“Since the day she was born, she was a burden. They wished for a boy instead of her,” begins a song sung by Sahar El-Zoghbi. It goes on to narrate the story of an Egyptian girl who underwent female genital mutilation (FGM) when she was 9 years old, and then — when she got a bit older — “her groom was waiting at the door.”
Zoghbi and her band are one of the four selected by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to be part of their ongoing project, “Music for Development,” which kicked off with a concert at the 16th International Summer Festival on July 18 at Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The UNFPA has cooperated with the Swiss Embassy in Egypt and Bibliotheca Alexandrina for the four-month project, which aims to raise awareness through music on gender inequality — including FGM, forced marriages and other forms of social and sexual repression of women.
