Middle East
Jordan: Interview with Leila Hammarneh - "Women's Rights Are Now On the Table"
Leila Hammarneh is the Project Director of Arab Women Organization, Jordan, and a member of the Coalition Equality without reservation.
What is your perspective on the ongoing events throughout the region? What do you think are the potential implications for women’s rights?
I consider what happened in Tunisia then in Egypt, and the impact these events have had on other Arab countries, as a step forward for women’s rights. I think that especially in Egypt the revolution clarified that women and men stand side by side. They stood together in protest for 18 days in Tahrir square in Cairo. They were calling for freedom and social justice.
Egypt: The unclear future of women
CAIRO, September 13, 2011‑Egyptian women currently face numerous threats that will not only destroy the goals of equality, freedom and change voiced in the January revolution, but the advances women have made over the last century.
Because Mrs. Mubarak was extremely active in women’s issues, including the advancement of women’s rights, many Egyptians, especially men, equate women’s rights with the former corrupt dictatorship of Hosni Mubara.
As a result of Mr. Mubarek’s fall, there is a move to reject the advances Egyptian women have made over the last several years.
Iraq: Fight for Women’s Rights Begins All Over Again
BAGHDAD, Sep 13, 2011 (IPS) - When a middle-aged mother took a taxi alone from Baghdad to Nasiriyah, about 300 kilometres south earlier this year, her 20-year-old driver stopped on the way, pulled her to the side of the road and raped her. And that began a telling legal struggle.
"She is not a simple case," says Hanaa Edwar, head of the Iraqi rights-based Al-Amal Association, established in Baghdad after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Tunisia: Leading the way on women's rights in the Middle East
Last December, , triggering a political earthquake that has sent shockwaves through most of the Middle East and north Africa. Now, Tunisia is leading the way once again – this time on the vexed issue of gender equality.
It has become the first country in the region to withdraw all its specific reservations regarding – the international convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
Tunisia: Government Lifts Restrictions on Women’s Rights Treaty
(Beirut) September 6, 2011 ─ Tunisia’s lifting of key reservations to the (CEDAW) is an important step toward gender equality, Human Rights Watch said today. The Tunisian government should next ensure that all domestic laws conform to international standards and eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, Human Rights Watch said.
Tunisia is the first country in the region to withdraw all of its specific reservations to the treaty. These reservations had enabled it to opt out of certain provisions even though it had ratified the treaty.
Saudi Arabia: Efforts to include human rights in syllabuses
JEDDAH: Chairman of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) Mufleh Al-Qahtani has said the organization is making efforts to introduce the subject of human rights in higher and general education syllabuses in Saudi Arabia.
“The organization has put a special emphasis on this issue, held seminars and carried out activities in this regard,” he said on Tuesday.
Al-Qahtani said a joint workshop between the organization and the Ministry of Education made specific recommendations on the issue that were currently being studied.
Iraq: Attacks continue on women human rights defenders
FRIDAY FILE: Women have been at the forefront of demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the recent popular uprisings, which have received much media and international attention. In contrast, coverage of attacks on women human rights defenders (WHRDs) in Iraq’s Tahrir Square demonstrations has been limited, AWID asks why.
Jordan: Child Bride in Jordan Puts Daughters on Same Path
What kind of mothers subject their daughters to drudgery, deny them education and threaten them with early marriage and other human rights abuses? The answer, one family's story suggests, are women who've gone through just that themselves.
AMMAN, Jordan (WOMENSENEWS)--Fawzeya, a 70-year-old Palestinian-Jordanian woman living in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, raised her two daughters--now 53 and 47--with an iron hand.
Egypt: Women seek to establish themselves during transitional period
CAIRO: Six months on, women say they are yet to reap the benefits of a revolution that explicitly called for equality and social justice, with women missing from key positions that are helping shape the country in its transitional phase.
There are no women on the committee assigned to draft the constitution, no women appointed as governors, and only one woman in the new Cabinet of ministers.
The recently appointed all-male governors infuriated women rights’ organizations and political players, especially since the Minister of Local Development Mohamed Atteya, had told the media that he and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf were considering the nomination of women as governors and that they were in the process of choosing the new governors.
Iran: Parliament Further Delays Polygamy Bill
Parliament has once again delayed consideration of a controversial bill to amend the Family Protection Act, which would give Iranian men the right to multiple marriages without first proving adequate financial resources.
The Khaneh Mellat website cites MP Moussa Ghorbani as saying that the 23rd amendment to the Family Protection Act has been omitted from the parliamentary agenda and will be considered at a later date.