Background and Rationale
The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s Regional Gender and Feminism Office and the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut are collaborating on developing a “Feminist Manifesto” to strengthen the feminist movement in the MENA region.
Through the process of developing the manifesto, we aim to build solidarity, consensus, and sisterhood among participating feminist activists and organizations from across the MENA region, while also highlighting the non-homogeneous and diverse realities of the movement. The manifesto will curate feminist conversations that will take place under the project about developments in the movement (e.g., discourses, analysis, strategies, and tactics), the claims and values that feminists in the region share as well as the various forms of tensions within the movement and the complexities of its demands and aspirations.
Both FES and the Asfari Institute agree to provide a safe and explicitly non-patriarchal space that will be intersectional and inclusive as well as a space that will honor the continuum of feminist activism in the region.
The process will begin with hosting virtual meetings with feminists from all backgrounds. All the discussions will be documented and later curated to form the manifesto. The process will also include information gathering through desk reviews throughout the duration of the project.
Target groups
Feminist organizations and activists as well as feminist scholars and students
Timeframe
January-November 2022
Activities
- Conducting scoping, mapping, and typology of emerging feminist movements during the last three years (related to revolutions, pandemics, and economic downfall).
Output:
• Research report
• Summary
• Infographics - Conducting monthly virtual meetings (3 meetings) with up to 10 feminist groups from the region.
Output:
• Reports of meetings
• Communication material on key messages
• 1st outline of feminist manifesto by end of March 2022. - Collecting daily social media messages from feminists in the MENA region during the global 16 days of gender-based violence campaign (November 26 till December 10, 2021).
- Conducting 8 virtual meetings- 1 per month (Up to 10 feminists per meeting): Each meeting will bring up to 10 feminists from the region to discuss the purpose, process, and key axis of the Feminist Manifesto as well as who will contribute to it and how it will be used as a platform for collective advocacy.
Output:
• Meeting recording
• Meeting minutes
• Meeting action points. - Conducting write shops (2) to draft Feminist Manifesto (July-August 2022). The write shops will compile, review and consolidate the text and elements of the Feminist Manifesto.
Output:
• Draft Feminist Manifesto. - Performing a call in order to collect up to 20 feminist blogs. Based on the outline of the Feminist Manifesto, the Asfari Institute will open a call for young feminists in the MENA region to contribute Blogs and reflection papers on subjects related to Feminist Manifesto. The blog will be published on Asfari’s and FES’s websites.
Output:
• 20 blogs - Conducting a social media campaign for feminist future in the MENA region. The Asfari Institute team with the support of the consultant will design a trilingual social media campaign to promote Feminist Manifesto among diverse audiences.
Output:
• Branding of Feminist Manifesto
• Producing various forms of communication material (Social Media posts and pictures+ engaging audiences in real-time). - Conducting 2 podcasts a month of feminists from the region. We will host feminist activists from the region to promote and discuss the Feminist Manifesto and to encourage other feminists to engage in the conversation.
Output:
• Two podcasts a month, also housed on the Feminist Manifesto page on the Asfari Institute website, the Political Feminism website of FES, and SOWT’s website (www.sowt.com). - Launching the Feminist Manifesto through virtual events and global virtual launches of global feminist networks (November 2022).
Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship
American University of Beirut

More Info
BEIRUT
PO Box 11-0236
Riad El Solh, 1107 2020
Beirut, Lebanon
Tel: +961-1-350000 EXT. 4469
NEW YORK
The Debs Center, 3 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 8th floor
New York, NY 10017-2303, USA
Tel: 1-212-583-7600