WIN a full MasterChef Professional Stainless Steel Cookware Set
WIN a full MasterChef Professional Stainless Steel Cookware Set

IMAGE

Social Pictures: Boodles celebrates its new partnership with Punchestown Festival
Social Pictures: Boodles celebrates its new partnership with Punchestown Festival

IMAGE

It may appear tiny from the front, but this Ballsbridge cottage on the market for €750,000 is surprisingly spacious
It may appear tiny from the front, but this Ballsbridge cottage on the market for...

Megan Burns

This picturesque West Cork home with separate basement apartment is on the market for €695,000
This picturesque West Cork home with separate basement apartment is on the market for €695,000

Sarah Finnan

‘The Easter holidays are a fresh kind of hell when you have kids and a job’
‘The Easter holidays are a fresh kind of hell when you have kids and a...

Dominique McMullan

Annutri co-founder and award-winning businesswoman Anita Donoghue on the power of a positive mindset
Annutri co-founder and award-winning businesswoman Anita Donoghue on the power of a positive mindset

IMAGE

This Clontarf home was reconfigured to streamline the layout and maximise its views
This Clontarf home was reconfigured to streamline the layout and maximise its views

Megan Burns

6 classic movies worth watching over Easter
6 classic movies worth watching over Easter

Jennifer McShane

The friend zone: How to navigate finding friends as an adult
The friend zone: How to navigate finding friends as an adult

Sarah Gill

Supper Club: Fearne Cotton’s haddock burrito, punchy salsa and homemade guacamole
Supper Club: Fearne Cotton’s haddock burrito, punchy salsa and homemade guacamole

Meg Walker

Image / Editorial

Watch: In Egypt Men Won’t Say Their Mothers’ Name


By Jeanne Sutton
25th Mar 2015
Watch: In Egypt Men Won’t Say Their Mothers’ Name

Did you know it is considered taboo in Egypt to speak your mother’s name aloud? It’s a worrying custom, completely foreign to us in the West, even though we generally refer to the woman who raised us as only Mammy.

UN Women want to challenge this Egyptian custom and are starting to initiate change with this great video from the Impact BBDO agency of Dubai. It’s a two-minute long video called “Give Mom Back Her Name? and coincided with Mother’s Day in the Middle East, which fell on March 21st. In the clip, Egyptian men are interviewed vox pop style and asked to say their mother’s name. They refuse. Why? In some areas of the Middle East it is considered unacceptable to do so, for fear ridicule will follow. One man says that it would make him cry if people knew his mother’s name. It’s a perplexing watch for us here in Ireland to process.

The consequences of this practice of not naming to avoid shaming are sobering and sad. Women’s? names are forgotten over time; they become known only as the wife of, the mother of. In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, women kept as slaves in the houses of the upper classes for baby breeding purposes are known by names such as Offred. Literally ?of Fred?, the male in charge of the home.

UN Women use this video to ask men to shake this old custom away and be proud of their mother’s name by changing their social media profile photos to her name. Under the hashtag #MyMothersNameIs, the campaign wants men to change decades of thinking, and to value the women in their life as equal creatures that deserve recognition. It’s a pretty great first step, and the video shows how young men are finally embracing change. Have a watch below.

Adweek.com

Follow Jeanne Sutton on Twitter @jeannedesutun