Conference in Copenhagen: Women in a Changing Middle East and North Africa
Conference in Copenhagen: Women in a Changing Middle East and North Africa
KVINFO is hosting an international conference on women’s position in society after the Arab uprisings on April 16th in Copenhagen.
During the Arab uprisings, women and men protested side by side and were united in their call for freedom, basic rights and a just society. However, a year after the blossom of the Arab spring, strengthening gender equality remains a great challenge in the Middle East and North Africa.
The aim of the conference Women in a Changing Middle East and North Africa – Facing Challenges and Seizing Opportunities is to take stock of the situation, look into the future and discuss opportunities and challenges for women in the region.
Activists, politicians, journalists and scholars from the MENA region will attend the conference, which will be opened by the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Villy Søvndal. A panel of women activists and female parliamentarians from the Middle East and North Africa will participate in the debates.
The conference on April 16th is followed by a two-day partner meeting for KVINFO’s more than 70 partners in the MENA region, which will take place on April 17th-18th.
Participation in the conference is free, but it is necessary to register. Read more about the conference and register online here no later than April 10th.
News
Countless Moroccan women continue to face abuse and sexual violence at the hands of their husbands. About 6 million women in Morocco are victims of violence, or around one in three.
Morocco’s Social Development Minister Bassima Hakkaoui, the only female minister in the country, says she would try to push forward a law protecting women that has been stuck in Parliament for eight years.
Read more at Bikya.
Arabic version by the international network Women Living Under Muslim Laws here.
The Lebanese organisation ABAAD breaks new ground with its innovative work on masculinities giving insights into – for example – how gender inequalities are transformed and violence is reduced when men become agents of change.
Read more at WILPF’s Mena Agenda 1325.
Arabic version here.
Arab women in leading positions in their fields of medicine, human rights, media and business, speaks about the role of women in the changes taking place as a result of the Arab Spring.
Listen to the radio programme at ABC.
Reports say that Amina Tyler – the Tunisian activists baring her breasts on Facebook – has been arrested for writing ‘Femen’, on a cementery wall in the holy town on Kairouan in Tunisia. Femen is a feminist organisation from Ukraine.
Read more at watch video at Huffington Post.
The Women Human Rights Defenders program at Nazra for Feminist Studies is launching its manual on Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) tailored specifically for an Egyptian context.
The manual includes sections on Egyptian legislation and military verdicts used to constrain public action; regional and international mechanisms that WHRDs can utilize to report violations committed against them; and security tips that can be of special use during perilous circumstances.
Nazra is a partner organisation to KVINFO.
Read more at Nazra for Women's Studies.
