CAROLINE BAZZI

Beirut – Resource Center for Gender Equality (ABAAD) was founded in 2012 with the aim to achieve gender equality as an essential condition to sustainable social and economic development in the MENA region. The organization has launched many campaigns since 2012.

We spoke to the founder and director of ABAAD, about the organization’s activities. Ghida Anani told us that they started their works to found the organization in 2011, “With the philosophy of “bringing multi-dimensional solutions to multi-dimensional problems,” and that they officially founded the organization in 2012.

“Men and women live as egalitarian partners and work together to secure better lives for their own future and the future of the society in which they live. Men willingly and actively participate in works for having an egalitarian society free from hegemonic masculinity and all forms of violence against women. Yes, we work with men,” pointed out Ghida Anani at the beginning of our conversation.

Ghida underlined that they kept working during the Covid-19 pandemic, “The main and most important thing we tried to do was to protect female victims of violence and to help them to hold on to life in shelters. We continued to work to provide many services for female victims of violence such as providing employment opportunities, social services, and legal aid in open and closed centers.” Ghida Anani highlighted that they used social media platforms, the digital communication methods to maintain their services. The organization keeps using social media platforms to prevent violence against women.

They pushed the government to pass the new law

Ghida Anani recalled that Lebanon passed the “Law to Criminalize Sexual Harassment and [for] Rehabilitation of Its Victims” last year.

“We launched campaigns to raise awareness about gender-based violence and to push the government to pass the new law. ABAAD is one of the organizations that pushed the government to pass the law that criminalizes sexual harassment last year.”

ABAAD has organized many workshops about safe women’s shelters and emergency hotlines in the Middle East. “We have carried out our works alongside the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Social Affairs of other countries in the Middle East,” Ghida Anani said. ABAAD launched a campaign after the Beirut port explosion. “Women are on the frontlines under all circumstances. We launched the campaign to smooth women’s ruffled feathers of being on the frontlines, too. We want to provide security not only for us but also for our city. The port explosion was a disaster in the country. It causes wounds never being healed for years. We think women can prevent this to happen again.”

Stating that violence is one of the most serious public health problems, Ghida Anani emphasized that although there are many laws about women's rights in their countries, they have less effect in daily life.

“All rights violations are the same for us. If we think there is a difference between poverty and violence, we cannot discuss all problems in detail. We think all problems in the country are problems of women and we believe that we should launch campaigns to end these problems.”

ABAAD

ABAAD, Resource Center for Gender Equality, is a UN ECOSOC accredited organization that aims to achieve gender equality as an essential condition to sustainable social and economic development in the MENA region. Its dynamic team is comprised of dedicated activists, lawyers, consultants, social workers, and researchers, who creatively test new approaches as part of a larger effort to achieve an equitable society, free of hegemonic masculinities and violence against women. It is perceived as a reliable reference and partner by the local, regional and international entities that promote gender equality, peacebuilding, and sustainable development. It has been the co-chair of the National Technical Task Force to End GBV against Women and Girls since 2012.