A dozen individuals huddle in a closed space on a cool night in Cairo. Before them, loitering on the floor, a pile of precious possessions including house keys, mobile phones, and intimate jewelry accessories. The participants have chosen to place these items there, as a sign of goodwill and trust, and most of all, as a sign of letting in the others in their vulnerabilities. This is the first soft launch of Taboo Talk, a space for difficult conversations, one especially needed in Egypt considering the dire phobia of talking about sensitive topics in the aims of promoting tolerance and understanding. The first actual Taboo Talk event will be launched in Cairo on 12th October 2019 at NWT House in Maadi with intended talk to be Arabic and English, with primary focus on Arabic. The topic for the launch talk will be is “As a society, do we view masculinity as toxic?”. An ambitious project, the talks will be facilitated with enthusiastic volunteers trained by the program ‘Ambassadors for Dialogue’ which aims at promoting coexistence through means of dialogue. Men and women alike will gather, as they have before, under…
Taboo Talk: Egypt’s First Initiative to Tackle Difficult Topics
October 6, 2019
