by Fernande van Tets and Aline Sara
-Egypt-

On Monday night it was announced that Mohamed Morsi and Ahmed Shafiq would progress to the run off next month of the Egyptian presidential elections. Both are conservative candidates; Shafiq was prime minister under the former regime of Mubarak and Morsi was the candidate for the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm.

Although comprising 52 percent of the Egyptian population, some 40 million plus, the women’s vote was ignored. The Egyptian presidential candidates’ programmes minimally addressed women voters, leaving a wealth of support untapped. Only in the last few days did some candidates make an effort to woo these women voters, but there was no candidate women could unite behind.

by Pushpa Iyer
-USA-

"Turn around, turn around,” my Nepali friend instructs our driver as we drive around Pokhara. She asks him to stop next to a small field. I get out of the car not really sure of what has caught her attention. She holds my shoulders and physically turns me a 180 degrees and says, “Now look.” And that is my first view of the Himalayas. My jaw drops. Unparalleled beauty, pure and majestic! And that feeling of awe stays with me every time I view the Himalayas after that. I can never say I have had enough. Tourists flock to Nepal to soak the environment into their every pore – the cold, the snow, the heat, the dirt trails, the narrow curvy paths, and the huge rocks – with a reverence that only the power of nature can demand. Of course, a country blessed with this kind of natural beauty must capitalise on it; charging the ‘foreigners’ for enjoying the bliss, sharply contrasts with how Nepal’s citizens live in raw nature – no proper roads, no potable water, no electricity, no school building for their children, and the list keeps growing.

by Manar Ammar
-Egypt-

When Marwa* arrived at the hospital, her left arm was dangling beside her body like a lifeless piece of cloth. After examination, the doctors told her that her upper arm was shattered in three spots, and a number of surgeries must follow. The night before, following an argument with her mom, her younger brother interfered with his fist. For over an hour he hit and beat Marwa senselessly. He even threw a chair at her.

“I don’t have full normal movement in my arm, even after three and half years since the fight,” says Marwa. “I still don’t speak to my family, with the exception of my mother, and till this day he never apologized.”

by Stephanie Koehler
-USA-

The vision of “Female Perspectives on Ending Sexual Violence” is to unite women from all over the world to document the pain they suffer as a result of sexual violence and the healing approach they have taken to grow from victim to survivor. Each installment will include photography of a female survivor and provide a platform to tell her story. Stephanie’s vision is to grow this project into an international sexual assault awareness campaign.

Brandi and I met at her home after several prior conversations about my project. She agreed to be the first participant in this series of photo-journalistic accounts.