ARFOD is the product child of a student project in global communication studies, where each student gets design breif about a cultural problem in the Arab world and asked to create a solution through design thinking.
Problem
Media is based on social construct, and social norms are shaped around behavior in media.
The highest grossing movies of the growing generations all demean women in one way or another, whether when it comes to planting the idea of women being secondary into men’s lives, or when it comehttps://www.behance.net/NourSadats to promoting harassment and violence.
Consequently, we slide into an endless loop of undesired, exaggerated behavior. When the highest grossing movie’s main character harasses a girl with the encouragement of his friends, (Omar & Salma, Directed by Akram Fareed), it’s only normal that the generation that praises this movie and its 2 sequels, grows up to finding it normal and funny to harass and cat call women on the streets, as an act of masculinity. As well as a movie like Taymour and Shafika is based upon the idea that men should run the household, yet the extreme exaggeration under the umbrella of “comedy” enforced the idea that women must make a choice between love and career, framing that the “right” decision is to choose love.
ARFOD is a movement. We raise awareness about women's portrayal in media through:
1. The Bechdel Test - whether a work of fiction
a. features at least two women or girls who talk to each other
b. about something other than a man or boy
c. the two women or girls must be named (not always required if two previous points are clear)
2. Promotion of Harrasement - in any form
a. a male or/and female character harras a female character in a sexual/verbal manner
