NICOSIA — A group of some 300 ordinary, yet extraordinary women, from 28 countries cycled 370 kilometers (230 miles) through Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan into Palestine last May, calling for peace and empowering women and youth in the Middle East.
The idea began in 2003 when a handful of like-minded female youth workers in the European Union’s Youth Program formed Follow the Women (FTW) to cycle through the Middle East as a means of supporting Palestinians who were restricted in taking part in Euro-Med activities due to living under Israeli occupation.
FTW has had four annual peace rides, each aimed at showing solidarity toward the women and youth of the region, increasing intercultural understanding and providing participants with the chance to experience first-hand the plight of Palestinians living in the occupied territories and in exile in refugee camps.
The members of FTW come from the European Union, the Middle East and as far away as North America, Australia and Japan.
Throughout the 12-day peace ride, men, women and children lined the streets to welcome the ‘Messengers of Peace,’ who were showered with flowers and gifts. Locals applauded and called out “Ahlan wa sahlan!” offering traditional Arabic sweets and coffee as tokens of appreciation.
Eleni Mavrou, the first female mayor of Nicosia, Europe’s last divided capital, offered a message of solidarity, which was read in the presence of Ramallah’s first female mayor, Janet Michael.
“Nobody can defeat our love for freedom, hope and peace.” The words of the FTW Lebanese coordinator from the Progressive Youth Organization (PYO) are representative of the sentiments most frequently expressed by the Lebanese to the participants of FTW.
The energetic volunteers from the PYO arranged a diverse program which had the women cycling from the cool lush green Mount Lebanon, down to the picturesque Mediterranean coast, through the serene Bekaa Valley.
In each region, locals enthusiastically welcomed the cyclists, who were immediately lured by the Lebanese traditional music, and inevitably found themselves dancing in the streets, re-energizing themselves for the rest of the ride.
The most solemn moment of FTW in Lebanon was the visit to the mass grave at the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila. The women were given the opportunity to lay a wreath at the memorial site, and pay their respect to the approximate 3,000 innocent victims lost, as well as to salute the ones among the FTW group who survived the September 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
In Damascus, Syria’s first lady, Asma Assad, has backed the philosophy of FTW since its inception in 2003. In previous years she rode with the cyclists. This year she welcomed the riders of peace at the presidential palace, before the cyclists went on to visit the UNRWA al-Husainia refugee camp and the uninhabited city of Qunaitra, the capital of the Golan Heights, a city left in total ruin after its systematic destruction by the Israeli military before withdrawing from the city in June 1974.
The ride and full program of diverse events in Jordan, which took place under the patronage of Queen Rania, concluded with an enjoyable evening at the Dead Sea.
The next destination was the Palestinian territories, where the women rode through Houwara, one of Israel’s strictest checkpoints for locals, through the hilly city of Nablus, reaching the al-Najah University, where FTW were welcomed as guests of the faculty and students.
One of the more memorable experiences was a night spent in the former Israeli interrogation prison for Palestinian youth, the al-Faraa Center, and they were given a guided tour by one of the former detainees.
Next on the program figured a ride past some parts of the imposing Israeli separation wall, reminding some of the German participants of the Berlin Wall. One of the most frequently raised questions is how pressure from the international community managed to bring down the Berlin Wall; whereas no real pressure is being exerted on Israel to do the same.
Despite calls from the International Court of Justice to dismantle the wall, which the Israelis call a “fence,” Palestinians see it as an “apartheid wall” and the U.N. refers to it as a “separation barrier.”
Follow the Women has become an important regional event where women are at the forefront of promoting peace, debunking stereotypes about Arab women.
By YIOTA KAMARATOS (Middle East Times)
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