The reading at Rajshahi University broke all records in terms of audience. We expected round 300 – 500 persons in the audience but an astonishing 3000 people showed up. The play was very positively received and brought down big applauds both during and after the performance.

Ensemble:

• Prof. Rasheda Khaleque as FARIDA AZIZI, AFGHANISTAN

Prof. Rasheda Khaleque, founder principal of Rajshshi University Nursery and Junior School. She is working as a chairperson of trustee board of North Bengal International University, Rajshahi. As the story is fiction, poetry, essays and literary circles of her unrestricted access to fascinate readers.

•  Momena Zinat as HAFSAT ABIOLA, NIGERIA

Momena Zinat is involved in education profession. She has been serving as a principal of Sheikh Rasel Model School, Rajshahi University. She also engaged in different organizations including President of Rajshahi University Women’s Club and Social Welfare Secretary of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Rajshahi University Branch.

• Advocate Nasreen Akhter Mita as MU SOCHUA, CAMBODIA

Advocate Nasreen Akhter Mita is a practicing lawyer. She has been serving as Assistant Public Prosecutor(APP) in Rajshahi Judge Court. She is an enlisted news presenter in Rajshahi Betar (Radio).

• Shahina Akter Reni as INEZ MCCORMACK, NORTHERN IRELAND

Shahina Akter Reni is wife of former Mayor Khairujjaman Liton of Rajshahi City Corporation. She has been working for underprivileged women and the protection of human rights. She has involved herself in various philanthropic activities.

• Professor Mahbuba Kaniz Keya as MUKHTAR MAI, PAKISTAN

Professor Mahbuba Kaniz Keya is a professor of psychology department at the University of Rajshahi. She has been working as a president of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Rajshahi. Moreover, she has served as convener of sexual harassment prevention complaint committee at Rajshahi University. The committee activities are highly commendable.

•  Konika Gope as MARINA PISKLAKOVA-PARKER, RUSSIA

Konika Gope is a student of psychology department under Rajshahi University. She also a cultural activist. She has served as General Secretary of a recital organization namely `Swanan’.

•  Advocate Dil Setara Chuni as ANNABELLA DE LEON, GUATEMALA

Advocate Dil Setara Chuni has been working  23 years as a lawyer especially on women’s rights. She has been serving as a Head of Rajshahi Division of the Bangladesh Women Lawyers Association with a very good reputation.

Ensemble

• Farhana Sehreen,  Assistant professor and Chairman, Dept. of Marketing, Jahangirnagar University
• Barota Chakrobarty, Assistant professor, Dept. of Marketing, Jahangirnagar University
• Momtaz Akter, Lecturer, Dept. of Marketing, Jahangirnagar University
• Habibur Rahman, Lecturer, Department of International Relations, Jahangirnagar University
• Nayema Ahmed, Lecturer, Dept. of Marketing, Jahangirnagar University
• Jafar Sadiq Akhand, News presenter & Reporter, Somoy TV, Dhaka
• Shihab Shawon, Lecturer, Dept. of Drama & Dramatics, Daffodil University

The reading was followed by a discussion amongst student and teacher on how to prevent sexual harassment on the campus. One of the things requested were better and lit busstops to ensure girls getting home safely.

The project will continue with side activities the rest of 2016 and in the beginning of 2017.

This time two workshops will be held with local stakeholders in cooperation with UNWLA and UN Women Bangladesh.

We will also vist the universities Jahangirnagar University and Rajshahi University who participated in our last workshop to see the readings of Seven and follow up on their work to combat sexual harassment on campuses.

Ensemble

• Alma Kratina (DF)
• Jasna Duraković-Hadžiomerović (SBB)
• Dennis Gratz (Naša stranka)
• Darijana Katić (HDZ BiH)
• Vesna Švancer (SBB)
• Vjekoslav Bakula (HDZ 1990)
• Kenela Zuko(SDA)

Read more about the event at Sarajevo Open Centre’s website. (Bosnian)

Ensemble

• Mustafa Nayem (Journalist and MP)
• Oksana Syroyid (MP and Vice speaker of the Parliament)
• Tamila Tasheva (Women’s rights activist from Crimea)
• Boryslav Bereza (MP)
• Natalia Sumska (People’s Artist of Ukraine)
• Ostap Semerak (MP)
• Iryna Lutsenko (MP)

More information about the event can be found here.

Stay tuned for more updates and photos!

Readings are planned to be conducted preliminary in Cairo and Alexandria but we still have three more Egyptian readings up for grabs. Do you want a reading of Seven on Tour in your city? Let us know!

News of ever-increasing atrocities reaches us from different corners of the world. As I am about to embark on a trip to Washington DC to oversee a production of documentary play Seven and participate on a panel at United States Institute of Peace and Embassy of Sweden  I was asked to reflect on questions like: “Can theatre inspire nonviolent action to resolve conflict, transforming individuals from victims of violence to protagonists actively seeking to end it?”.  In search of an answer I look to recent experiences and to seven years of travelling the world in the name of art and women’s rights.

 My work is founded on the belief that art’s primary function is to create a shift in perspectives, and that it can (!), through inclusive production models and the right kind of support, level playing fields between ordinary people and decision makers. It can even contribute to real structural changes through identification with the untold stories of our time and those of the past.

 Building on the plays SEVEN, A World to Live In, The Empty Chair, and my latest work, a dramatization of War’s Unwomanly Face – a model to stimulate social change has emerged. Through the project Seven on Tour, developed in cooperation with the National Touring Theatre of Sweden, Swedish Institute, Swedish Embassies and local NGO’s from the 28 countries I’ve toured, the stories of the women portrayed in the play have inspired:

• Two women to seek help to leave abusive relationships in Montenegro

• Mainstream media such as Ukrainian Vogue to write about the situation for women in Ukraine

• The creation of a documentary play portraying women’s situation on the Western Balkans through our project “Six persons singular,” with stories of struggle of six women from Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina; the project is  a cooperation between writers and organizations from six countries on the Balkans, a region characterized by the absence of a common history.

 … and this happened in March 2015 alone.

 Seven on Tour has been recognized by the Swedish Institute as one of their most successful public diplomacy projects in terms of awareness raising, relationship building and acceleration of the ratification of documents aimed at improving the situation of women such as the Istanbul Convention.

 My current project is unfolding at the Royal Dramatic Theatre: an adaptation of Svetlana Aleksijevitj’s ground breaking documentary novel War’s Unwomanly Face chronicling the stories of the more than 800,000 women who fought in the Red Army during the Second World War, and whose contributions subsequently were marginalized or denied. As we in the artistic team struggle with the portrayal of the pain of having been denied a voice and place in history, the stories of the women in the Red Army are reflected all too well in our own society.

So turning back to the question if theatre can inspire nonviolent action to resolve conflict, transforming individuals from victims of violence to protagonists actively seeking to end it?

My answer is yes, most definitely.

I am grateful to the US Institute of Peace and the Embassy of Sweden for the invitation to talk about my experience and particularly thankful to Ms Ruth Pollack and Ms Bonnie Nelson-Schwartz who have not only initiated the events in Washington, but are also working on a documentary film, The Power of 7, about the impact of Seven.

Facts:

Seven is a documentary play based on interviews with women’s rights activists, written by seven award-winning playwrights: Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deavere Smith and Susan Yankowitz in collaboration with Vital Voices Global Partnership.

Seven on Tour as a project and performance concept is created by Hedda Krausz Sjögren, producer and director for the international tour of Seven. Casting decision makers, activists, and media profiles in the roles of the women’s rights activists portrayed in the play, she has launched the tour in 28 countries and languages with the support of the Swedish Institute and National Touring Theatre of Sweden.

In production: The Power of Seven – a documentary film about the play and the impact of the international tour of Seven.

Hedda’s participation in the activities in Washington DC are made possible by the genreous support of the Swedish Institute and the organisation SWEA.

This text was also featured at Equalarty, a web-based resource created to inspire and empower women arts leaders of tomorrow, featuring insights from interviews with established leaders in the field, in-depth research on the topic, and a compilation of other resources and references.

Therefore, the experience of working on the international documentary theater project ‘Seven’, has inspired ‘Six Persons Singular: documentary theater and women’s perspectives in the Western Balkans’, as a response to the explicit need for (a) mainstreaming WB women’s rights, and (b) a regional artistic collaborative project focusing on women from the region only.

The innovation of Six Persons Singular project is the protagonists – feminists from WB and thus the focus of the project will be grounded along the experiences of women in the WB countries, taking into account also these women’s experiences during ex-Yugoslavia wars, as the violent and conservative politics further eroded women’s perspective. The play will be written, published and produced in Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Albanian and Macedonian languages, and it will be developed by a creative production team consisting of people from all WB countries participating in the project.

As such, this will be a unique theatrical and artistic project focused on women’s rights in the WB, with such a strong regional component. The play will tour all over the countries of the WB, as later, beyond WB borders.

 Six Persons Singular was granted continued Creative Force funding to complete and continue the project, which was initiated in 2014 and is produced jointly by Hedda Produktion, Youth Initiative for Human Rights in Serbia and Alter Habitus in Kosovo.

The Creative Force programme is part of the Swedish Institute and provides funding for collaborative initiatives involving organisations in Sweden and in the regions specified below. Projects should aim to promote human rights, transparency and democracy with the aid of initiatives that use either culture or the media as a method for achieving change.

 Find more information about Creative Force here.

Through the project local organizers will organize readings of Seven and arrange side activities together with the readings.We will work with the groups to produce the play and support in creating additional activities in order to reach as high an impact as possible.

Why? In March 2014 Seven was performed in Dhaka, by five Ambassadors and two country representatives from the UN, all women. This was repeated again in 2015, this year with the Speaker of Parliament, director of Bangladesh Federation of Women Entrepreneurs, Director for Action Aid in Bangladesh and four Ambassadors on stage. After the initial reading, the feedback was that the play should be translated into Bangla and brought to a wider audience in Bangladesh.

The reality of gender inequality in Bangladesh is harsh. A vast number of women and girls in Bangladesh experience physical, sexual and psychological violence throughout their lives, mainly due to structural inequalities and deep-rooted social norms that condone violence and the subordination of women. 87% of currently married women have experienced some type of violence from husbands or partners, 67% report physical violence (2011). Both women and men have in studies expressed compliance with the violence taking place.

Violence against women is also widespread outside the household: in the streets, in work places and in educational institutions. Studies of violence experienced by unmarried adolescent girls have found over 40% of girls were sexually harassed or abused. A situational analysis carried out by UN Women in 2012 found that 76% of tertiary level female students faced sexual harassment on campus or from other students while off campus.

Based on the combination of the feedback after the initial performance, the reality in Bangladesh and the success of Seven in raising awareness of violence against women in other parts of the world, Hedda Produktion together with UN Women formulated this project.

Where? The project covers eight readings in different locations in Bangladesh. Four of them will be at University campuses and four will be at different locations, owned by Gender Equality Advocates.

When? The project runs throughout 2015. With hopes of continuation in 2016.

Who? UN Women implements the project together with Hedda Produktion and local partners. The project is funded by SIDA through the Swedish Embassy in Bangladesh. An advisory group is involved in order to make sure that the project is adapted appropriately to the local contexts.

For more information, contact project leader Tove Eriksson at tove@tovee.nu.

In Ukraine, the stories was be read by

• Ada Rogovtseva (Actress)
• Serhiy Zhadan (Poet and novelist)
• Oksana Zabuzhko (Writer)
• Mustafa Nayem (Journalist and MP)
• Oksana Syroyid (MP and Vice speaker of the Parliament)
• Tamila Tasheva (Women’s rights activist from Crimea)
• Svyatoslav Vakarchuk (Rockstar)

Directed by Alexander Kryzhanivsky.

Students attending the reading said that;

We have never before heard these kinds of intellectuals and journalists speak on the subject of violence against women,  it feels hugely meaningful to us…

 

The reading in Podgorica was followed by another full theatre in Montenegro’s second largest city, Niksic.

The ensemble consisted of

“Women’s human rights should be protected in Belarus, Europe and the world. Seven is a great tool at doing this,” said Irina Alkhovka, Head of Gender Perspectives in Belarus. Mykola Yabchenko from the Ukrainian Women’s Fund added “Sweden has been helping Ukraine with women’s rights issues for many years and we are happy that this is an ongoing process.”

The conference also includes a much appreciated lecture by Danijela Rankovic from Youth Initiative for Human Rights about her experience of working with Seven in Serbia 2013.

Participants during the two day meeting included
Olesya Bondar, Head of Ukrainian Women’s Fund
Mykola Yabchenko, Ukrainian Women’s Fund
Tatjana Nekrasova, Embassy of Sweden, Ukraine
Olexandr Kryzhanivskyi, Director, Ukraine
Irina Alkhovka, Head of Gender Perspectives, Belarus
Tihana Culafic, Cultural Centre of Kotor, Montenegro
Paula Petritjevic, Anima, Montenegro
Hedda Krausz Sjögren, Seven on Tour
Ida Granqvist, Seven on Tour

The global problem of neglected women’s rights is present and current also in Ukraine. The number of domestic violence cases is increasing with 10 percent annually and in 2013 the Ministry of Interior had over 174 000 recorded cases of domestic violence by more than 92 000 offenders. According to the Office of the Ombudsperson and the UNDP he main problem is believed to be legislation that is not in line with international standards as well as a bottleneck for women subjected to domestic violence in the legal protection system.

These issues, amongst others were discussed with local project leader Ms Olesya Bondar from the Ukrainian Women’s Fund (UWF). The UWF is an organization that works with promoting human rights, facilitate the consolidation of the women’s movement etc. by providing civil society organizations (CSOs) in Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus with financial, information and consultation support. Learn more about them at their website!

We also met with Ukrainian director Alexander Kryzhanovskiy, who showed us possible venues for the reading as well as a tour around the lovely city of Kiev!

The visit also included a lunch with the Swedish Ambassador, Mr Andreas von Beckerath and representatives of the Embassy of Sweden in Kiev. We’re happy for the interest and enthusiasm shown by them in their support of the project.

The reading of Seven in Kiev, Ukraine is planned to be take place in the spring of 2015. Stay tuned for more information!

During the workshop, activists and play writes from Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia were present and will later be accompanied by representatives from Albania.

During the two-day workshop the conditions and difficulties for women in the region were discussed, both from a local, national as well as regional perspective. Some of the issues raised was the increased difficulties faced by women activists, issues related to gender based violence, sexual violence, lack of political representation and the fact that in all of the countries many of the laws are in place, however, they are not enforced.

A final version of the new play is planned to be presented in the beginning of 2016 and several workshops will be held in the region in 2015.

For more photos visit our Facebook-page!

Initial meetings were held with the local project leader Ms Tihana Culafic in Belgrade, Serbia, followed by a meeting with Slavica Markovic-Sandic, Public Diplomacy and communication officer at the Embassy of Sweden in Belgrade, which is also managing the Swedish foreign missions in Montenegro. During the meeting the support of the project was given by the Embassy and future forms of cooperation were discussed.

September 25 was dedicated to meetings with government institutions and NGO’s in Podgorica, capital of Montenegro. The day started with a meeting with Ms Nevenka Stankovic, Ombudsman for children’s rights in Montenegro and at the time also responsible for women’s rights. Discussions revolved around the difficulties women in Montenegro face today and how the state support them by different means such as funding of one of Montenegro’s two safe-houses, local helplines and acknowledging women’s rights issues in connection to e.g. 16 Day’s of Activism.

Next in turn was a meeting with Ms Ljiljana Raicevic at the independent safe house. The organization ins funded solemnly by donations and help women who are victims of domestic violence at all levels of the process of reporting a crime, from hospital visits to filing a report as well as representation in court. Some of the issues discussed were the lack of data on how many women in Montenegro are subjected to violence as well as the low number of women represented in politics amongst others.

The last meeting of the day was held at the Montenegrian Parliament where we had been invited to present the project to Me Nada Drobnjak, MP and President of the Gender Equality Committee. Seven in Montenegro received great support from the committee and was even invited to perform in the parliament! Read more about the meeting on their website!

On Monday 30September the day started with at meeting with Ms Daliborka Uljarevic at the Centre for Civic Education in Podgorica. The centre are actively working with increasing the number of women in politics and the current underrepresentation on both national and local level was discussed together with the situation for the Roma population in Montenegro.

Last meeting for the trip was with Ms Natasha Nelevic, playwriter from Montenegro and also working with feminism in culture. Interesting and highly relevant discussions were held which concerned the possibilities and difficulties of promoting women’s rights through culture in Montenegro.

Our first trip to Montenegro was highly inspiring and we strongly believe that working with Seven in Montenegro can be beneficial for both supporting the NGOs work and position as well as giving the government a new arena to discuss the issues. Last, but not least, we strongly believe that Seven can be a big influence in empowering and improving the situation for women in Montenegro.

Stay tuned for more updates and information about the reading in Seven by following us on social media as well as our website!