2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

Lebanese society is deeply rooted in patriarchy to the point of shaming and blaming women who are victims of rape. Victim blaming is the main reason women do not report rape cases in Lebanon fearing scandal and stigma. Abaad, a Lebanese NGO, wants to shift the blame from the victim to the rapist, and empower women to speak up.

Describe the creative idea.

#ShameOnWho? (#MineElFelten) – Judge the rapist not the victim In the Lebanese patriarchal society, people tend to blame the woman who was victim of sexual abuse as if she was “Looking for it”. They criticize the way she dresses, the way she looks, her actions, etc… Victims of rape are accused of being at fault and called names. A very common Lebanese word is used when “accusing” a rape victim is “Feltene” which means someone who is morally loose. This is why we asked the rhetorical question #Min_ElFelten (#shameOnWho?) to highlight that the woman is not to blame, but the rapist is. He is the one to be blamed for his lack of humanity and loose morals. The shame needed to be shifted from the victim so that people could finally judge the rapist not the victim.

Describe the strategy.

Our audience was the Lebanese society, including public figures, influencers and the public at large. It was crucial for our campaign to portray reality to the fullest so our insights stemmed from the experiences and testimonials of 6 rape survivors who shared their stories on how their families’ and society’s shaming forced them not to speak up and report their rape cases. Entrenched in the survivors’ testimonials, this reality was at the core of our campaign. To expose the Lebanese patriarchy for what it truly is, we conducted a social experiment in the popular streets of the capital to show how people reacted to the cries of a rape victim. While her part was scripted, their reactions were real. As expected, their shameful reactions sparked popular outrage as well as some negative reactions of shaming thus pushing the rape taboo out in the open.

Describe the execution.

We reveal a social experiment where we document people’s real reactions to a rape victim, sparking an online outrage as we push the rape taboo from behind closed doors. We then trigger our influencer program to further polarize the debate. We collaborate with media figures/influencers who post different Insta-stories of assault and ask the public to cast the blame on the rapist or the victim. This encourages rape survivors to publicly face their rapists as we graffiti their facial composites on the city walls attracting more media attention. We then hijack Beirut Marathon, where rape survivors refuse to run and face their rapist. Finally, we create an immersive play where people relive the stories of the survivors who came forward. Every activation in our campaign be it on-ground or online ultimately fed the social conversation pushing the rape taboo out in the open, finally putting the blame where it belongs.

List the results.

Influencers+Media adopted the campaign: - 150 opinion leaders posted their support including politicians/celebrities/public figures like MP Samy Gemayel, journalist Rima Maktabi and Iraqi activist Zainab Salbi. - Local/regional TV news coverage+international coverage including CNN (International+Website+Arabic)/BBC/Huffington Post France/Daily Mail/Reuters/AJ+/France 24/New York Times. - 497 publications (34 countries online+offline) - $12.23 Million+ earned media Turning the rape taboo into the #1 trending topic: - 4 Billion+ impressions - 13.9 Million+ views - 226,000+ engagements - #ShameOnWho recognized as the prime #MeToo campaign of Lebanon. - Huge debate in LebaneseAmericanUniversity over #ShameOnWho question. - Instagram artist Audrey Ghoussoub created #ShameOnWho comic. - Irish movement #ThisIsNotConsent joined the #ShameOnWho campaign. The conversation led to the ultimate campaign goal: Get women to speak up and face their rapist - 238 cases of sexual assault reported to Abaad versus 13 in previous year - International influencer ULAP came forward as a rape survivor with #ShameOnWho