Short films make young Arab women’s stories visibleHow being seen and heard helped them realise their experiences matter

In her short film, made during SAT-7 media workshops for young Arab women, Gina explores how invisibility becomes a means of self-protection. All the films are deeply personal and all point to a wider reality faced by many women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Across the region, women and girls continue to navigate restrictive expectations around behaviour, appearance, mobility and public life. Through its Gender Equality and Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) project, SAT-7 is helping young Arab women to think critically about these issues and recognise that their experiences matter.

Following the success of the project’s media workshops last year, the initiative ran again this year with a new group of 15 young women aged 18 to 21 from different parts of Egypt and Sudan. Through workshops – titled “Filmmaking and Self-Expression for Women” – held between February and May, participants explored storytelling, photography and filmmaking while examining their own experiences and the assumptions that shape their lives.

A key part of the program involved encouraging participants to think critically about inherited beliefs, cultural expectations and social norms.

“Many of them shared stories and then when they were told to elaborate, they were surprised because they did not think that their individual experiences mattered,” said Project Lead Maggie Morgan.

“Some said that they had never had a chance to be heard before. And not just to be heard, but to be told that their stories were ‘film-worthy’ and ‘broadcast-worthy’.”

Although each participant created a different film, common themes quickly emerged, notably around invisibility and not attracting attention.

Cecilia highlights racism and exclusion, and how covering up is a way of avoiding discrimination and harassment. “Am I ugly?” she asks in her film. “Is my skin colour ugly too?”

For Nermin, the focus is on expectations surrounding womanhood and marriage. “It’s always the same sentence,” she says. “‘Wait until after marriage.’ As if there’s a whole life waiting for me there. But I’m still here.”

Meanwhile, Jasmine’s film examines the messages she has absorbed since childhood: “Be quiet. Shame on you. Straighten your back. Don’t laugh too loudly. Be gentle. Men don’t like strong women. Be obedient. Say yes.”

Though different in tone and subject matter, the films reveal a shared journey. And all ask the same underlying question: who or what gets to decide how a young woman lives her life?

For Maggie, that was significant. “Women still feel the weight of oppression in this day and age and what was striking for me is that, for a number of the participants, invisibility is the road to safety. Resistance to this oppression means being seen and that means feeling unsafe.”

As well as having the opportunity to turn their personal experiences into short films, the workshops featured other activities to help the participants consider their surroundings, reflect on their own lives and learn from one another.

One activity invited them to explore a typical Cairo neighbourhood, photographing moments of community, connection and female empowerment. Another encouraged them to wear clothes they genuinely loved and take part in a photoshoot together on the streets.

The exercise became something more than a photography session; in Maggie’s words, it became “an act of defiant joy.”

“It was empowering,” she says. “All of them chose to wear skirts and dresses. It was an exercise of getting rid of shame. One of them said, ‘I could never leave my home wearing this dress even though I love it.’ The irony is that the dress was neither revealing nor potentially provocative in any way.”

“These things may seem trivial but small details – like what women feel they can and can’t wear – are telling. And sometimes change begins with small steps.”

The Gender Equality and FoRB project is implemented by SAT-7 Egypt in partnership with the Norwegian Mission Society and supported by DIGNI. Read more about it here.