Ms. Hajji at the North African subregional meeting in Tunis Rim Hajji, ALWANE’s dedicated, energetic Morocco Country Officer, knew she wanted to work toward social justice and women’s empowerment early on in life. At a young age, for instance, she was marked by how a number of her classmates were married and forced to leave school.

As WCI’s ALWANE program continues to grow and develop in sixteen different countries across the Middle East and North Africa, a group of Philadelphians were treated to a small insight into the lives of three strong women from the region. On Sunday June 10^th, Cinémathèque Internationale of Philadelphia, WCI and Project Nur teamed up to present a screening of Bridgid Maher’s documentary Veiled Voices. Maher’s film tells the story of three influential women: Ghina Hammoud of Lebanon, Dr. Su’ad Saleh of Egypt and Huda al-Habash of Syria.