International Women’s Day: Break the Bias Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Mar 8, 2022 in Arabic Language, comprehension, Culture, Music, News, Pronunciation, Vocabulary
I’d like to send love and respect to women all over the world. Today is the International Women’s Day يوم المرأة العالمي/ اليوم العالمي للمرأة. As is the case every year, the United Nations هيئة الأمم المتحدة designates تُخَصِّص this day of every year to clebrate women لِتَحْتَفِي بَالنِّسَاء , and their achievements, in all walks of life فِي جَمِيعِ مَنَاحِي الحَيَاة. In this post, I will cover some of the hashtags that appeared on Twitter for the last 2 days about this event as well as the theme of the Women’s day this year. I will end the post with a song that titles: Half of Life – Nuss Ed-dunia نصّ الدُّنْيَا, by the Egyptian singer: Angham أنغام.
Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash
People in Twitter has been using a few hashtags, in Arabic & English, to celebrate this day. These two Arabic hashtag below are the two I noticed being used> #يوم_المراه_العالمي #اليوم_العالمي_للمرأة
The English included these>#IWD2022 & #InternationalWomensDay
Theme
On women’s day every year, the UN announces تُعْلِن a different theme موضوعًا مختلفًا that highlights a way in which women struggle with inequality. This year’s theme is symbolised by this slogan الشٍّعَار >“Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow” which translates to: “المساواة المبنية على النوع الاجتماعي اليوم من أجل غدٍ مستدام” in Arabic.
The theme was reflected in this hashtag: ‘Break the bias‘ or اِكْسِرْ التَّحَيُّز.
If you’d like to learn more about this day in Arabic, you can check the short clip in this post below, published by Hiya Magazne مجلة هي.
أصل #يوم_المرأة_العالمي.. خبز ووردة ومطالبات بتخفيض عدد ساعات العمل pic.twitter.com/lfMgtm7OBa
— مجلة هي (@hiamag) March 7, 2022
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Let’s now move on to studying the song below >>
أنا مش كمالة عدد
I’m neither just a number/ someone to fill in
ولا صفر على الشمال
Nor a zero on the left1an expression in vernacular Arabic to mean that someone is useless, because a zero on the left doesn’t have a value.
عن دورى وقت الشدد
About my role in times of adversity
كلام كتير اتقال
Many things were said
******
أنا ببساطة نص الدنيا
I’m, simply, half of life
مش محتاجة إنى أثبت
I don’t need to prove
إن وجودى مهم
That my existence is important
وقبل دة كله كفاية عليا
And before all of this, its enough for me
إن ليا مكان فى الجنة
that I have a place in heaven
عشان أنا أم
Because I’m a mother
******
أنا مش كلام على الورق
I’m neither speech (words) on paper
ولا جزء مش محسوب
Nor a part that is not considered
الكون ده لما اتخلق
This whole universe, when it was created
كان ليا دور مكتوب
I had a written (designated) role
******
- 1an expression in vernacular Arabic to mean that someone is useless, because a zero on the left doesn’t have a value.
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About the Author: Hanan Ben Nafa
Hi, this is Hanan :) I'm an Arabic linguist. I completed my PhD in Linguistics - 2018. My PhD thesis was entitled Code-switching as an evaluative strategy: identity construction among Arabic-English bilinguals. I'm also a qualified public service translator & interpreter.