With all that’s going on in Lebanon, the country has become totally unsafe for everyone. While women have been at the forefront of all events, keeping those around them safe, they themselves never felt safe. In fact, studies show that 60% of women in Lebanon were sexually harassed in a public space. And with no law that criminalizes sexual harassment, this matter will never cease. Women’s rights NGO, Abaad, wanted to pressure lawmakers once and for all to pass the law that they have been working on for years.

Lebanon has been suffering on an economic, political, and health level. With the explosion of August 4th, it was brought to its knees.

Pre-existing vulnerabilities are amplified and women are the first to be thrown under the bus. With larger priorities at stake, women’s issues are undermined as they are thrown into the vicious circle of silence.

Men tend to use such circumstances as an excuse to undermine the safety of women in the streets, in their cars, and even in their own homes, sometimes transformed by the patriarchy into jails with domestic violence.

Despite it all, women are playing a crucial role in Lebanon, from being at the forefront of the revolution to fighting the pandemic. They have been providing safety to the world around them; however, they still do not feel safe in a patriarchal and violent society where a law protecting them from sexual harassment didn’t exist.

#SafetyForSafekeepers (#?????_????)

If the women of Lebanon are today’s safekeepers, they deserve safety.

For that reason, we raised our demands with the voices of those safekeepers and demanded safety for the safekeepers.

In a country that was totally collapsing, safety was never a priority, not even to the women who were at the frontlines. Women have never felt safe mostly because sexual harassment has been on the rise, targeting them, with nothing to stop it. Consequently, Abaad wanted to push the topic of women’s safety within the context of harassment and prioritize it, among other issues that we are facing. Second, sparking this debate aimed to push for a law that criminalizes sexual harassment.

On the occasion of the UN’s 16 days of activism, we launched a campaign with three main objectives:

• To INSPIRE people in Lebanon through the stories of 16 women, and open the debate on sexual harassment without taboos.

• To DISRUPT the status quo through a provocative video that broke the Internet and push for the new law.

We raised our demand, with the voices of 16 remarkable safe keepers, in an inspiring short film and an online photo exhibition captured by a famous female photographer. These women shared their experiences with harassment and the barriers they faced, to inspire the general public and prep the ground for an understanding on the importance of stopping harassment. We then worked on sparking the debate on the topic through a provocative co-creation of a video that depicted sexual harassment within the Lebanese context. This reminded the public that harassment, within the context of patriarchy, can truly hinder women’s safety. This content helped us to hijack the conversation for a week, and we became viral in less than 48 hours, putting sexual harassment in Lebanon on the top lists of priority and breaking international borders. Following the campaign, the long-awaited sexual harassment law finally passed.

IMPACT

- Activists shared their support online. Legislators joined the conversation.

- Local/Regional TV Coverage such as CNN International, BBC, France 24, Marie Claire.

- Inspired initiatives worldwide, such as the Egyptian movement launched on Twitter #SupportBisant.

- Online video was translated into French, Kurdish, Farsi, Turkish, Italian, & Swedish.

- Case reporting:

o More than 1000 women reached out with an increase of 250% from the previous month.

o Over 60% of women reported having been sexually harassed in public.

VIEWS & ENGAGEMENT

- 28 Million+ organic views

- 200K shares

- 262 Million + impressions

- $2 Million + earned media

- 13.3% Instagram engagement rate

- 96.3% increase in total followers for the influencer

JUDICIAL ACT

On Dec. 21st, 2020, Lebanon criminalized sexual harassment for the first time. The sexual harassment law finally passed giving a smashing victory to the true Safekeepers of Lebanon.