Lebanon: Workshop on "Masculinity and ending Violence Against Women in the Middle East and Abroad"

ABAAD-Resource Center for Gender Equality and the Swedish Institute hosted the Regional conference “Masculinity and ending Violence Against Women in the Middle East and Abroad” in Beirut, Lebanon on the 10^th and 11^th of April, 2013.

This conference centered the discussion of working on masculinities and engaging men and boys in ending Violence Against Women (VAW) around keynote speakers who are experts on this topic from around the globe: Mr. Dean Peacock- Co-director and Co-founder of the South African NGO Sonke Gender Justice Network, Mr. Gary Barker- International Director and Founder of the Brazilian NGO Promondo, and Mr. Oswaldo Montoya-MenEngage Network Global Coordinator. The experiences of ABAAD’s piloting work in working with men and boys to end VAW in Lebanon and the Middle East was also a pillar of discussions during the conference. Participants of this conference ranged from several countries in the Middle East: Iraq, Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine, Jordan, Morocco, and Lebanon.  

The conference asked the important questions, building off of the presentations of ABAAD and the keynote speakers, of what can be done in terms of programs to engage men and boys in the Middle East, what cultural considerations must organizations who wish to work with men and boys on VAW be cautious of, what components are still needed to build the capacities of NGO’s in the region who wish to engage men and boys in their work towards Gender Equality, etc. The participatory format of these discussions allowed for practical and important dialogue between experts in the field of Masculinities and activists working on programs toward women’s human rights from around the Middle East. The outputs from these discussions will not only be the basis for strategic planning for programs engaging men and boys in ending VAW in the Middle East, but will set the foundations for future networking and follow-up alliance building in the future.

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