Discussion Questions

1. Why did Fhaida feel that her marriage would interfere with her ability to pursue her ambitions? In
your experience, have you observed additional ways that gender roles/societal expectations inhibit
or support women’s sense of empowerment?
- I think Fhaida felt this way because of course being married has already a responsibility to
family to the husband and as a wife there is so much to do and so much work that you might
lose track of what you want to do or want you want to become. In my experience I have seen
men respecting women’s decisions and some men also do what the norms of a woman should
do like washing the dishes or cleaning the house and etc.

2. If you were in Fhaida’s position, what kinds of strategies would you employ to begin to reach out to
this community with population, health, and environment messages, given the constraints posed by
religious, cultural, and traditional beliefs?
- The first thing that I should do in my opinion is plan on how my advocacy can help and matter
to them and how can I deliver my message to them that they can understand my perspective
and what interventions can we apply to when situations arises and next I am going to go the
barangay and first talk to the barangay captain or if she is not there get to talk to the secretary
and make an appointment because I don’t want to do something that later on will be called of
because I did not ask permission and follow the regulations of the barangay next if th barangay
captain is there I will ask for like 5 mins of her time if she is not busy then I will hand out a
printed copy of what ideas that I have for our community and how it can affect the community
and if she agreed and would also like to help then this will be my next step to plan when and
how and where my project will be held at and who are my target audience and what project
that I can start and lastly I am going to ask some people who can help me in my advocacy and
partner with some agencies who has a same advocacy and perspective that I have in mind.

3. What kinds of strategies did Fhaida use to reach out to community members? Were these the
strategies you suggested in response to question 2 in Part I? What were the differences?
- From what I understand is first she would reach out to her grandfather but in other to persuade
her grandfather is that she would ask help from her mother and father so that her grandfather
will be persuaded more and next go to the aleema which is thee female muslim religious leader
to help her in persuading the people more at first it was hard to persuade the aleema but at the
end she persuaded her and good thing is the aleema joined hands with Fhaida. Yes, but since I
don’t have the power like what Fhaida has so it somewhat differs in a sense and also because
she is a muslim she needs more people to persuade because as I have understood it also come
in the culture and their tradition so Fhaida has more thing to do to make her project work.

4. What kinds of alliances did Fhaida build? How did she go about doing this?
- Fhaida formed her alliance through the concerns in religious, culture and tradition because
muslims really put effort in their practices more than Catholics. As I have understood she did
this with the help of her relatives and what we call rumors that also got the attention of many
people specially those who really wanted to help.
5. What did Fhaida do to try to overcome the mistrust felt by some members of her community? What
other kinds of strategies would you suggest?
- I think it was not merely of mistrust, but they have their doubt because it was said “in their
Qu’ran” which they don’t really know of until Fhaida pointed out that like “no, it didn’t say like
that” and clearing the misconception of what her advocacy will be like. In my opinion I would
say that I it good already that she has a family member that has power and can help her in her
advocacy what I would suggest is that if it were really her idea, I would suggest not using her
family to persuade people thus it should be just her because it can really affect how people will
think and accept her advocacy.

6. The panday acknowledged that she was helping women use family planning but was fearful of
talking about it publicly. Why? In what other contexts have you seen this kind of fear?
- I think the panday was fearful of talking about this is because the aleema was there and it was
also “against their religion”. I think I have not seen something like this yet in context but fear
inn a sense of religion if you think muslim religion I think its not called “fear” it just not
accepted. So, I believe the use of word is wrong and it might put something in line to this.

7. How realistic do you find Fhaida's efforts? Which elements do you think could be replicated in other
contexts where religious, cultural, and traditional beliefs are important? Give specific examples of
such settings and strategies that could be used to advance reproductive health advocacy in those
settings.
- On a rating scale of 1-10 I would say it’s like 9/10 realistic and her intentions can help her
community. LGBTQ Rights this comes with religious, cultural, and traditional beliefs are
important. Sex education, I think this can be taught in school specially in High School to prevent
teenage pregnancy and how important it is for them to know this.

8. Who were Fhaida’s target audiences? What kinds of messages did she develop for each audience?
Who helped her convey these messages?
- At first Fhaida was targeting women as her audience but then through time she was losing the
women support and wanted to also target her friends’ husband when it comes to
environmental topic and for me basically, she wanted everyone involved in her advocacy the
one mainly who helped her in conveying her message was the family.

9. How did Fhaida begin to reach out to men in her community?

10. At the end of the story, Fhaida expresses gratitude for her arranged marriage, which she strongly
resisted at the beginning. Why did her views change? What are your views on arranged marriage or
other traditional practices that affect women's lives?
- I also thought the same but as I look back into reality, I mean who really is ready to marry? And
at the long run if I am already married would are perspective in life still bee the same? I think
 Fhaida is blessed because at the same time she has a husband who is willing to be part of her
advocacy and understands her perspective in life. I viewed arrange marriage as a tradition that
was practiced before but if it is today still being practice, I would respect their decision,
tradition and culture but if it will happen to me good thing not, I want to love freely without
remorse and live the life I choose to be happy.

11. What kinds of challenges and opportunities are presented by approaching community development
through an approach that integrates population, health, and environmental concerns in a
community that has strong religious and traditional beliefs?
- The challenges I think is how to point out the misconceptions of their beliefs and the practice of
their traditions because some might not like this and some will judge you because of this and
the opportunity is that you can raise awareness and this can be part of the studies that can
break the norms of how we think about the issue in the context of the advocacy and how it can
change history.