Enabling Young Arab Women to “Find Their Voice”

“Why do you think differently? Why are your thoughts out of line?”

These are the questions that Youstina was constantly asked. “I felt pressured,” she explains. “I am not allowed to object…”

Sandra agrees. “If someone starts to speak and say, ‘My opinion is…’ they are stopped right there. It isn’t permitted to have an opinion. It’s worse for us girls. Maybe boys are heard a bit, but girls aren’t allowed to have opinions.”

“Who Do You Think You Are?”

Both Sandra and Youstina are young Egyptian women in their early twenties. They are amongst a growing number who are beginning to question the expectations placed on women across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Youstina majored in public relations, although she wanted to study media, but was put off by people around her who said things like, “Do you think you will ever be on TV? Who do you think you are?” She said, “Everyone around me made me feel small and insignificant, that I would never be able to make it. So, I studied PR and walked along with the herd.”

It’s a similar story for Sandra – and many other women across the MENA – who learned early to temper ambition, adjust their choices, and fit within the boundaries of what is socially expected.

But, with the help of SAT-7, both are now raising their voices because, for the first time, someone has listened…

Stories That Matter

In the spring and summer of 2025, Youstina and Sandra took part in a special SAT-7 media workshop in Cairo designed to help young women articulate their own stories within a society where they often feel silenced.

The workshop formed part of SAT-7’s Gender Equality & Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) project: a long-term initiative supporting women and girls across the MENA to think critically, speak freely, and recognize their own worth.

“The main purpose was to get young women to tell their own stories and to find their voice, talk about the issues they had, introduce them to gender equality and FoRB, and develop their minds to think critically,” said Project Lead Maggie Morgan. “It was about affirming to these young women that their stories matter, that they are not trivial. We wanted them to think critically about their religious teaching and upbringing in particular, and to notice that culture is often fed by religion.”

“I Was Seen And Heard.”

The week-long workshop combined practical media training with space for reflection and discussion. The young women took part in writing workshops, art therapy, and film screenings, learning from filmmakers while also exploring their own experiences.

For Sandra, the process quickly moved beyond technical skills. “The workshop was not just about filmmaking or directing or cinematography,” she says. “We were thinking of topics that no one talks about.”

The emphasis, she adds, was on honesty rather than polish. “It’s not the point to make a film with nice images and compositions, but a film that expresses how I feel so that viewers can say, ‘me too…’.”

For Youstina, the impact of the workshop was deeply personal. “When I found someone to listen to me, someone who accepted my thoughts without judgment, I felt that I could speak, I could raise my voice, and I could be heard,” she says.

This, she explains, was transformative. “It was then that I felt that I was seen and heard. I wasn’t the odd one out. There are people like me in the world. I could be right or wrong, but at least I was being heard. That was life changing.”

Films of Experience

Each of the women who took part in the SAT-7 workshop has developed a film rooted in her own experience: stories shaped by faith, culture, family, and the often-unspoken pressures of growing up female in the MENA. Their films, due to be shared on SAT-7’s social platforms, are not just creative outputs, but acts of courage; moments of saying this is who I am, and this is what I see.

Youstina’s film, Brown Dress, tackles the traditional idea of the marriage order. A moving portrayal of societal expectations, the story illustrates how younger sisters must defer to their elders in all things, even to the extent of giving up their own hard-earned joys – represented by the purchase and relinquishment of a dress.

Sandra’s short film, Allergy, follows a woman whose hands are red and raw from constantly washing up. Though her family can easily afford a dishwasher, her request is refused. She tries to overcome the issue herself by saving the money, but this too is denied, and she is repeatedly told, “Don’t be dramatic.”

In total, all the women’s films form a chorus of voices that refuse silence: not through confrontation, but through honesty. Through listening. Through being heard.

The media workshop will run again this spring for a new group of young women to learn about raising their voices through filmmaking. In a region where many women are still told to stay quiet, SAT-7 continues to do something unique: it listens. And in doing so, helps women realize that their voices matter.