Feminist e-activism in the age of pandemic: Virtual cultural engagement with the Street Girls in Egypt

Description

This paper discusses new forms of feminist creativity through e-activism that materialised as a response to the pandemic. Seeking alternatives ways for feminist-inspired research in the age of Covid-19 and beyond, this paper discusses a model for virtual cultural engagement connected to resilience building and illustrates in what ways it can help a group of young women from disadvantaged communities develop coping mechanisms during the crisis. We will draw on the Street Girls project case study, run by Hope Village Society, an Egyptian non-profit organization founded in Cairo in 1988. The organisation's role is to offer pastoral and financial support for young mothers and neglected girls deprived of family care. Over the past few years, working in collaboration with the HVS, we have engaged in development of a series of crafts-based workshops for street-based young women from Alexandria, offering craft-based training as well as personal skills development. The wide reaching effects of pandemic and the economic impact have had a particularly negative effect on gender equality, widening the gender gap across these women’s communities, already precarious before the pandemic.
The paper discussed the impact of a two weeks long, green crafts recycling workshops, adapting virtual cultural facilitation methodology structured around non-formal education techniques, to provide a timely pilot analysis of how virtual formats of cultural engagement can help street-based young women build resilience, develop coping mechanisms and emerge stronger from crisis.

Period	24 Sept 2021
Event title	Feminism(s) in the Age of Covid-19 and Beyond Conference
Event type	Conference
Degree of Recognition	International