One of the counter-censorship techniques used by Shabayek and Zitan is presenting their first show under the auspices of foreign organisations. Shabayek presented her first show at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 2010. Later, in 2012, she performed at the Elysee Theatre, Lyon, France, followed by many other presentations at home and abroad where she managed to perform the scenes censored in Egypt. Similarly, Zitan depended on the French funding at first. Foreignisation, in some cases, is a two-edged weapon. Although foreignisation is a good method of counter-censorship because "foreign drama was less harshly treated than domestic drama, and recounts how taboo topics were often introduced via foreign plays" (O’Leary 2016, 30), it can be misused within one’s country. In an interview with Zitan, she complained that Dialy was banned from participation in "Culture and Theatre" Festival in Morocco, while at the same time a Lebanese show of the same play is allowed, "for nothing but because we are Moroccan" (El-Balghiti 2013, translation mine).
Convinced that Dialy is of a special nature, Zitan introduced her show at the Aquarium Theatre in a popular district in Rabat. The show, which is uploaded in 2012, opens with a washing line crowded with women’s under pants for all sizes and ages hanging from it, representing the suffering of women all over the different stages of their lives: "her first menstrual cycle, marriage, pregnancy, giving birth, even marital rape. Such is the tension that even the knickers on the washing line quiver" (Jardonnet 2015). The discussion of such sensitive, highly censored issues has to be performed in small places. To the same effect, Amine adds that the show is "still unique in its subversive reinscription of private archives in public and as an intervention in the face of silence and amnesia" (Amine 2016, 127). Zitan herself states, in Bel-afyia’s words, that: "such shows do not require big stages, but small venues, where such taboo issues can be discussed in order to motivate people into action" (Bel-afyia 2012, translation mine).
In Egypt, and for the same reasons, Shabayek dares not to perform such a show in a public place, at least for the first time. She performs it at the AUC stage. Elmeligy comments: "the elite and westernized AUC and not advertising it to the public was a rational decision because the backlash of the authorities and the public would have been very harsh. Consequently, Bussy has been trying to do the difficult job of "shocking" society in a way it could handle" (Elmeligy 2018, 9). Both Zitan and Shabayek use the setting and technique of narrative as a way to escape censorship. After all, their shows are adaptations.