Second phase of HeForShe global campaign launched on social media

AMMAN — The country office of UN Women in Jordan on Wednesday launched the second phase of the HeForShe campaign for gender equality, which aims to reach a total of 20,000 commitments in the Kingdom. 

The new phase of the campaign will set the focus on social media to spread awareness on the movement, which provides a targeted platform where global audiences can engage and become agents of change to achieve gender equality, according to its website. 

“When a new volunteer commits with the movement, they get a unique number, which they write down on a piece of paper and later post on their social media profiles, along with a message explaining why are they joining the change,” project coordinator Laith Abu Taleb told The Jordan Times. 

“We believe in the power of social media, which is why we want to use it as a tool to spread the word and to educate audiences about gender equality,” he continued. 

The new phase of the campaign will also serve to launch the Impact 10×10×10 initiative in Jordan, which engages key decision makers in the government, private companies and universities to make gender equality an institutional priority. 

“We seek to make 10 universities, 10 companies and 10 members of the public sector commit with gender equality through their organisations,” Abu Taleb said. 

Furthermore, the campaign will launch new social media channels with Arabic content. “Jordan has been leading the movement in the Arab region and neighbouring countries are now following us, so we are opening these new channels to make the information available for as many people as possible,” the coordinator explained. 

The new phase will officially start on October 15 with a training at the UN women country office in Jordan, where volunteers will prepare the strategy for the new stage. 

“During the first phase, we discovered various challenges along the way, so we still have to see what this new stage brings,” Abu Taleb said. 

The launching coincided with the closing ceremony of HeForShe phase one, which concluded in September with a total of 10,000 new commitments achieved through 25 campaigns across public and applied universities in the Kingdom. 

Committed men and women were granted certificates of achievement, and several youth volunteers were awarded the HeForShe prize for their efforts. 

Farah Khalil, a student at Al al-Bayt University and one of the awarded volunteers, said: “One of the main challenges we encountered was the culture and the stereotypes applied to gender.” 

Although she was aware of what she would have to face, that did not stop her, she said, noting that she achieved 3,000 commitments at Al al-Bayt University.