Sawab Centre launches women’s campaign against ISIL

ABU DHABI // The Sawab Centre, a joint UAE-US initiative to combat ISIL’s online propaganda, has announced the launch of a new women’s campaign run on its social media platforms.

The campaign will highlight the important contributions of women in preventing and resisting extremism and in advancing their communities.

Under the hashtag “#InHerStory”, the three-day campaign will run in Arabic and English on Sawab’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube platforms. The campaign will coincide with the commemoration of Mother’s Day in the Middle East on Tuesday.

Previous Sawab campaigns have depicted how ISIL routinely and systematically humiliates, exploits and subjugates women through its violent actions and depraved ideology, Wam, the state news agency, reported.

Sawab Centre said that ISIL has systematically commodified and objectified women, through lies to convince them to join its ranks, torture and sexual exploitation, and enslavement and trafficking.

To contradict ISIL’s narrative about the role and value of women, the #InHerStory campaign will instead affirm the empowered and critical role that women are playing around the world.

The centre will highlight stories of how women in Iraq and Syria have fought back against ISIL oppression, whether through escaping from captivity, advocating on the global stage or fighting on the front lines, the centre said.

The campaign also focuses on the stories of mothers who have protected their families from the terrorist group, including through intervening to stop the group reaching children through propaganda.

The Sawab Centre will also present inspirational accounts of women who have reached the South Pole and the summit of Mount Everest, or overcoming a disability to achieve professional success.

Other campaigns have focused on the terrorist group’s devastation of families, communities and ancient civilisations, as well as the importance of diversity and youth in societies.