ABAAD – Resource Center for Gender Equality, which the author’s project cooperates with, produced this toolkit for integrating feminist perspectives into development work
Forty-one years ago when we organized the Common Differences conference on the UI campus, I was a young professor, already quite engaged in women’s issues, which had led to my research, writing, travels, and overall commitment.
When I retired from the University of Illinois, I felt it was not enough to be writing, researching, and teaching on the subject. I needed to get involved concretely in the field, and in 2009 I joined my sister Jacqueline Hajjar in Beirut to open a center for abused women. We both put our savings into purchasing an apartment in the city center, and it has been functioning since then, welcoming about 12 women, sometimes with their children: sheltering and feeding them; providing physical, psychological, and spiritual healing; and helping them rebuild their lives and gain independence through education and instruction in trades. We have received more than 500 women over the years, some of them with spectacular healing stories, some of whose testimonies I have gathered in one of my latest books (which the women themselves asked me to write). Continue reading
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