Lebanon: KAFA

In keeping with its yearly tradition of marking the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign, KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation will be holding a series of events to on the topic of gender-based violence in various locations around Lebanon.

The purpose of these events is to increase awareness of the impact of violence against women, to celebrate a woman's strength to survive and to provide another avenue for her to courageously break the silence that often surrounds her experience. For the first time in Lebanon, Kafa will be introducing The Clothesline Project, which is a visual display of shirts with graphic messages and illustrations that have been designed by women survivors of violence or by someone who loves a woman who has been killed. The shirts are then hung on a clothesline to be viewed by others in the form of a mobile exhibition as testimony to the problem of violence against women.

KAFA will also continue with the Silent Witness Exhibition, which is a series of silhouettes representing women who have been killed in acts of family or domestic violence, each of whose story is recorded on her silhouette.

These exhibits will be accompanied by debates and discussion sessions focusing on the legal dimensions of violence against women, and calling on the government to assume its responsibility in protecting women suffering from violence within the family. The 16 Days campaign 2007 will therefore act as a precursor to the launching of a long-term campaign to push for the legislation of protection of women from family violence.