Rabi Boubacar Souleymane is 29 years old and lives in Niamey. She is a member of the NGO Lucc and the UNESCO Club in Niger. As a Young Leader for Advocacy, she participates in the creation and implementation of JADES II, a project that aims to challenge the relevant political authorities on gender-based and sexual violence (GBV) in schools. A look back at a year of empowerment and feminist engagement.
Through an inclusive and participatory approach, the JADES II project puts young girls and boys in Niger at the heart of its activities. Rabi participated in the design of the project she is currently leading: an advocacy campaign based on the results of a survey on VSS in schools in Niamey and Maradi. This survey is currently being conducted by Rabi and 29 other Young Leaders for Advocacy in seven schools to gather evidence and thus prompt the authorities to take action !
Rabi, what do you like most about the Jades II project? During the project incubation workshop, I really enjoyed the exercises, the group work, and the team spirit. It helped me understand how to create a project model and the research we need to do to achieve our goal.
During this year as a Young Leader for Advocacy, has your feminist commitment grown stronger? This project has made me realize that we live in a world where gender-based and sexual violence are trivialized or minimized. Now I am more careful, both for myself and those around me. During this year, I have learned to identify cases of harassment on public transport or on social media, for example, and I try to do something about them. That's already a step forward. In 2016, I was the victim of an attempted rape. I had never told anyone about it. I found it hard to trust people, I was very suspicious of others, and I withdrew into myself. I was able to talk about it with someone from the project team, and the support I received from Equipop helped me realize that I was not responsible for what had happened to me. This helped me a lot and strengthened my commitment to the fight against violence against women. My view of feminism has changed. I mistakenly thought that being a feminist meant going against nature and putting yourself above men. I now know that it means defending the rights of women of all kinds, fighting patriarchy, and accepting everyone as they are. That's why I now proclaim myself a feminist, without any "buts" or "ifs"—just a feminist, period.
What do you expect from the rest of the project in terms of learning? Personally, I hope that this positive change in my way of seeing things continues. I would like JADES II to be followed by JADES III, JADES IV, and so on, until we put an end to gender-based and sexual violence. On a more activist and professional level, I would like us to be given access to other associative platforms, spaces to meet other young activists who share the same vision. For example, I was able to participate in a meeting between 35 young women from 15 different countries in West and Central Africa, through the African Feminist Institute (AFI). When they shared their experiences and talked about the NGOs they work with, I felt that I wanted to take my commitment further. I even thought about creating a small association to contribute to the community and help eradicate gender-based and sexual violence.
