Peer-to-Peer Activity: Storytelling
Overview
Participants share and discuss stories of experiences with gender discrimination.
Competencies
- Participants share personal examples relevant to gender equality.
- Participants articulate their responsibilities to enable women and girls to influence society.
- Participants identify positive examples of defending the rights of women and girls.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Discussion Questions
Resources
Facilitator Tips
Faith Quotes
Step-by-Step Instructions
INTRODUCTION
- Facilitator invites participants to consider occurrences of gender discrimination they have witnessed or experienced by providing a personal example, using questions to guide discussion, or sharing optional resources.
DISCUSSION
- Facilitator may use the types of questions listed under the Discussion Questions tab to encourage participants to share stories they feel are relevant.
- Optional: Facilitator may share the story of Jamila Mahdi. (Link to full story is under the Resources tab.)
Jamila Mahdi was born in a refugee camp, and her father sent her to marry one of his relatives in Iraq when she was 13 years old. After giving birth to four children, she enrolled back in school and graduated from university, now working as a human rights officer: “I hope one day that Iraq can be a country in which freedom of expression, belief and religion are respected.”
- Optional: Facilitator could refer to the 2006 fatwa of Al Azhar. (Link to a full list of recommendations is also under the Resources tab.)
“Genital circumcision is a deplorable, inherited custom . . . . There are no written grounds for this custom in the Qur’an with regard to an authentic tradition of the Prophet. The female genital circumcision practiced today harms women psychologically and physically. Therefore, the practice must be stopped in support of one of the highest values of Islam, namely to do no harm to another – in accordance with the commandment of the Prophet Mohammed ‘Accept no harm and do no harm to another.’”
CONCLUSION
- Facilitator should guide participants to share positive examples of defending the rights of women and girls and rejecting gender discrimination and stereotypes.
Discussion Questions
- Has there been a situation where you had to intervene in defense of the rights of women or girls?
- What type of discriminatory practices are more likely to occur in your experience?
- Who are the most influential actors in your respective areas of influence? How can these actors do better to ensure gender equality?
- How are families part of the problem of gender discrimination? How are families part of the solution?
- How can women and girls positively influence family and community members to defend the rights of women and girls?
Resources
- The story of Jamila Mahdi, who, after being forced to marry at 13 years old, later enrolled back in school and graduated from university.
- 2006 fatwa of Al Azhar, which stresses that “genital circumcision is a deplorable, inherited custom . . . that must be stopped.”
Facilitator Tips
- The #Faith4Rights modules are flexible and require adaptation by the facilitators before their use. Case studies related to peer-to-peer exercises in the 18 modules need to be selected by the facilitators from within the environment where the learning takes place. The #Faith4Rights toolkit is a prototype methodology that requires contextualization, based on the text of the 18 commitments, context, and additional supporting documents.
- Not all issues raised need to be resolved. This would be an impossible and even a counterproductive target. The aim is rather to enhance critical thinking and communication skills, admitting that some questions could receive many answers, depending on numerous factors.
- Tensions may occur during discussions related to “faith” and “rights.” Most of these tensions are due to human interpretations. Learning sessions are spaces for constructive dialogue in a dynamic process where tensions can be reduced with the help of clear methodologies, including pre-emptive situation analysis and evidence of positive results in areas of intersectionality between faith and rights.
- When preparing the sessions, facilitators need to factor in the profile, age, and backgrounds of participants. Focused attention on the learning objectives can transform tensions into constructive exploration of new ideas.
- Meaningful engagement requires democratically pre-established rules. Facilitators should dedicate time with participants to elaborate these rules together at the outset and act all along the training as their custodians.
- The time frames suggested in this #Faith4Rights toolkit are merely indicative. Facilitators may adapt them freely to suit the needs of their group of participants. The key balance is between respecting the overall time frame while not cutting short a positive exchange momentum.
- To ensure optimal and sustainable benefit, facilitators may create a “training notebook” for participants during their peer-to-peer learning sessions. It would contain a compilation of templates to help participants keep track of what they have learned throughout the program and eventually use this notebook as their personalized follow-up tool.
- When technically feasible, facilitators are also advised to project the module under discussion on screen in order to alternate between discussions thereon and showing the audio-visual materials listed in each module or any other items selected by the facilitator.
Faith Quotes
- “A man should respect his wife more than he respects himself and love her as much as he loves himself.” (Talmud, Yebamot, 62,b)
- “Never will I allow to be lost the work of any one among you, whether male or female; for you are of one another.” (Qu’ran 3, 195)
- “O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.” (Qu’ran 49:13)
- “In the image of God He created him male and female. He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
- “The best among you is he who is best to his wife.” (Hadith)
- “It is a woman who is a friend and partner for life. It is woman who keeps the race going. How may we think low of her of whom are born the greatest. From a woman a woman is born: none may exist without a woman.” (Guru Granth Sahib, p. 473)
- “The world of humanity is possessed of two wings – the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength the bird will not fly. Until womankind reaches the same degree as man, until she enjoys the same arena of activity, extraordinary attainment for humanity will not be realized.” (‘Abdu’l-Baha)
- “A comprehensive, holistic and effective approach to capacity-building should aim to engage influential leaders, such as traditional and religious leaders […]” (Joint general recommendation No. 31 of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on harmful practices)