By Julia Wallace, DMAH Development Officer

Worship songs filled the room as women from around the Arab world sang praises to God during the opening session of the two-day workshop. Although these women represented five different countries, each came to the LSESD campus with a common passion: writing. From February 4-5, Dar Manhal al Hayat (DMAH) hosted a writing workshop as part of their ongoing A Voice for Arab Women project—a three-year project that seeks to elevate the stories of women throughout the Arab world.

“The purpose of this project is to elevate the voices of Arab women and change society’s perception of them,” shared Sawsan Tannoury, the Publishing Director of DMAH. “So much of the literature in the Arab world is written by men, so we want this project to serve as a platform for women to share their perspectives to the wider world. At the same time, we want to train women in how to become better writers and published authors.”