Morocco: and a tale of shame

Dear Friends,

I am wondering if you are still out there. I am wondering if you are still reading. I am wondering if I am speaking to the void….

I have come back to write this because it’s important. Because I wanted to speak to you about shame, about embarrassment, about taboos. About not having what you need just because you are a girl and you have — wait for this — periods. Yes, periods. Now If you are a girl or a woman, I imagine that you are very familiar with periods. And you know what to do - what to buy - when you get them. An annoyance for most but not deal breaking. Life it goes on….and you live it fully (or almost).

Now imagine this…Imagine that you were a teen girl who didn’t have the money to buy the products to manage this very normal thing that happened to you every month. And that you were embarrassed — embarrassed you might leak. So you didn’t go out, didn’t go to school during those heavy days. Yes, imagine that you suffered from period poverty. Millions of girls and women do.

And so today on International Women’s Day, I ask you to walk with me, shoulder to shoulder, to do something to help. Just $12 will give a teen girl a period kit good for 3 years so that she can go to school, play sports, and be free and unashamed during her period. She deserves that, yes?

Just $12.  Right now.  Right here on Global Giving for the girls of Project Soar. There couldn’t be a more useful +inexpensive thing to do on International Women’s Day. Project Soar is competing to win one of 8 slots on the Girls Fund that will unlock $10-$15,000. We are currently in the 19th place. Please help, in honor of a teen girl you love, or perhaps in honor of the teen girl you were.

Let’s do this!

Love,

Maryam

Everywhere sort of: and a tale of being in the New York Times

Dear Friends,

My Dad is from New York and I spent much my younger years living in suburban Chappaqua, with weekend trips to visit my grandmother who lived in Manhattan's Greenwich village.  

So I couldn't be more excited to be the subject of the New York Times Saturday Profile about my efforts to empower girls and women in Morocco through Project Soar and Agent GirlPower!  The article, written by fantastic journalist Marjorie Olster, was also chosen as an Editor's Pick and on the NYT homepage. It was also in the International paper version of the New York Times.  Such a milestone thrill for me.

I'd love for you to take a read right here and let me know what you think! And please forward the story to anyone who might be interested in gender issues or the Middle East/North Africa/Morocco.  Thank you!

Love,

Maryam  

Marrakech: and a tale of a revealing

Dear friends,

It’s International Women’s Day.  If you are a woman, this day is for you, for me, for us.  Together.  Yes, one day alone seems paltry and shadowy thin.  But it’s a start. 

Today is also the launch of my new brand, Agent GirlPower, the Arab world’s first feminist fashion brand.  Perhaps Agent GirlPower is a way of making International Women’s Day more than just one day.  Making it an every day.  A way of investing in a belief of who we are as women, and the way we see the world: strong, confident, and ready to step up to the front lines together.  Because it will take a movement to bring about the changes we need when it comes to equality.  Yes?

Let me give you a glimpse into what I am trying to create.

If this inspired you somehow, please click through HERE and see what’s on offer.  I’d be so grateful for your support.

Love,

Maryam 

PS  Is Agent GirlPower a crazy dream?  Perhaps yes.  But what I know is this.  Inside each and every one of us is a crazy dream.  The belief in possibility.  The grasping for something higher and brighter and better.  Here’s to that dream for all of us.