As the Women’s Voices Now Festival rapidly approaches, many outlets have been promoting our events and featuring our filmmakers!
“I think it’s very important to recognize that we are all human beings and that there are valuable perspectives from every culture.”
-Artist Shepard Fairey, in reference to the Women’s Voices Now Benefit Party for which he donated a suite of sold out prints.
Cairo360 is a multi-award winning online magazine which serves as the definitive guide to living in Africa’s biggest capital. The site carries reviews and features of all the latest venues Cairo has to offer from restaurants and nightspots to art galleries and shopping. Cairo 360 also provides a comprehensive guide to events and cinema listings, as well as ideas for traveling on weekends. During the time leading up to our Film Festival in Los Angeles, Cairo360 will be reviewing our six Egyptian submissions. Watch the films, and check out some Cairo based reviews!
Noteworthy Blogs and News Announcements for the Month of January
To learn the real stories of Muslim women, they must come from the women themselves. As such, the University of Michigan-Dearborn is hosting Women’s Voices from the Muslim World–a two-part film festival that aims to shed light on issues of importance to Muslim women everywhere. The festival will take place Jan. 27 from 4-9 p.m. and comes from the relatively new nonprofit Women’s Voices Now. Based in New York, the organization strives to tell women’s stories and fight sex-based discrimination and oppression.
This month not only did we create a buzz in the press with our collection of short films from Women’s Voices from the Muslim Word, but media outlets have been increasingly promoting our events and fundraising campaigns!
In an interview for VOANEWS with Shirley Griffith and Steve Ember, Catinca Tabacaru discusses WVN’s project on Women’s Voices from the Muslim World: A Short-Film Festival. Tabacaru states: “There’s so much work being done in Muslim majority countries and by Muslim women outside of those countries for women’s rights. There is a social movement happening and that’s what we wanted to get behind.”
“Catinca Tabacaru says the festival is the first to show a group of films about women who are in some way touched by Islam. She says it was especially important that some movies pay attention to the successes of Muslim women.”
You can follow the continued discussion of Women in Muslim World and various short-film submissions in VOA interview: Executive Director and General Counsel, Catinca Tabacaru in VOANEWS.COM
Each month Women’s Voices Now is receiving more and more press coverage. November has been the organization’s most successful month yet. WVN was featured by media outlets around the world for its work with women’s rights through short-film. The following is a list of noteworthy mentions.
(ARTICLE) Dalia Odeh, first time filmmaker from Jordan and filmmaker in competition in Women’s Voices from the Muslim World: A Short-Film Festival, discusses her feelings about making a documentary addressing the abuse that women suffer in many Muslim and Arab countries in the name of “family honor.” It is quite appropriate, then, that she asked the question which is also the title of her film, “Is This Honor?” It was vital that she bring this issue to all our attention. Too many women suffer abuse, rape and murder, most by people with whom they are familiar and that leaves us with one more question: Why do we let this happen?
(ARTICLE & RADIO) An online competition is now open for what’s being called the first-ever international showcase of short films about Islam and women. The films focus on women of all faiths and backgrounds who are living in Muslim-majority countries, as well as Muslim women living as minorities around the world. The festival’s lineup hasn’t been finalized yet. Digital film entries are still being accepted in an online competition that runs through November 24 of this year and is open to filmmakers of all genders and backgrounds.