Pedalling for Peace
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The remarkable initiative "Follow the Women - Pedalling for Peace" gave many women from around the world a first-hand experience of the reality and diversity of the lives of women in the Arab World.
On a warm Sunday morning in downtown Beirut, families stroll along the seafront. Nearby, over two hundred women from 23 countries chatter and stretch their legs. They are preparing their bicycles for the first day of a unique journey through the Arab world.
Raising awareness to support women in the Middle East
British mother of two Detta Reagan has spent the past eighteen months working on the event. She aims to raise awareness of the suffering that the Middle East conflict is causing across the region. She's just about to see her dream become reality.
"I'm really excited. You know to see everybody in their cycle gear this morning, it's just brilliant", Detta says. "So many different countries and cultures and religions and seeing them all with their cycle helmets in their hands…I'm really excited today!"
Detta, a former air traffic controller, has been working with young people from conflict areas for many years. The project under the name "Follow the Women - Pedalling for Peace" was inspired by her work with young people living in the occupied territories.
Twenty-five Palestinians were due to take part, but only eleven made it through all the checkpoints to get to Lebanon. They joined other Palestinians from Jordan and refugee camps in Lebanon.
Experiences from the Arab World
Ansar Burgothi is from Ramallah in the West Bank. "I decided to do it because all of us want to prove to the whole world that although we have the wall, although we have checkpoints, although we have occupation, even we can't go from city to city inside Palestine, we can share anything in the world", Ansar says.
"We want to tell everyone that the Palestinian woman is like any other woman in the world. And I'm nervous now because there are girls with us who have never ridden a bicycle. It's not because they don't know or they don't want, it's because there's no area in Palestine to practise. It's a strange thing for a lady in the Arab world to go on a bicycle, especially in Palestine!"
Twenty-year-old Basma Ayad is a teacher from Iraq. Her cycling coach took the risk of driving the group of Iraqi girls from Baghdad to Lebanon. They travelled with temporary passports from the US army and waited for seven hours at the Jordanian border before being turned back. But they managed to cross the border the next day.
The Ministry of Electricity decided to fund their trip, even though it has little money and can only supply three hours of power a day. They said it was important for the group to take part in the ride for peace. Basma says she was nervous that Iraqis would be unpopular.
"I thought that they would not like me because they speak about Iraqis in a nasty way on TV and radio. I'm afraid from that. This is the first time I'm leaving my country and I'll visit three other countries. That's why I'm a little bit nervous."
A traditional Syrian welcomes the women, who were received with dancing and feasting throughout the journey. From Beirut they travelled to the ancient city of Damascus in Syria. They continued south through vines and olive groves towards Busra.
Learning about other's cultural backgrounds
The streets were often lined with locals offering support. Some of them waited up to seven hours to see the women. Many participants were overwhelmed by the welcome, including Detta.
"When I first wanted to do this project, somebody said you won't be able to do it in Syria because the men will just throw stones at you and you'll have to be completely covered. It'll be impossible in Syria, Syria's a really closed country", Detta explains.
"It's different than some of the other countries. And today some of us were wearing shorts, and they were throwing flowers at us and putting petals on our heads and things like this. I mean, that was incredible actually!"
But the journey was very difficult for some women. They cycled an average of fifty kilometres a day. Apart from stiff limbs and sunburn, many suffered more serious injuries. Elham Hyal from Jordan has both her arms in plaster. She didn't report her accident straight away because she was determined to finish.
"So I made a break and jumped on my hands, so they've been broken both. But in Busra I continued cycling because I didn't make x-ray in the first day so I cycled because I wanted to cycle, and I finished another fifty kilometres and after that I went directly to the hospital and made an x-ray!"
After two nights in Bedouin tents, the cyclists travelled the last tough stage from the Jordanian desert to the capital, Amman. There, they took part in a two-day conference working on new projects for peace in the region. One of the things that came out of the conference was the importance of the bike ride for the Arab women. Even Detta said she was surprised.
"I knew it was different, but when they talked about how it was changing their lives and how they'd had arguments with their husbands about these bike rides and how they wanted to continue and they wanted to meet every week. That really sort of surprised me because this is an added bonus that I only partly took into account."
As the conference closed, the Iraqi and Palestinian women wondered whether they'd be able to cross their borders to return home. Basma said that whatever happens, she has no regrets about taking part.
"It's a wonderful experience and I learned so much from it and I make friendship with girls from other countries, it's a wonderful experience!"
Sophie Nicholson
© DEUTSCHE WELLE/DW-WORLD.DE 2004