AWSO offers a series of ten video profiles, training and discussion materials, a tool for monitoring the image of women in the media, and a case study publication of 30 women from Jordan, Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia and Palestine. Arab women researchers and film makers produced the materials, which feature realistic examples of women who have taken the initiative to make positive changes in their lives.

Women's Rights.

Though women in the Arab world are active participants in day-to-day practices and struggles that create opportunities and improve the conditions under which they live, women in the developing world in general and the Arab world in particular are often presented as powerless and passively subordinate to men. Such images of dis-empowerment are both self-perpetuating and inaccurate. Unfortunately, there are few accurate portrayals of Arab women in the media today. This project highlights the achievements of thirty Arab women and presents them as role models to encourage other women to take action and change their situations.

By August 2002, Arab Women Speak Out had been implemented in seven Arab countries—Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria and Yemen—and reached some 80,000 women. AWSO workshops are ongoing throughout the region.

AWSO is an internationally recognized program and won a 2002 Gold Quill Award for Excellence from the International Association of Business Communicators. Entries were judged by an international panel of communication professionals on the bases of how well a program is conceived, created and executed for its intended audience(s), how appropriate the strategy and objectives are in relation to the results desired and achieved, and how the outcomes are measured. Of the 1,347 entries received in 2002, AWSO was designated one of the five best communication programs across all categories.

The materials are currently being used by 25 local non-governmental and governmental organisations to guide training workshops for women at the community level.