Disobedient girl 

“Let’s hail a civilization in a country where:

15 religious sects control me

18 sects denounce me

I am called a recalcitrant, disobedient and spinster

A video by @Michelle&Noelkeserwany”

For as long as the world can remember, women all over have experienced abuse in one way or the other. Even though we do not live in the time of burning women alive at the stake, we still live in a time where women constantly have to fear for their safety, sanity, and wellbeing. We still live in a time where some women have to fight for their basic human rights, where some even fight just to be heard and understood. In fact, some women and young girls face constant abuse till this day, some even die and it goes unheard of because it was never reported or documented.

Throughout history, various communities around the world have allowed men to take control and when they did, they continuously told women to ‘Shut Up’ and stay silent. In 2018 journalists Maddie Oatman and Julia B.Chan of MotherJones.com wrote an article titled ” Men Have Been Telling Women to Shut Up for at Least 3,000 Years”. That same year, the Harvard Business Review published a report titled, ” How Managers, Coworkers, and HR Pressure Women to Stay Silent About Harassment” written by Dulini Fernando and Ajnesh Prasad.

Again in 2018, The Seattle Times published an article titled “Why We Stay Silent After Sexual Assault” written by Callie H. Burt, she writes that almost 25 % of women who have experienced some sort of assault stay silent, why you ask? as Burt puts it, ” Because girls are taught to be agreeable, to make others feel good, to care about their feelings, and practice decorum”. So, when that one girl shows up and says “No, thank you” “No I will not do that”, she is called ‘disobedient’ and no one wants to deal with a ‘disobedient’ girl, that wild horse that no one can tame. 

In Lebanon it is a whole other ball game. Kafa.org.lb in association with Michelle & Noelkeserwany illustrate this in a beautiful video showcasing what women in Lebanon have to face when it comes to speaking out, even if they do come forward to report abuse there is no unified non-secular law that protects them. Kafas campaign is calling for a unified law for all women in Lebanon that protects and serves them. Later this year Speak Trauma will be heading over to Lebanon to share these stories with the world so that the healing can begin and so that others step up and speak their truth too.and so that others step up and speak their truth too.