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February the 1st marked Arab Women’s Day. To commemorate this occasion and empower Arab women, Max Fashion and TBWA\Raad, the brand's agency, launched a special campaign titled “Abu Benti (Father of my daughter)”.
Abu Benti in Arabic literally translates to Father of my daughter.
In the Arab world, fathers tends to be known to close friends as the Abu of his eldest son. This is how they address themselves by their ‘kunya’ (nickname). Indeed in Arabic countries, once a man has a son, it's common to be referred to as Abu with his son's name--whether they have sons or daughters-- due to the traditional belief that having a son is a blessing. Sons carry the family’s name and most of the inheritance. They also support their families financially and provide security. This has always given sons the upper hand and marginalized the role of daughters. Arab fathers are therefore known as “Abu Waleed”, “Abu Tarek”, “Abu Fares”...
Building on this insight, Max Fashion found in Arab Women’s Day the perfect opportunity to challenge this conventional thinking and emphasize the major role of women in driving their societies forward, inviting fathers to join the Abu Benti initiative, empower their daughters and honor their names by changing their nicknames to “Abu Nada”, “Abu Yusra”, “Abu Layal”, “Abu…”.
The campaign launched with a social film that invited fathers in the Middle East to join the initiative:
Max Fashion also introduced a special t-shirt collection in 280 Max stores across the Middle East, where fathers printed new nicknames using their daughters’ names and proudly wore them for everyone to see.
The “Abu Benti (Father of my daughter)” campaign will hopefully trigger a new way of thinking in countries with powerful and resilient patriarchy, starting by the structure of the kunya.
It is worth mentioning though that an almost similar campaign titled "Forgotten Names" has been done in 2019 by Impact BBDO for Etisalat brand and launched on Father's Day (21 June). However, the concept was slightly different although based on the same premise. The campaign was aimed to highlight the sacrifice a father does when called by his son's /daughter's name with the prefix 'Abu'. Over time, the father's birth name is forgotten, as it is not used to address the father anymore. An online film was launched on social media asking the sons and daughters of the Middle East to use one of the two hashtags: #IAmTheSonOf / #IAmTheDaughterOf -completing it with the birth name of their fathers.
