THE BUSSY STORY

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 started in 2006, when two American University of Cairo [AUC] students began directing a performance using stories of Egyptian women about their memories and experiences of womanhood. The monologues, which were by women, for women, exposed real women’s stories and provided a space for free expression on issues that society often failed to address. Thus began The BuSSy Project.
The monologue performances allow women to write for themselves instead of being written about. We are not professional artists; we are a group of passionate, enthusiastic youth with strong faith in the value and impact of the project.
In 2010, BuSSy transitioned from a university-aliated group to an independent theater project holding a number of performances on stages all over Egypt. Over time, BuSSy performances began incorporating stories from both women and men; and today, the project extends beyond “women’s issues” as BuSSy now aims to tackle the complexity of gender issues from the perspectives of both women and men.
Our stories reflect the reality that we, as young Egyptian women and men, are living with regards to social issues that are experienced by all members of society, irrespective of class and background. We aim, through our performances, to reach the public directly, and expose the reality which society ignores, while also creating new opportunities for dialogue and awareness of many different important issues.

Since 2006 we have...

Held more than 36 storytelling workshops…
Held 6 inhouse storytelling nights …
Held 11 closed storytelling sessions …
Performed & held workshops in Cairo, and a number of other governorates: Alexandria, Minya, Assiut, Port Said, Damietta, Luxor, Tanta, Aswan, and Sharqia...
Held more than 61 performances by women and men in Egypt…
Travelled to India, Sweden, UK, France, Jordan and Lebanon … 
Gathered stories from over 2500 people...
Reached Thousands of others online and through our performances…