This is not only a note of acknowledgement and thanks but of deep gratitude to the support I have received throughout the past two years from many people since I started thinking about this project. I would like to first thank my family: the amount of care given by Dina Sallam and Rawya Sadek is insurmountable. I have been through many days where I doubted that I could finish this project in a satisfying way, but their constant faith and support has been essential to my ability to finish this book. I would like to thank my mother, Rawya Sadek, artist and translator, for volunteering to design the cover for this book. I would also like to thank my father, Refaat Sallam, for voluntarily revising the Arabic content on the project's website.
I would like to thank all the women who have been part of this project by taking the time to share their experiences with me. Without their trust in me, this project would not have been written.
This project was only an idea that came out of a conversation with two dear friends, Poonam Joshi and James Savage, and so I would like to thank them for encouraging me and helping me get in touch with those who could make this project happen, turning an idea into reality. I would also like to thank Magda Adamowicz for being the link that allowed this project a chance to materialize and for believing in the project and helping me with suggestions on how to develop it.
Conversations with Alice Nah, Jelena Djordjevic, Soha Abdelaty and Poonam Joshi have greatly helped me, and I would like to thank them for their encouragement and for thinking with me on how to deal with the heaviness of this project.
I would like to extend my thanks to Dina Makram, Margaret Satterthwaite, Asmaa Falhi, Lina Attalah, Reem Awny Abuzaid and Magda Boutros, not only for the primary discussions we had concerning this project, but also for reading the drafts of the manuscript at different stages of the writing process, and for giving me feedback and suggestions for improvement. Special thanks go to Masa Amir who has revised all the drafts of this book thoroughly and was constantly aware of the process of working on this project and all its details.
I would also like to thank Amira Mahmoud who has helped me in writing the transcripts of the interviews in Egypt; Feryal Sharafedeen who has conducted the interviews in Tunisia and written their transcripts; Mohamed Gaber who created the graphic identity of the project and the website layout; Husamuddin Hamad who designed the website; Shady Samir who has helped with the technical launch of the website. I thank Nawara Belal for the translation and editing of the book's methodology and questions from English to Arabic since the beginning of the project and reaching the "wellbeing" terminology in Arabic after extended discussions. I would also like to thank Ahmed Shebini for revising the language for the Arabic text and Zainab Magdy for translating the book into English and editing it.
Last but not least, I would like to thank Lobna Darwish for accepting to be the final eye to read the manuscript and revise it right before publication on very short notice.