#EnaZeda,The Birth of a Movement Against Sexual Harassment in Tunisia

Date: 

Wednesday, January 8, 2020, 5:30pm to 7:30pm

Location: 

Tunisia Office Center for Middle Eastern Studies Harvard Université Immeuble Slim, Rue de l’Euro, Les jardins du Lac II, Tunis

ena_zeda-panel_discussion-affiche-_jan_8-2020

The Tunisia Office of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University is pleased to invite you to a panel discussion around: #EnaZeda, The Birth of a Movement Against Sexual Harassment in Tunisia

With Panelists:

NAWREZ ELLAFI, Campaign Officer of #Enazeda, and Aswat Nissa

RANIA SAID, Ph.D Candidate in Comparative Literature, Moderator at #Enazeda

And Guest Discussant:

KMAR BENDANA, Professor of Intellectual History at the University of Tunis

Panel Moderator: LAURA THOMPSON, Ph.D Candidate in Anthropology and the Study of Religion at Harvard University

#EnaZeda is an emergent and spontaneous movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault in Tunisia. The movement initially started in the social media sphere, in October 2019, as a local appropriation of the international #MeToo movement. It seeks to to support survivors of sexual assault and break the silence around sexual violence in Tunisian society by offering digital platforms where testimonies can be posted personally or anonymously, and debated. In less than two months, the moderators of the #EnaZeda platform have received, cleared and posted more than five hundred stories of sexual abuse. Social activists, lawyers, psychologists, journalists, academics and artists have expressed public support for the movement. For this discussion, Nawrez Ellafi, #Enazeda campaign officer, and Rania Said, #EnaZeda group moderator, are invited to present the movement, the context of its inception, their experience in managing the flow of testimonies, the challenges they have met, and the campaign’s initial outcomes and future goals. Professor Kmar Bendana, historian of contemporary Tunisia and guest discussant, will ground this nascent movement within the broader history of feminist and human rights movements in Tunisia.

About the panelists:

Kmar Bendana has been Professor of Modern History at University of Manouba, and research fellow at the Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain since 1993. Her research focuses on the history of the press and cinema, and on intellectual life and production in colonial and post-colonial Tunisia. She coordinates the publication of a number of Tunisian academic journals: Watha’iq, Correspondances, IBLA, Rawafid. Her publications include: Chronique d’une transition, (2012); History and culture in contemporary Tunisia (2015).

Nawrez Ellafi is Campaign Officer of #EnaZeda and Aswat Nissa (Voices of Women), a non-profit organization advocating for gender equality in public policy in Tunisia. She holds a Master’s degree in biotechnology from Monastir University, and is a member of the feminist organization, Horra. She served as trainer within the League for the Political Rights of Women in 2016. She is also an alumna of the Political Academy for Women organized by Aswat Nissa in 2017.

Rania Said is a PhD candidate in comparative literature at the State University of New York at Binghamton and an agrégée from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Tunis. Her research focuses on women's testimonial writing in the aftermath of the Arab Uprising. She is currently a doctoral assistant at the Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention.

ADMISSION FREE