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MillimeterSpeaking Out
May 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Kristinha M. Anding
Kidz Online creates a documentary series about Arabic women’s success to inspire Middle Eastern youth.
Western audiences have big misconceptions about Arabic women, says Sharon Cruver of Kidz Online, a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles and Herndon, Va., that specializes in online education and awareness programs. Cruver is the executive producer of Shaqa'iq, a video project that brings the stories of successful Arabic women to Middle Eastern youth. Westerners, she says, often don't realize that many Arabic women value their education and careers.
Rouane Itani interviews an Egyptian woman while videographer Brendan Piper of Kidz Online captures the moment for video project Shaqa’iq, which means “sisters” in Arabic.
After receiving funding from the U.S. State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative, Cruver and the Kidz Online team began shooting with Panasonic AG-DVX100A cameras in Jordan and Lebanon in 2004 and in Egypt in early 2005. Cruver says one of the first challenges they faced was finding interview subjects who did not come from affluent backgrounds.
“Several women were brought up to us who had been in the news and were wonderful, but we wanted people who were a little lesser known and who came from middle-income brackets or below,” says Cruver, who explains that she wanted to find role models to whom poorer young women could relate.
Cruver points to the Egyptian documentary as a model of the program's success. The women interviewed hail from both the city and the countryside and speak of inspirations ranging from their mothers to Margaret Thatcher. They work in a wide variety of professions, from magazine editors to percussionists.
One woman, Mona, a department head of social planning, speaks about the delicate balance between religious obligation and personal accomplishment. “People, even my own relatives, said that my work is against religion, that the money is not clean. … Our work is not against Islamic principles and is not haram [forbidden by Islamic law],” she says.
Cruver found many of the women through nonprofits, including Coptic Orphans, Worldlinks Arab Region, iEARN, and the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women. Cruver also found interviewees through the Kidz Online advisory board and contacts in the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The videos and corresponding lesson plans are available online for free and via CD for schools and women's centers affiliated with the nonprofits. This September, the materials will be made available to 3,200 Jordanian schools. Kidz Online is currently working to introduce the videos to more Egyptian schools through the World Economic Forum's Egypt Education Initiative.
For more information, please visit www.kol-shaqaiq.org.
