Associate researcher at Sharq.Org Yara Al Chehayed speaks about her experiences producing the oral history collection ‘Taboos & Society’ and facilitating the development of Collectiva Shamila, the group of women and youths who collaborated to research and document the impact of taboos on development in the Arab region and whose thoughts and findings are published on this platform, aptly named Taboohat.
Hello. My name is Yara Al Chehayed. In my role as an associate researcher at Sharq.Org, I conducted interviews about taboos and societal development with women in different countries of the Arab region. The women were among the members of a collective initiated and nurtured by Sharq.Org in collaboration with Alexandra Sandels Firma and the Swedish Institute.
In addition to facilitating the weekly meetings during which Collectiva members brainstormed and developed ideas and content for Tabohat.org, I enjoyed the privilege of speaking with some of the members one on one and exploring their individual experiences and thoughts about taboos, particularly those that they feel impact development in their country. The interviews were published together as a collection named ‘Taboos & Society’ published on the oral history platform Tarikhi.Org.
The interviewees include civil society activists and actors who are currently working in very challenging contexts, be it: the wars and conflicts in Yemen, Libya, and Syria; the multifaceted crisis in Lebanon that is leaving its toll on the most marginalised, among them migrant workers, refugees and queers; the instability in Iraq or the Amazigh identity long oppressed in Morocco.
The interviews were conducted in Arabic and so we produced this podcast in English to present non-Arabic-speakers with an overview of some of the concepts and experiences shared by our interviewees. You can however read full transcripts of the interviews in English, as well as the original Arabic, at Tarikhi.org
While listening to the experiences of the interviewees as I spoke with them, I felt somehow as though I was part of their journey, filled with microstories, challenges, and the little and big wins. I learned more about their contexts, demystifying stereotypes, deconstructing taboos, and taking a closer look at how various social taboos impose a heavy weight on their daily lives.
A photo on social media pushed one woman in Iraq to move from her village because it was considered taboo for her to have exposed her face to the public. A slam poet in Iraq had to quit poetry because it is considered an artform exclusively for men. A social worker in Yemen used a fake ID to pass at a checkpoint with a male colleague, because women can only travel around the country with male guardians. An activist in Libya who was promoting religious freedom was accused of being a homosexual and spreading atheism, both extreme social taboos, and imprisoned. These are among the many experiences and stories shared in the three-episode podcast produced and narrated by Swedish journalist Alexandra Sandels.
I invite you to listen to the series and learn more about social taboos directly from those who are impacted by them, and about how these grassroots activists are challenging systems so deeply rooted in injustice that even international conventions have failed to challenge and change them.
I also invite you to listen to recordings of the original interviews and read the transcripts in Arabic and English at Tarikhi.Org. We at Sharq.Org believe in the power and value of stories to present alternative narrative, shake the status quo, and break the monopoly of storytelling long guarded by official archives.
