CAIRO: Talk can be cheap, but for the participants of the Bussy Project performance, talking means having the courage to speak up.
In a performance exclusively for the American University in Cairo (AUC) community, about a dozen women and a couple of men acted out real stories submitted to the Bussy Project (the word is Arabic, meaning telling a woman to look). The stories ranged from accounts of abuse and harassment to personal commentary on life, motherhood and self-discovery. Some comic sketches addressed cross-cultural interaction and common misconceptions and hypocrisies.
One of the multiple aims of this performance, explains project head and AUC student Naz Halima Khan, is to create a safe space for women who wanted to share their stories but didn t know where they could do it.
Preparation for the performance started when the project founders expressed a wish to present a local, more culturally related version of the controversial “Vagina Monologues. The latter had yielded negative criticism to the university administration and the students who presented the play. This time around, instead of using terms and narrations irrelevant to or distant from the Egyptian community, the organizers opted for real stories by local writers.
They posted flyers asking members of the AUC community to share their stories and thoughts on women-related issues. The submissions, as evident in the performance, represented different backgrounds, affiliations and cultures. The voices of Egyptians, Arabs, foreigners, refugees, Muslims, Copts, young, old, liberals and conservatives were all there.
The stories were performed as they were written and as the reality that was experienced by the writers, says Khan, like rape; it is a very ugly experience. It is dirty, it s disgusting, it s ugly, it s violating. so if someone has done that to you, you shouldn t be afraid to say that something bad was done.
Yet, by talking about issues the society happily labels as taboo, the safe circle the performance organizers wanted to create for women to speak up became less safe than expected. With a public performance, the probability of criticism increased.
I didn t know how the play would be received by the student body, or the community, particularly with the mixed feelings that came after ‘The Vagina Monologues’ were performed, explains Caitlin Cima, a study abroad student at AUC.
But Cima, like other participants, was not discouraged by these concerns.
“It s not fair to women that we keep ignoring what happens to them because it makes us uncomfortable in someway; [that is] the one thing that made me really committed to this play, says Ethar El-Katatney, one of the participants.
After the play, in one of the AUC student publications, El Katateny wrote, What I don t understand is what s wrong with us bringing these issues out in the open. Why do people think that talking about these issues is worse than the issues themselves, or as one of the actors put it: I can t believe that someone could be more insulted by me, saying a swear word with a sexual connotation onstage, than in the fact that hundreds of men are saying it to women all over the city.
Their confidence in the material at hand and the importance of presenting paid off; they received a hail of positive feedback from the AUC community.
But when preparations were still in their early stages, the organizers worried that a performance would not have much effect on its own.
We don t want it to be something temporary, says Khan, we want this to be long lasting, and as many people to get involved as possible. As she explains, they wanted to raise awareness to create positive change.
At this point, Khan and other organizers decided to form a student-run activity concerned with human rights, and the Bussy Project was born.
The main goal of the project is to just create positive change in whatever way you feel you can contribute best, explains Khan. For some people it is raising awareness, for some people it is having a conversation, and for some it is all about speaking up, she adds.
The plan is to facilitate communication between off-campus organizations and students to create volunteer opportunities. It doesn t have to be fieldwork, explains project member Menan Omar, students could provide required research for NGO work.
The project also aims at initiating collaboration with different activities; they organized an eventful week of films discussing women-related issues. They even worked with the on-campus Egyptology club co-organizing a lecture about ancient Egypt s powerful women.
As one of the goals of the play, the project aims to encourage people to exert an effort, regardless of its size. Even a small contribution can make a difference. The project stresses that volunteers don t have to be professionals to make a change; the performance team wasn t made of professionals and yet they enjoyed success; the team was mainly amateurs with the majority appearing onstage for the first time.
According to the different participants, they have witnessed change, at least on the personal level. Khan and Omar say many people approached them after the play and announced their intention to speak up about incidents of abuse or seek counseling.
Reham Abdul Aleem, studying for a Master s degree in English modern drama, says her participation in the performance and the project has motivated her to consider adopting women rights as a part of [her] future.
Cima also points to the change she has experienced. As a foreign woman, I was prone to putting my head down and moving on quickly whenever I was harassed on the street. I was under the impression that it wasn t my place to be angry if I received unwanted approaches or catcalls; because I was different, I must not [appear as if I understand] what is being said, or I must have brought it upon myself. But after participating in this play, I realized that this does not happen in isolated incidents, to foreign women only; rather, this happens without prejudice to all women.
Listening to the stories of the women portrayed in the play, even of the fellow actresses, made me realize that I shouldn t feel ashamed when things like this happen to me. The only way they can be solved is if they are approached head on, and addressed, she adds.
