Sondos Shabayek

I am currently the artistic director of The BuSSy project. BuSSy is a performing arts project that documents and gives voice to censored untold stories about gender in different communities in Egypt.

The project organizes storytelling workshops and performances where women and men step on stage to share stories about harassment, rape, gender discrimination, honor killing, forced marriage, Female genital mutilation, motherhood, domestic violence, child abuse, mass sexual assaults and many others, from different communities and cities in Egypt.
The project opened up a new way of thinking about those issues through storytelling workshops storytelling performances. We give these issues a name, a face, a voice--showing others that they are not alone in having doubts or concerns about society's perceptions of these issues. One story told on stage can change the lives of countless others, and empower them to step up and share their own story.

How do we change society? We show society its own reality through our storytellers.

Individuals come to share their stories, and we try to make their stories known through documenting the workshops and conducting personal one-on-one storytelling sessions. We then use the stories to raise awareness and encourage others to share as well through the performances.