Cultural practitioners, artists, legal experts, and care professionals will gather at the Czech Embassy in Cairo for the (Safe) Spaces Symposium, a cross-disciplinary event exploring what it means to create and sustain safe, inclusive environments in times of social pressure and mental health challenges.
To be organized as part of the long-term Safe Spaces initiative of the Czech Centres network and the SPACES thematic focus of the Austrian Cultural Forum Cairo, the symposium will bring together perspectives that rarely share the same platform.
Through talks, panels, and embodied workshops, participants will examine how responsibility, agency, and access shape the experience of safety in both physical and social spaces.
“Safe spaces are shaped by responsibility and agency, by who is allowed to speak, move, and belong,” said Anouk El-Schahawi, who moderated the panel discussion.
“This symposium creates room for dialogue across disciplines that rarely meet in one place.”
The programme will be opened with introductory remarks from representatives and project coordinators, setting the framework for a day of exchange.
An artist talk will be followed, presenting outcomes from a pre-symposium workshop in Aswan led by interdisciplinary artist and researcher Rojda Tuğrul.
The workshop will engage the Nile as a living social and environmental space, highlighting the relationship between ecology, memory, and collective experience.
A central feature of the symposium will be the panel discussion, What Makes a Space Safe: Perspectives from Art, Law and Care.
Speakers will include Dr. Wafaa Benjamin Basta, consultant obstetrician-gynaecologist and member of Egypt’s National Council for Human Rights; Mohamed Farouk, artist and founder of Mortagal; and Suhaib Ahmed, lawyer and human rights researcher at MAAT for Peace, Development, and Human Rights.
Together, they will discuss safety through lenses of health, mental well-being, human rights, and community practice.
The afternoon program will focus on workshops and embodied practices, offering body- and arts-based approaches to care, awareness, and mental well-being.
Workshops will be ed by Mai El-Gabry, psycho-physio therapist and arts facilitator, in collaboration with Mohamed Farouk, as well as Rojda Tuğrul.
These sessions will emphasize trust, participation, and inclusion as foundations for community-centered facilitation.
The symposium will be concluded with a shared reflection session, allowing participants to exchange experiences and good practices across disciplines.
By fostering dialogue between art, law, and care, the (Safe) Spaces Symposium underscores the role of cultural practice in responding to social challenges and nurturing more inclusive and caring environments.
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