In an attempt to understand the general situation of women around the world, and in the Arab world in particular, we find a complex and layered set of factors that have been and still are affecting women's rights and gender equality across the world. Throughout history, several forms of knowledge have shaped social behaviors over time. There is no specific point in time that one could point out as the starting point of the application of an unfair social system that discriminates between genders and favors one over the other. There is no specific action that one could refer to, in order to explain how all this started. However, these acts have been nurtured, developed, wiped out then reappeared, and onwards until we reach today, where we stand in front of an intricate topic, that is rooted and entangled with other social topics.

This makes it necessary to pay attention and to synergize all our efforts as human rights activists and human beings in order to achieve social equity in which both women and men enjoy their inherent rights. Change is long overdue. Hence, the theme of this year's Karama Human Rights Film Festival is to address the issue of women through human rights cinema tackling all the dimensions, and factors that lead to them.

The programming attempts to enhance the complementarity between women and men and their organic relationship in society:

Raise awareness of gender equality and lobby for policies supported by film screenings and debates addressing women's issues in the world and the Arab world.  

Focus on the promotion of women's access in practice by highlighting the role of women as a pioneer of Arab cinema and an essential component: Female producers, directors, cinematographers, actresses, and other professions.

Change the image of women and men in media representations, by presenting a fair and inclusive image, deconstructing and pointing out formal stereotypical images and roles that are assigned to women and men.

Identify success stories and role models of female heroines to enhance their role in films, and amplify their issues in their own voice, as modern archetypes who need to be freed from the stereotyping and reductionism they are facing.