Tuesday March 19th, 2024
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AUC's ‘It’s Not Your Fault’ Confronts Sexual Violence Through Theatre

‘It’s Not Your Fault’ is book of short plays that tackle sexual harassment and violence in Egypt, hoping to magnify feminist voices and quesion common misconceptions.

Farah Desouky

Hoping to shed light on feminist issues in Egypt, ‘It’s Not Your Fault’ (Mish Zambik) is a collection of short plays published by The American University in Cairo that confronts sexual violence through theatre.

The book features five original plays that have been written to put the misconceptions and stereotypes associated with sexual violence to rest, and help magnify feminist voices and perspectives. These plays were written by student-led project ‘It’s Not Your Fault’, which was founded in 2020 by AUC students and alumni, and was supervised by AUC Theatre professors Jillian Campana and Dina Amin.

The book includes a foreword written by feminist activist and English and Comparative Literature Professor Hoda Elsadda, in which she traces the history of sexual violence and feminist movements in Egypt, and draws parallels to the movement against sexual violence that had taken over Egyptian social media in 2020.