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A collection of original short plays that focus on sexual harassment and assault in Egypt, by debut Egyptian playwrights
These five original short plays, written by Egyptian students from the American University in Cairo in collaboration with Jillian Campana and Dina Amin, mark the first published plays in Egypt that deal directly with sexual harassment. Sexual crimes are not limited to the workplace or the street—they happen everywhere, from the bedroom to the café, in shops, on modes of transportation, and in businesses, homes, outdoor areas, and educational and religious institutions. They can be perpetrated by a stranger, acquaintance, friend, family member, or loved one and they can encompass many different types of sexual violence, including verbal, non-verbal, physical, or visual violence.
This collection breaks social taboos by offering dramatic texts that reflect the reality of survivors of sexual harassment from multiple perspectives—families and couples, bystanders, victims and perpetrators, men and women. Many of the women portrayed in these plays are independent, educated, and well to do, but they are all subjected to varying degrees of sexual harassment and violence. Accompanied with narrative commentary that places the events in context, these plays and the issues they explore seek to challenge dominant perceptions about sexual harassment in the region and to shine light on the power imbalances and disparities that give rise to it. They will be of interest to artists, social science researchers, educators, and anyone interested in the issue of sexual harassment, and collaborative theater processes.
Playwrights: Yehia Abdelghan, Marwan Abdelmoneim, Nour El Captan, Passant Faheem, Nour Ibrahim, Noran Morsi, and Omar Omar
The research on which this book is based was awarded the Times Higher Education 2023 MENA Award for Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Performances of these plays are royalty free.
"Tackling such topics as consent, psychological trauma, patriarchal attitudes, and the repercussions of speaking out, five sharply honed, open-ended 10-minute plays . . . . transcending easy labels like 'theatre for social action' and 'theatre in education,' they exist in a category of their own."—Critical Stages/Scènes critiques
"The first published plays in Egypt that deal directly with sexual harassment."—Al Ahram
"This book is a brilliant engagement with the issue of gender-based violence in the private sphere, one of the most difficult challenges that societies all over the world contend with."— Hoda Elsadda, Cairo University, and co-founder and Chair of the Board of the Women and Memory Forum, from the foreword
Foreword: The Problem and the Project
Hoda ElSadda
Sexual Harassment in Egypt and Using Theater as a Way Forward
Jillian Campana and Dina Amin
The Plays and Their Introductions
Introductions and dramaturgy by Jillian Campana and Dina Amin
Forget Him by Nour El Captan
See Me by Nour Ibrahim and Omar Omar
The Report by Noran Morsi
When We Met by Marwan Abdelmoneim and Passant Faheem
What Do You Know? by Yehia Abdelghany
Bibliography