0:00:15.360,0:00:22.111
Exploring Taboos

0:00:23.954,0:00:29.520
My name is Ramy Raoof and I am working with Nazra for Feminist Studies as media consultant

0:00:29.520,0:00:34.120
I’m Mozn Hasan, the Executive Director of Nazra for Femininst Studies

0:00:34.120,0:00:37.600
My name is Fatma Emam, a researcher with Nazra for Feminist Studies

0:00:37.600,0:00:44.408
The idea of the Exploring Taboos project simply came to us because we, as the Nazra team, have ideas and specific principles.

0:00:44.408,0:00:48.718
During the time that we’re trying to work on these subjects,

0:00:48.718,0:00:54.465
we search for others in the surrounding society to see who else believes in the same ideas

0:00:54.465,0:01:00.891
And we were thinking about how to find other people to discuss with them about topics that are often taboo

0:01:00.891,0:01:04.120
and how we can help them to express their opinion by using different tools

0:01:04.120,0:01:14.397
Our opinion within the Nazra team is that we must speak about things that nobody speaks about, issues that the civil society, governorates, foundations,

0:01:14.397,0:01:18.498
and research centers in Egypt do not speak about

0:01:18.498,0:01:22.080
we saw that nobody speaks about taboos.

0:01:22.080,0:01:32.891
The most important things that people discuss is their strong opinion about topics related to religion or gender

0:01:32.891,0:01:35.520
and the issues related to general sexual culture

0:01:35.520,0:01:44.120
We thought that in order to start to break these taboo, we must try to explore the taboo and to try to know the taboo

0:01:44.120,0:01:51.040
and to know about the background that makes it forbidden to speak about

0:01:51.040,0:02:01.880
The first round in Exploring Taboos project was comprised of four participants who decided to create their own blogs

0:02:01.880,0:02:06.880
My name is Nawara Magdy Belal

0:02:06.880,0:02:11.880
I joined the first round of the Exploring Taboos project

0:02:11.880,0:02:19.520
for me, the idea was very interesting because I do not work in a feminist organization

0:02:19.520,0:02:30.440
but all of my life, I thought about topics we normally don’t speak about with people except for in internal discussions

0:02:30.440,0:02:33.040
From the beginning, we had the idea to gather men and women with one another

0:02:33.040,0:02:39.074
in order to give them the chance to speak about things they don’t speak about!

0:02:39.582,0:02:49.240
The idea is that one is trying to break through the ground to find something underneath, it’s the same here

0:02:49.240,0:02:54.120
You’re not only trying to give people some principles

0:02:54.120,0:02:59.958
But you face culture and long lasting traditions. And other ideas that have been built in their minds all their lives.

0:02:59.958,0:03:02.960
And other ideas that cannot be changed easily

0:03:02.960,0:03:08.200
I posted in my blog and one of the posts was titled "I Am Not an Asexual Creature"

0:03:08.200,0:03:18.478
which is my expression of a person who was passing through difficult circumstances related to my weight

0:03:18.478,0:03:29.520
and it also represented me and my sexual and emotional needs

0:03:29.520,0:03:34.160
and how i deal with this and how other people deal with the same issues

0:03:34.160,0:03:44.026
Twitter was the first website that allows for micro blogging since it was launched in 2006

0:03:44.026,0:03:54.580
the idea is simply to give the user the chance to publish news or information in 140 characters

0:03:54.580,0:04:02.600
and there are also other websites that allow for 200 character limit like Watwat.

0:04:02.600,0:04:11.960
The Nazra team is very caring and stands behind the participants through technical and information support

0:04:11.960,0:04:21.400
we are always discussing with youth and with the participants by exploring taboos

0:04:21.400,0:04:27.000
by discussion of any topic without any worries from themselves or society

0:04:27.000,0:04:33.480
Exploring Taboos is not a project with specific dates or funding dates

0:04:33.480,0:04:40.080
This project will be always a safe space for all interested people to come and share their ideas