Follow the Leaders

In 2004, Detta Regan, an International Youth Worker and former firewoman from Wokingham, Berkshire in the United Kingdom started Follow the Women, a non-political international organization and registered charity that campaigns for peace and an end to violence in the Middle East.

Through various speaking events and peaceful vigils over the years, the group has been able to bring “attention to the spiraling violence in the Middle East and how the painfully slow peace process blights the lives of innocent women and children.” However, it is the group's bellwether initiative, the annual Pedal for Peace Bike Ride, that has undoubtedly fissured archaic thinking and fostered tangible progress in this troubled region.

For the past 5 years, around 300 women from all over the globe have turned a pedal, not in anger, but in peace across Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and Palestine; countries that traditionally have not been very observant of women’s rights.

"We were told that we would not be able to do it because women do not ride bicycles in the Middle East," said Detta, a 2001 European Woman of the Year award winner and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, after the inaugural ride. "They said that the men would throw stones at us and it was too dangerous. That just made us more determined to do it. To show the women in the region that we were not afraid and that we stood with them. In the end the men were giving us flowers and holding out their babies for us to kiss."

By promoting bicycles as vehicles of peace and freedom of movement, Follow the Women hopes to inspire and empower women to take an active role in the peace process.

Under the patronage of Her Excellency Mrs. Asma Al Assad of Syria, Queen Rania of Jordan, and Bahir Hariri in Lebanon, the group also uses the event to promote a greater understanding of the Middle East and raise money for local projects such as building playgrounds for children and sewing projects for women in refugee camps.

This year’s event, held from October 10th to the 21st, began in Lebanon and ended on the Jordanian border of the Palestinian West Bank.

For more information, visit the Follow the Women website.

Photo: Getty Images

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