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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to stephone

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Speaker 1: Never Told Your Protection by Heart Radio.

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Speaker 2: And welcome to another Feminist around the World. And yeah,

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Speaker 2: we're starting our Feminist around the World celebrating the queer

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Speaker 2: community and the amazing work that they have done and

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Speaker 2: continue to do. Because it is Pride Month and we

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Speaker 2: are going to celebrate the hell out of it. Even

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Speaker 2: though we try to celebrate all the time, yes, but

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Speaker 2: for this most specifically, we're going to celebrate the hell

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Speaker 2: out of it. And for today's episode, we are talking

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Speaker 2: about a nonprofit organization from Tunisia who quote fight for justice,

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Speaker 2: equity and respect for bodily and sexual rights. And this

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Speaker 2: is according to their site. The initiative is called Mojadin

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Speaker 2: which means we exist, so they call themselves a team

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Speaker 2: and this was created in twenty fourteen in Tunisia. It

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Speaker 2: was founded by local feminists and queer activists fighting against

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Speaker 2: discrimination and persecution towards the queer and feminist communities in

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Speaker 2: their area.

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Speaker 1: According to their site, they are quote committed to defending

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Speaker 1: and promoting human rights in general, sexual and bodily rights,

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Speaker 1: and gender equality in particular through an intersexual and diverse

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Speaker 1: work focused on advocacy, documentation, community capacity building as well

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Speaker 1: as awareness raising, the creation of safe spaces, and finally

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Speaker 1: the encouragement of queer artistic production and their goals quote

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Speaker 1: aim to improve the well being of everyone with non

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Speaker 1: normative SOOGIEESC which is an acronym for sexual orientation, gender identity,

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Speaker 1: gender expression and sex characteristics in Tunisia. We hope to

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Speaker 1: create a stronger community aware of its rights and having

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Speaker 1: the tools to advocate for itself, increase public awareness and

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Speaker 1: challenge misconceptions about genders and sexualities.

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Speaker 2: Right and the team offers different types of services including

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Speaker 2: mental health services, legal services, and even workshops to help

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Speaker 2: expand the network and their services and teach others' awareness

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Speaker 2: on how to advocate for themselves as well in their community.

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Speaker 2: And they work with different organizations internationally to keep working

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Speaker 2: and fighting for the rights of the queer and feminist community.

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Speaker 2: One of the organizations they collaborate with is the chof

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Speaker 2: Minorities or kof Minorities sorry y'all, thhouf trying to figure

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Speaker 2: this one out, which is a Tunisian NGO that advocates

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Speaker 2: for the personal rights of the people who identify as

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Speaker 2: women and for the LGBT community in Tunisia. They define

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Speaker 2: themselves as a collective of activists who use audio visual

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Speaker 2: tools to give Tunisian female identifying people and most specifically

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Speaker 2: WSW women or women who have sex with women to

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Speaker 2: have a space for speaking and contributing. It has a

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Speaker 2: non hierarchical and feminist structure.

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Speaker 1: And in partnership with the Mahudin, they are conducting in

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Speaker 1: depth studies on the systematic violations of the rights of

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Speaker 1: queer people and Tunisia. So this organization works to advocate

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Speaker 1: for the rights and protection of feminists in the community

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Speaker 1: by creating campaigns that bring awareness to street harassment and

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Speaker 1: awareness around the negative stereotypes of queer people, specifically to

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Speaker 1: the bisexual community. They also offer self defense courses and

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Speaker 1: martial arts workshops to help women not be powerless in

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Speaker 1: case of assaults and violence.

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Speaker 2: Right, but back to the Maja Deine team, who are

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Speaker 2: advocating and collaborating and providing services for the queer community

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Speaker 2: in Tunisia. Isn't the only things that they do though.

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Speaker 2: In twenty eighteen they started a queer film festival called

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Speaker 2: the Majo Dein Queer Film Festival, very on the Nose,

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Speaker 2: which made it to the first of its kind in

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Speaker 2: the country and the festival is an annual film festival

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Speaker 2: celebrating the LGBTQ plus community in Tunisia and it focuses

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Speaker 2: on queer identities with the people from the global South.

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Speaker 2: The festival provides a safe space for queer people to

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Speaker 2: fight through art and film. They've had two events, with

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Speaker 2: the third being postponed due to COVID, but have already

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Speaker 2: created a poster for the third annual event and you

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Speaker 2: could actually go look it up on their site. They

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Speaker 2: have a whole site for it.

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Speaker 1: And in the twenty nineteen event, Ma Judine released a

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Speaker 1: three minute film titled Until When. Here's what the Human

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Speaker 1: Rights Watch organization wrote about it. A Tunisian woman is

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Speaker 1: wax and groomed ahead of her presumably arranged marriage to

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Speaker 1: a man. She storms out of the house mid video

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Speaker 1: and announces to the camera I love someone and she

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Speaker 1: is not a man. The film is a rarity in

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Speaker 1: Tunisia and elsewhere. Forced marriage research and policy is largely

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Speaker 1: situated within women's rights and children's rights discourses and rarely,

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Speaker 1: if ever, explicitly acknowledges the existence of queer people.

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Speaker 2: The article that the Human Rights Watch talked about is

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Speaker 2: the whole idea of arranged marriage and the fact that

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Speaker 2: there's not many people reporting on it, so it seems

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Speaker 2: like it's not happening, but we know very well that

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Speaker 2: in some of these countries that is still happening, and

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Speaker 2: it is against the rights and it is a violation

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Speaker 2: against the women who do not want to partake in

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Speaker 2: those and especially for the queer community and not being

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Speaker 2: acknowledged to have their rights to love who they love.

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Speaker 2: So the team has expanded their services throughout the years,

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Speaker 2: including advocating and helping queer asylum seekers. According to their

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Speaker 2: site majudine dot org, their Asylum Project quote aims to

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Speaker 2: help Queer asylum seekers and migrants in the process of

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Speaker 2: asylum application and integration in the Tunisian territory, as well

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Speaker 2: as specific services psychological, medical, social and community that fits

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Speaker 2: their needs. Within the framework of this project, we have

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Speaker 2: produced a nationwide guide for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants

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Speaker 2: who are part of the lgbtiq plus community. This guide

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Speaker 2: provides the necessary information on the asylum application process, the

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Speaker 2: legal situation of lgbtiq plus people, as well as useful

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Speaker 2: addresses and contacts. This guide is available in Arabic, English

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Speaker 2: and French, just in case you were wondering. And yeah,

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Speaker 2: if you go onto their site that we just mentioned,

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Speaker 2: they have so many services, so many things that they

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Speaker 2: are doing working for the people. They're doing investigations, they're

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Speaker 2: doing research, and they are doing things like the asylum

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Speaker 2: seeking as well as helping with mental health services. So

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Speaker 2: it's an amazing thing that they're doing. And by the way,

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Speaker 2: their site shows them assisting at least ninety one asylum cases.

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Speaker 2: So I don't know how often this is updated, so

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Speaker 2: but that's what is so at that point. And yeah,

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Speaker 2: we just wanted to take some time to recognize this organization,

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Speaker 2: which we don't have much information about. Obviously we're very limited,

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Speaker 2: but we still want to talk about it and make

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Speaker 2: sure that people know about them. Like I said, though

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Speaker 2: we have limited information on what they're doing. Now, we

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Speaker 2: want to acknowledge those who are trying to spread the

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Speaker 2: works of teams like these. So if you know of

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Speaker 2: some groups that we should be talking about, organizations or

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Speaker 2: teams we should highlight, please let us know because oftentimes

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Speaker 2: they are overlooked because there's so many organizations out there

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Speaker 2: that it's hard to find them.

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Speaker 1: Yes, always, always, always, we're looking for any resources. You

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Speaker 1: can provide, any information, you can provide personal experience if

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Speaker 1: you're in the area or something like that. So yes,

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Speaker 1: you can contact us with all of that. Our email

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Speaker 1: is Stuff Media Mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com. You

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Speaker 1: can find us on Twitter at moms top podcast, or

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Speaker 1: on Instagram and TikTok that's Stuff I've Never Told You.

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Speaker 1: You can also find us on YouTube and Tea Public.

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Speaker 1: We have a Tea Public store. It's got some of

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Speaker 1: the older stuff on there, but we're starting to add

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Speaker 1: newer stuff, including a disco an e shirt.

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Speaker 2: Oh yes, it is a delight.

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Speaker 1: It's pretty good. It is pretty good. We also have

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Speaker 1: a book coming out. You can pre order it at

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Speaker 1: stuff you Should Read Books dot com. Thanks as always

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Speaker 1: to our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and

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Speaker 1: our contributor Joey. Thank you, and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: Stuff I Never Told You is production by Heart Radio.

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