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Peasant men and women and farming security

On the 25/6/2009 in Khazan village in Mahalla, Gharbeya governorate, Al Ard center has organized a forum where fifty farmers from the ranch and discussed the problems they face with the Authority of endowments (awqaf) and those who claim property over the lands they seize illegally. They violate the farmers' rights in a secured ownership of their lands by threatening them with jail sentence, using their powers in public authorities and different agencies to seize lands that the farmers' had purchased from the Authority of endowments before the fifties of last century. The forum has discussed the legal ways for those farmers to stop the violation practiced by agencies and individuals. The forum has also discussed how to organize a campaign for raising awareness on solidarity needed from the parliament members, the media and the urban society to protect the farmers' rights; provided that some activists in the village organize and launch these campaigns to guarantee their success. Participation is needed to help these farmers defend their rights by themselves, and that can be achieved by empowering farmers, to take on securing their property rights and their rights to a dignified secure life.