Wrote by: Azza Maghazy and Hanadi Kawasmi
Translated by: Magi Mostafa
Proofread: Yasmin Gamal

Kolena Laila's second day has seen an amazing number of contributions from Syria and Lebanon, the latest being from Beirut News who chose to give a brief note about Kolena Laila's campaign.

Blogger Ninar writes how for two months she was in doubt about what to write; the problems of Arabic women are more complicated and painful to be discussed in one short post on her blog. She even continues by wondering about which Laila should she speak ?

This question has been asked several times every year on Laila's day indicating the complexity of womens' issues and the impossibility of them being solved. Ninar also discusses the mutability of strain that is imposed on her and concludes that the freeing of women in our society is connected to the freeing of men in the first place which at the same time would free our society from the prison of primitive tribe ideology that relies on the relations based on subjugation and submission between the strongest and weakest to reach a society that values humanity and is based on relationships of mutual giving.

From Syria

Author Ramy Abdelrhman writes about the suffering of female prisoners on Arabic prisons in a short story named 'Memories of a Hostage from Syria' as well the announcement of the call of the global day for solidarity of the victims of honor crimes in many Arabic countries. The chosen day is in memory of a court order that made a hero of a man who killed his sister.

The Syrian contributions also included an important article published on Tgrid blog that connected several social problems such as slums, poverty and unemployment to the problems of women and considering all of this as a sign for a backward social situations in Arab countries. She also focused on how these issues are treated in the media.

Rana Abdelfatah published an article on the site which focused on a study about violence against women which was done by the Syrian committee for family affairs and the central Statistics centre in Syria along with the UNIFEM which was published in 2005.

From Libya Entsar Borawy writes on her blog "sfsaf" about the issues that face each Arabic woman that hasn't gotten married by the proper age; beginning with inquisitive looks from people and not ending with being pushed to find a husband by any means!!

Blogger Borawy criticizes the surrender of some girls to these actions which make them feel inferior and end up preferring loneliness and stop getting involved in social activities in their communities.

The issue of Niqab "veil/ face covering" and Al-Azhar was discussed on day two, blogger Naksha criticized the Azhar university's decision of banning women who cover their face from the university campus. Their argument is based on cases of cheating on exams. Naksha sees that this decision is unconstitutional and she continues that Al-Azhar university should find a better solution for the cheating problem that doesn’t effect the personal freedom of students like hiring female security guards to confirm the identities of the students.

Another contribution that discussed the issues of Lailas with special needs by telling the story of Amal whose leg was amputated because of a medical error but despite of that she has been able to succeed in her life you can read her story here.

You can follow the rest of contributions here.