, and furthermore opens the door to the prosecution of members of the military council using international mechanisms, after remedies inside Egypt have been exhausted.

The Military Regime does not Welcome Women’s Public Action and Defends Abuses on the Basis of Moral Justifications.