November 2016 marked a very important month for Fe-Male as it crowned its partnership with ActionAid, within the framework of “Towards Changing Women’s Image in Media and Ads” two-year project, with the launching of the “National Network to Change the Image of Women in the Media and Ads in Lebanon”. The network code of conduct which was signed by a number of media and official institutions and civil society organizations aimed at joining the efforts of the key actors of the society to challenge the stereotyped image of women in media and ads.
During the launching, Hayat Mirshad, Fe-Male’s Co-Director presented the list of demands of the network, some of which were: the necessity of having media outlets adopt an ethical and professional criteria when dealing with gender related issues, the formation of committees in every media outlet that would monitor the quality of work and ensures that it doesn’t discriminate against women, the feminization of the Arabic language, raising awareness about the negative impact of stereotypes and objectification of women, integrating gender-sensitive curricula at universities, and promoting the role of women in senior positions in media institutions.
Additionally, Fe-Male’s Co-Director, Aliaa Awada, presented Fe-Male’s self-produced monitoring report on the image of women in media and ads in the previous year and extended her speech to emphasize Fe-Male’s role since its establishment in monitoring and documenting gender-based offensive content committed against women, especially in the Lebanese drama.
The launching event concluded with the announcement of the winners of the most “Gender-sensitive Advertisement” award, a competition that was launched by Fe-Male in collaboration with ABAAD Organization and which targeted media university students. The winner of the first prize was a joint project done by Zeina Karout and Mariam Hawari that encourages women to follow their dreams, and the winner of the second prize was Maleka Khanat who highlighted the issue of prejudices on women.