June 6, 2023 • 7 mins
For today’s episode we are talking about a non-profit organization from Tunisia fighting for justice, equity and respect for bodily and sexual rights, the Mawjoudin.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to stephone
Never Told Your Protection by Heart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another Feminist around the World. And yeah,
we're starting our Feminist around the World celebrating the queer
community and the amazing work that they have done and
continue to do. Because it is Pride Month and we
are going to celebrate the hell out of it. Even
though we try to celebrate all the time, yes, but
for this most specifically, we're going to celebrate the hell
(00:39):
out of it. And for today's episode, we are talking
about a nonprofit organization from Tunisia who quote fight for justice,
equity and respect for bodily and sexual rights. And this
is according to their site. The initiative is called Mojadin
which means we exist, so they call themselves a team
and this was created in twenty fourteen in Tunisia. It
(01:02):
was founded by local feminists and queer activists fighting against
discrimination and persecution towards the queer and feminist communities in
their area.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
According to their site, they are quote committed to defending
and promoting human rights in general, sexual and bodily rights,
and gender equality in particular through an intersexual and diverse
work focused on advocacy, documentation, community capacity building as well
as awareness raising, the creation of safe spaces, and finally
the encouragement of queer artistic production and their goals quote
(01:33):
aim to improve the well being of everyone with non
normative SOOGIEESC which is an acronym for sexual orientation, gender identity,
gender expression and sex characteristics in Tunisia. We hope to
create a stronger community aware of its rights and having
the tools to advocate for itself, increase public awareness and
challenge misconceptions about genders and sexualities.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Right and the team offers different types of services including
mental health services, legal services, and even workshops to help
expand the network and their services and teach others' awareness
on how to advocate for themselves as well in their community.
And they work with different organizations internationally to keep working
and fighting for the rights of the queer and feminist community.
(02:17):
One of the organizations they collaborate with is the chof
Minorities or kof Minorities sorry y'all, thhouf trying to figure
this one out, which is a Tunisian NGO that advocates
for the personal rights of the people who identify as
women and for the LGBT community in Tunisia. They define
themselves as a collective of activists who use audio visual
(02:39):
tools to give Tunisian female identifying people and most specifically
WSW women or women who have sex with women to
have a space for speaking and contributing. It has a
non hierarchical and feminist structure.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And in partnership with the Mahudin, they are conducting in
depth studies on the systematic violations of the rights of
queer people and Tunisia. So this organization works to advocate
for the rights and protection of feminists in the community
by creating campaigns that bring awareness to street harassment and
awareness around the negative stereotypes of queer people, specifically to
(03:13):
the bisexual community. They also offer self defense courses and
martial arts workshops to help women not be powerless in
case of assaults and violence.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Right, but back to the Maja Deine team, who are
advocating and collaborating and providing services for the queer community
in Tunisia. Isn't the only things that they do though.
In twenty eighteen they started a queer film festival called
the Majo Dein Queer Film Festival, very on the Nose,
which made it to the first of its kind in
the country and the festival is an annual film festival
(03:44):
celebrating the LGBTQ plus community in Tunisia and it focuses
on queer identities with the people from the global South.
The festival provides a safe space for queer people to
fight through art and film. They've had two events, with
the third being postponed due to COVID, but have already
created a poster for the third annual event and you
could actually go look it up on their site. They
(04:04):
have a whole site for it.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And in the twenty nineteen event, Ma Judine released a
three minute film titled Until When. Here's what the Human
Rights Watch organization wrote about it. A Tunisian woman is
wax and groomed ahead of her presumably arranged marriage to
a man. She storms out of the house mid video
and announces to the camera I love someone and she
is not a man. The film is a rarity in
(04:28):
Tunisia and elsewhere. Forced marriage research and policy is largely
situated within women's rights and children's rights discourses and rarely,
if ever, explicitly acknowledges the existence of queer people.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The article that the Human Rights Watch talked about is
the whole idea of arranged marriage and the fact that
there's not many people reporting on it, so it seems
like it's not happening, but we know very well that
in some of these countries that is still happening, and
it is against the rights and it is a violation
against the women who do not want to partake in
those and especially for the queer community and not being
(05:00):
acknowledged to have their rights to love who they love.
So the team has expanded their services throughout the years,
including advocating and helping queer asylum seekers. According to their
site majudine dot org, their Asylum Project quote aims to
help Queer asylum seekers and migrants in the process of
asylum application and integration in the Tunisian territory, as well
(05:22):
as specific services psychological, medical, social and community that fits
their needs. Within the framework of this project, we have
produced a nationwide guide for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants
who are part of the lgbtiq plus community. This guide
provides the necessary information on the asylum application process, the
legal situation of lgbtiq plus people, as well as useful
(05:44):
addresses and contacts. This guide is available in Arabic, English
and French, just in case you were wondering. And yeah,
if you go onto their site that we just mentioned,
they have so many services, so many things that they
are doing working for the people. They're doing investigations, they're
doing research, and they are doing things like the asylum
seeking as well as helping with mental health services. So
(06:05):
it's an amazing thing that they're doing. And by the way,
their site shows them assisting at least ninety one asylum cases.
So I don't know how often this is updated, so
but that's what is so at that point. And yeah,
we just wanted to take some time to recognize this organization,
which we don't have much information about. Obviously we're very limited,
but we still want to talk about it and make
sure that people know about them. Like I said, though
(06:27):
we have limited information on what they're doing. Now, we
want to acknowledge those who are trying to spread the
works of teams like these. So if you know of
some groups that we should be talking about, organizations or
teams we should highlight, please let us know because oftentimes
they are overlooked because there's so many organizations out there
that it's hard to find them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yes, always, always, always, we're looking for any resources. You
can provide, any information, you can provide personal experience if
you're in the area or something like that. So yes,
you can contact us with all of that. Our email
is Stuff Media Mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You
can find us on Twitter at moms top podcast, or
on Instagram and TikTok that's Stuff I've Never Told You.
(07:08):
You can also find us on YouTube and Tea Public.
We have a Tea Public store. It's got some of
the older stuff on there, but we're starting to add
newer stuff, including a disco an e shirt.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Oh yes, it is a delight.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's pretty good. It is pretty good. We also have
a book coming out. You can pre order it at
stuff you Should Read Books dot com. Thanks as always
to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and
our contributor Joey. Thank you, and thanks to you for listening.
Stuff I Never Told You is production by Heart Radio.
For more podcast from my heart Radio, you can check
out the heart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or if you
(07:41):
listen to your favorite shows
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to stephone
Never Told Your Protection by Heart Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome to another Feminist around the World. And yeah,
we're starting our Feminist around the World celebrating the queer
community and the amazing work that they have done and
continue to do. Because it is Pride Month and we
are going to celebrate the hell out of it. Even
though we try to celebrate all the time, yes, but
for this most specifically, we're going to celebrate the hell
(00:39):
out of it. And for today's episode, we are talking
about a nonprofit organization from Tunisia who quote fight for justice,
equity and respect for bodily and sexual rights. And this
is according to their site. The initiative is called Mojadin
which means we exist, so they call themselves a team
and this was created in twenty fourteen in Tunisia. It
(01:02):
was founded by local feminists and queer activists fighting against
discrimination and persecution towards the queer and feminist communities in
their area.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
According to their site, they are quote committed to defending
and promoting human rights in general, sexual and bodily rights,
and gender equality in particular through an intersexual and diverse
work focused on advocacy, documentation, community capacity building as well
as awareness raising, the creation of safe spaces, and finally
the encouragement of queer artistic production and their goals quote
(01:33):
aim to improve the well being of everyone with non
normative SOOGIEESC which is an acronym for sexual orientation, gender identity,
gender expression and sex characteristics in Tunisia. We hope to
create a stronger community aware of its rights and having
the tools to advocate for itself, increase public awareness and
challenge misconceptions about genders and sexualities.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Right and the team offers different types of services including
mental health services, legal services, and even workshops to help
expand the network and their services and teach others' awareness
on how to advocate for themselves as well in their community.
And they work with different organizations internationally to keep working
and fighting for the rights of the queer and feminist community.
(02:17):
One of the organizations they collaborate with is the chof
Minorities or kof Minorities sorry y'all, thhouf trying to figure
this one out, which is a Tunisian NGO that advocates
for the personal rights of the people who identify as
women and for the LGBT community in Tunisia. They define
themselves as a collective of activists who use audio visual
(02:39):
tools to give Tunisian female identifying people and most specifically
WSW women or women who have sex with women to
have a space for speaking and contributing. It has a
non hierarchical and feminist structure.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And in partnership with the Mahudin, they are conducting in
depth studies on the systematic violations of the rights of
queer people and Tunisia. So this organization works to advocate
for the rights and protection of feminists in the community
by creating campaigns that bring awareness to street harassment and
awareness around the negative stereotypes of queer people, specifically to
(03:13):
the bisexual community. They also offer self defense courses and
martial arts workshops to help women not be powerless in
case of assaults and violence.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Right, but back to the Maja Deine team, who are
advocating and collaborating and providing services for the queer community
in Tunisia. Isn't the only things that they do though.
In twenty eighteen they started a queer film festival called
the Majo Dein Queer Film Festival, very on the Nose,
which made it to the first of its kind in
the country and the festival is an annual film festival
(03:44):
celebrating the LGBTQ plus community in Tunisia and it focuses
on queer identities with the people from the global South.
The festival provides a safe space for queer people to
fight through art and film. They've had two events, with
the third being postponed due to COVID, but have already
created a poster for the third annual event and you
could actually go look it up on their site. They
(04:04):
have a whole site for it.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
And in the twenty nineteen event, Ma Judine released a
three minute film titled Until When. Here's what the Human
Rights Watch organization wrote about it. A Tunisian woman is
wax and groomed ahead of her presumably arranged marriage to
a man. She storms out of the house mid video
and announces to the camera I love someone and she
is not a man. The film is a rarity in
(04:28):
Tunisia and elsewhere. Forced marriage research and policy is largely
situated within women's rights and children's rights discourses and rarely,
if ever, explicitly acknowledges the existence of queer people.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
The article that the Human Rights Watch talked about is
the whole idea of arranged marriage and the fact that
there's not many people reporting on it, so it seems
like it's not happening, but we know very well that
in some of these countries that is still happening, and
it is against the rights and it is a violation
against the women who do not want to partake in
those and especially for the queer community and not being
(05:00):
acknowledged to have their rights to love who they love.
So the team has expanded their services throughout the years,
including advocating and helping queer asylum seekers. According to their
site majudine dot org, their Asylum Project quote aims to
help Queer asylum seekers and migrants in the process of
asylum application and integration in the Tunisian territory, as well
(05:22):
as specific services psychological, medical, social and community that fits
their needs. Within the framework of this project, we have
produced a nationwide guide for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants
who are part of the lgbtiq plus community. This guide
provides the necessary information on the asylum application process, the
legal situation of lgbtiq plus people, as well as useful
(05:44):
addresses and contacts. This guide is available in Arabic, English
and French, just in case you were wondering. And yeah,
if you go onto their site that we just mentioned,
they have so many services, so many things that they
are doing working for the people. They're doing investigations, they're
doing research, and they are doing things like the asylum
seeking as well as helping with mental health services. So
(06:05):
it's an amazing thing that they're doing. And by the way,
their site shows them assisting at least ninety one asylum cases.
So I don't know how often this is updated, so
but that's what is so at that point. And yeah,
we just wanted to take some time to recognize this organization,
which we don't have much information about. Obviously we're very limited,
but we still want to talk about it and make
sure that people know about them. Like I said, though
(06:27):
we have limited information on what they're doing. Now, we
want to acknowledge those who are trying to spread the
works of teams like these. So if you know of
some groups that we should be talking about, organizations or
teams we should highlight, please let us know because oftentimes
they are overlooked because there's so many organizations out there
that it's hard to find them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yes, always, always, always, we're looking for any resources. You
can provide, any information, you can provide personal experience if
you're in the area or something like that. So yes,
you can contact us with all of that. Our email
is Stuff Media Mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You
can find us on Twitter at moms top podcast, or
on Instagram and TikTok that's Stuff I've Never Told You.
(07:08):
You can also find us on YouTube and Tea Public.
We have a Tea Public store. It's got some of
the older stuff on there, but we're starting to add
newer stuff, including a disco an e shirt.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Oh yes, it is a delight.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
It's pretty good. It is pretty good. We also have
a book coming out. You can pre order it at
stuff you Should Read Books dot com. Thanks as always
to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and
our contributor Joey. Thank you, and thanks to you for listening.
Stuff I Never Told You is production by Heart Radio.
For more podcast from my heart Radio, you can check
out the heart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or if you
(07:41):
listen to your favorite shows
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