12 March 2020 - We are activists and feminist groups from several countries across the MENA Region - Middle East & North Africa, who believe in the value of our solidarity, despite our different contexts we realize that we have common political, social and cultural aspects. We have witnessed the significant role of revolutions, uprisings and mobilizations, since the end of 2010 till present, to re-elaborate women demands and their relation with the public sphere, claiming their rights and gaining fights and battles in private sphere.
On the other hand, we cannot ignore the importance of the international advocacy as a tool to reach our demands neither the value of the international feminist solidarity because our movement and struggles are not isolated or far from the world and the international scene.
In 1995, Beijing International Conference was considered a turning point for the feminist movement and the women human rights defenders in our region, in regards to their tools and awareness as well as their ability to raise voice and address narratives. Consequently, there is no longer the "only one single" narration about women's lives and rights, rather opportunities were created to redress the misconceptions about women in the Region.
25 years after the beginning of such inspiring experiences and struggles, we decided to take off again together towards Beijing 25+, reviewing our situation, our issues, our tools, and our ability to work and reach what we want. Moreover, re-reading our contexts' transitions and its intersections with the world. We will restart without being isolated from our predecessors' efforts within the feminist movement to restore our narratives and voices into the international agenda but conscious where we are, to what extend our issues became excluded, and how the most of our voices were marginalized by numbers of reckonings and estimates. We are also got notified by the re-stereotypes of women's suffering and needs that shorthand our reality, having a deep faith in our joint hard work and in our ability to raise our voice and reach our agenda by our own selves, we are not waiting for anybody to talk on behalf.
Thus, we decided to launch the "Feminist Coalition for the MENA Region Towards Beijing 25+", with the aim to work on a feminist agenda that consider all political and social changes in the region and its impact on our contexts. Such agenda will be responsive to women's needs within that critical reality, focusing on three specific trends of the Beijing Platform action: violence against women and WHRDs (within the framework of Women Human Rights), women issues in conflict zones and ways to establish security. In the middle of violence, marginalization, distortino and constant targeting, we are looking for our voices and efforts to highlight our priorities during the upcoming Beijing Summit, while we are all convinced that there is always time and our path to Beijing is just the beginning towards a new turning point that conquers the women's suffering and all our predecessors' struggles within the feminist movement.
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