Gender Vs. Social Type

I'm surprised at how tired and wasted my body feels after just a 4 hour workshop. I usually don't get tired that easy, especially that I usually give 3-4 day workshops.

On our way back from Al Groob village, in the Tihama region of Hajja governorate, I mention my exhaustion in a bewildered tone. The project manager sitting upfront asserts that it's because of all the energy diverted towards concentrating on making the correct word choice in front of conservative societies like the one we were returning from.

I assume she's right. Standing before a group of 25 villagers (70% of whom are ultra-conservative) made me nervous. Despite that, I managed to pull the activities off and define gender, gender roles and gender needs (the basic concepts that ought to be discussed when raising gender awareness).

Amazingly, in Yemen, I am forced to avoid certain words when discussing gender; ironically, starting with the term "gender" itself. Due to the lack of translation, the "heavy" pronunciation and false religious tainting of the term "gender", I was encouraged and advised by the project manager to use the term "social type" النوع الاجتماعي instead. I was also clearly instructed to avoid mentioning "equality between man and woman".

Unconsciously, while explaining the main concepts, I realized that all related and illustrating examples that I would use were related to women. Thankfully, the project manager was there to back up my explanations with examples related to men (hence creating a balance and decreasing resistance).

However, there was some resistance coming from the participants especially one teacher who, according to the project manager (and obviously), is ultra-religious and thus, unfortunately, resistant to change (which does not mean that all religious people are like that; but most of them interpret "change" as something bad and sacrilegious !!).

Anyway, overall, it was a good day. The real challenge comes today as I'm going to an even more conservative group of villages (which, I heard, banned mean wearing pants!). Today, I have to be really careful with my word and example choice. I can only imagine my brain cells playing a football match and my pituitary gland commenting on the match between: Gender Vs. Social Type. Let's hope the latter wins!

As we say in Arabic: الله يستر!

Hajja
21.4.2010