Gender Equality Festival, how was the 13th edition?
It’s a wrap for the 13th Edition of the Gender Equality Festival held by A.L.E.G in Sibiu, between 11-13 October. The lively event bottled up the energy of more than 40 volunteers, gathered life lessons brought by notable guests like Romanian authors & feminists Andreea Paul & Mihaela Miroiu, international artists like Dan Perjovschi, and filled the city streets with both joyful and educational activities designed for a diverse audience that consisted of teachers and school councils, future journalists and high school students.
By means of theater plays, interactive workshops like the Human Library, the Festival challenged its participants to an open dialog about the“communication gap between generations” and transformed the fight against gender discrimination in a personal battle that belongs to each and everyone of us.
???? The overall vibe was that of fun and enthusiasm, even though the discussion topics were serious, like in the case of the film projection of the “Have I told you I was abused?” movie or the debate on domestic violence and sexual abuse held with Journalism students.
???? Creativity was the main ingredient of the workshop for highschool students that were taught by Dan Perjovschi himself how to get give the Festival’s messages a visual form and transform the titles into images on the Horizontal Paper in Sibiu. The Festival’s Facebook Page was buzzing with online contests, gifs and even a Meme creation competition to get teens involved in the taking down gender preconceptions.
???? The Forum Theater and Human Library completed the event’s busy agenda and contributed to its success and to opening up the communication gap. The screenplay focused on the relationship between parents and teens and their differences when it comes to choosing a future career for boys and girls. The happy ending was influenced by members of the audience. Over 100 people joined us at the Human Library to listen to the stories of 12 human books we had as guests from various areas of expertise, with different stories and experiences coming from their life long mission of overcoming gender stereotypes or sexual abuse. We held a book launch for Andreea Paul’s third volume named “ The civic power of women”, and we were glad to have the author as a human book after that, together with other well known names as Daniela Palade Teodorescu (editor in chief of Career Magazine, Daniela Drăghici (35 year long activist for sexual and reproductive health) Raluca Chișu (KinetoBebe founder), Dan Perjovschi (international artist). Everyone of our human books was a living example on how to make a difference and change the world for the better.
As always, the Festival creates a splash in local activities, making quite a stir among children, teens, students, parents and more while taking on serious topics with fun learning activities and engaging events. Changing mentalities and fighting stereotypes is our superpower!
This year, the Gender Equality Festival was financed by #ÎNSTAREDEBINE – a program developed by the Foundation for the Development of Civil Society – and co-financed by Sibiu Municipality and Local Council.
