Press release for the launch of the “Not a Shame” campaign

Press Release

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, Tadwein for Gender Studies, and Cairo Foundation for Development and Law announce the end of the activities of the Campaign “Sexual Education is a Necessity, not a Luxury” #Not_a_Shame, which came along within the international campaign: “16 Days Against Gender-Based Violence”, which is held every year From November 25th to December 10th.

The campaign aimed primarily at conveying a clear message about what sexual education is, which includes, but is not limited to, providing young people with information about the physical changes they go through, and ways to avoid sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and unsafe abortions, in addition to combating violence against women. The campaign also promotes the values of gender equality and owning tools that enable them to make their own free and responsible decisions about their sexuality, the size of their future families, birth spacing, etc.
The activities organized by the campaign varied between awareness videos about the importance of sexual education, as well as presenting the opinions of human rights experts and activists about the seriousness of the lack of information on reproductive and sexual health among young people. The organizations participating in the campaign also held a number of seminars to present the results of studies on reproductive health and testimonies of survivors of violence, in addition to publishing newspaper articles on sexual education.

The participating organizations expressed their gladness because of the positive reactions raised by the campaign, whether from the public participating in the events or social media audience, as well as the professional media coverage of the campaign. This confirms the fact that the societal stigmatization of sexual education issues is much less severe than in previous years. There is also a recognition of the necessity of discussing hidden issues. Although the organizations are aware of the importance of the advantage of modern means of communication in providing young people with information about their reproductive and sexual health, it is indispensable for the Ministry of Education to assume its responsibility in developing comprehensive sexual education curricula for school students to ensure that this information reaches everyone without discrimination.

As the campaign organizations believe in the importance of continued work on sexual education issues, and because we operate under the principle of Creative Commons, we are publishing all campaign materials all together to be available for use in similar campaigns and gender and sexual education exercises.