By Sama el-Feky On Saturday June 6, the Heya Masr Initiative celebrated the graduation of fifteen girls in Istabl Anter, an underprivileged area in Cairo. During the ceremony, they were congratulated for their progress in the Heya Masr programme. According to Moody Demetry, the founder and the director of Heya Masr, the initiative’s mission is to gather young Egyptian girls aged nine to eighteen, and build stronger characters that can challenge and survive any circumstances they face, be it in their career, school or general society. Demetry’s inspiration to build Heya Masr came after the lack of security, social inequality, and sexual harassment he saw in the 2011 revolution in Egypt. “After the 2011 revolution, Egyptian-Americans wanted to do something to help Egypt, and so we travelled back to Egypt,” explains Moody. “I did some research to check out the other organisations that represent women in Egypt, but found that their targeting was not quite right. They were either targeting older woman, or were very disorganized. They also only addressed harassment. My inspiration was to build stronger personalities and characters that can survive circumstances including harassment, but also things like…
Heya Masr: Raising A Generation Of Empowered Young Women Across Egypt
July 27, 2015
