| Event Model #2: “Al Maw’oudah - Interfaith Solidarity against Honor Killing” |
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 Summary: Ahmad, a young Jordanian activist, organized an evening interfaith gathering at a café in his hometown of Irbid to discuss the challenge of so-called “honor killings” that impact both the Muslim and Christian communities. He and a veteran women’s rights advocate presented on the taboo issue to a diverse group of students (evenly divided by gender and religion) and then moderated an open discussion among participants. Below are excerpts from Ahmed’s report:
Challenge Addressed: In Jordanian society, both the Muslim and Christian communities have seen examples of “honor” crimes, where men kill female relatives suspected of “impure” behavior. They think they are reclaiming the family’s honor, but they are committing murder. For various reasons, including pressure from some tribal leaders, the Jordanian government does not punish these killings like any other murder.
Participants: 21 people, 15 of them students. Among the students there were 6 Christians. 4 of these students were men. The rest of the people were activists that we have invited personally. I had a volunteer partner (Anas from Amman) who helped organize and promote the event. This was very helpful: He and three close friends of his helped put up promotional posters and set up the room.
Event Description: We met at the Via Pia café in Irbid, a space where we could speak openly. I spoke along with Inam El-Asha, a women's rights activist working on honor killing for more than ten years. I introduced the issue to the audience and then shared incidents from my efforts to address the problem. I used a power point presentation, which the audience found interesting. The students asked many interesting questions. Mrs. El-Asha spoke about the social and religious dimensions of the issue. She laments that the issue is still a social taboo that people tend to avoid. She also focused on the issue that people still think that this problem only affects Muslims in Jordan although also Christian families have suffered from it. She greeted the Christian students who came to the event. The event concluded with a 45 minute discussion session where we sat among the students and answered their questions and shared stories with them.
Benchmarks: (1) One expert speaker; (2) 10 students; (3) Recruit five students for a campaign against honor killing. We had two expert speakers and an audience of 21. At least eight students showed interest in working with me on the LA-HA.org campaign I started against honor killing. So we achieved the numeric benchmarks. Also, the interaction between the audience and the speakers – with many questions asked – showed how much interested in the issue we generated.
Lessons Learned: If we had more time before the event we would have had larger audience. I think next time we will start earlier to prepare for the event. Another thing is that we lacked connection with people from the media. We will be working on this for future events.
Budget:
$100 - Room and equipment rental (microphone, projector, etc.)
$80 - Refreshments
$70 - Transportation for speaker from Amman
Is This a Model Event?
Not every society in the Middle East has the same problem of honor killing. But each definitely has social issues that cross sectarian boundaries. I think discussing taboo social challenges is actually a great way to bring people of different religious backgrounds together. Even as the topic may be difficult, you are still building common ground. Here is what you need to do an event like this:
- Identify a good issue for your discussion.
- Recruit an expert on the topic who can speak to young people about it in a professional way.
- Get a few friends, ideally of different backgrounds, to help organize the event and promote it in their communities.
- Find a space for the discussion where you can be open and speak without interference. A café can be very good for this, especially if they have a private room you can reserve.
- Begin the discussion with a professional presentation, and make sure to set the ground-rules for having a respectful dialogue.
- Watch the audience to see which people seem particularly moved by the issue. Announce that you are looking for people to help work on the issue, and make sure to get the contact information of interested people before they go home.
- Ideally have a next event already planned that you can announce at the first event, in order to keep the momentum going.
Reviewers' Comments:
All social movements begin with courageous efforts to build awareness and turn what has been normative to many people into a moral matter. It would be nice to know more about how the event impacted those who were present. This event contributed to interfaith understanding by recognizing that both religions condemn this act as a crime, yet both communities are tainted by it. Future organizers should follow the example provided, particularly bringing a specialist speaker. The organizer involved an expert with a long history of work in the area help to debunk myths. Also, it was good that the discussion had an interdisciplinary approach, rather than taking one narrow viewpoint of the issue.
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