2022 Convening

MENA Women: Addressing Violence and Post-COVID Challenges
&
Differing Narratives, a Shared Future

Athens, Greece ~ September 2022

After not being able to meet for two years, FGW brought together more than 42 women leaders for an in-person convening in Athens, Greece, in September. Like many organizations around the world, we were unable to travel in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic. Elected leaders, activists, and academicians from Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and the US took part, and for the first time, we also had a participant from Libya. For five days, we heard from keynote speakers and panelists on two primary topics: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the rise of gender-based violence in the MENA region as a result of the pandemic.

Photos

Keynote Speakers

Cheryl Thomas

Global Rights for Women

United States

Nouzha Skalli

Former Minister of Social Development, Family, and Solidarity

Morocco

Angela Panayiotou

Feminist Entrepreneur

Greece

Topics

During Forward Global Women’s ninth annual convening consisted of keynote speakers, roundtable discussions, and panels about the two topics of the convening, as well as focused on work done for the Rula Quawas Scholarship, may she rest in peace.

MENA Women: Addressing Violence and Post-COVID Challenges

MENA Women: Addressing Violence and Post-COVID Challenges

The primary topic of the 2022 convening was the growing incidence and response to violence against women in the MENA region. Statistics reveal that the pandemic exacerbated the problem as families were forced into isolation and all social activities put on hold. The evolving movement to end violence against women was also discussed with nuances of differing perspectives and work being done from the MENA region and beyond.

Differing Narratives, a Shared Future

The secondary topic of the 5-day convening was about, Differing Narratives, a Shared Future.

A significant portion of this year’s convening was devoted to a frank and open discussion about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Participants from both Israel and Palestine presented their narratives, while also hearing from other participants from around the world about the impact the conflict has on the region.

Rula Quawas Scholarship

FGW also once again awarded the Rula Quawas Scholarship in honor of one of our founders who passed away in 2018. Recipients for 2022 were Liat Daudi from Israel and Zineb Rabouj from Morocco who did a joint paper entitled Cultures Beyond Nations: Visualizing Trans-Culturalism, Female Agency and Peacemaking in the Movie Orange People.