The Middle East
Danish minister for Foreign Affairs supports Arab women
Minister for Foreign Affairs Villy Søvndal wants to support Arab women who played an active role in the “Arab spring”. To move the process forward, Denmark is contributing DKK 34 million. “Denmark wants to provide support and set an example of a society where women have a large measure of equal rights”, Søvndal told Kristeligt Dagblad.
Premiere: Conference on women and sports in the Middle East
For the first time ever a conference on how to make more girls and women to participate in sport in the Middle Eastern region is held. The event with the title ‘Women and Sport: From Past to Future’ will be held in Qatar at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha from 22-24 January. The conference will have participants from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Syria, UAE and Europe.
Political cartoons deprive Muslim women of agency
In their own way, Muslim women are very often at the same time covered, hyper-sexualized, muted and reduced to a source of objectification and appropriation. This is at least the view of Erren Arruna Cervantes who reflects on the gendered stereotype of Muslim women in political cartoons. Upon her critical commentary, she asks the rhetoric question about the consequences of the stereotyped depiction.
‘Women and the Arab Spring’ theme for New Arab Woman Forum
What are the ways to ensure that women reap the benefits of changes sweeping the MENA region? That is the major agenda at the 5th New Arab Woman Forum, taking place in Beirut Feb. 1-2. The convention will take its starting point in ‘the pivotal role that females have played in the Arab Spring protests that are reshaping the geopolitical map of the Middle East.’
“The Arab Spring should not be an autumn for the Arab woman,” said the Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour, at an event to announce the theme of the forum.
Read more in the article at dailystar.com
Visit the website of the New Arab Woman Forum at nawforum.com
Professional and regionally customized on-line advice for new Arab mothers and fathers
How do you feed, nurse, talk to and stimulate your newly born baby in the most sensible way, and how do you prepare optimally on parenthood during pregnancy and upon delivery? Those are questions that new Arab mothers and mothers to be have now a new source of answers to – apart from the advice that your own family and relatives can offer.
The new source is online and compiled of expertise and advice offered by professionals, such as physicians, nutritionists and psychologists. The Egypt-based website SuperMama was launched last fall by Yasmine al-Mehairy and Zeinab Samir. It is in Arabic and English and unique in the manner that its content is adjusted to fit Arabs' normal lifestyles. A vital point in the formation process of the site was a 3-month internship training in Denmark in entrpreneurship.
About Equality Without Reservation
The CEDAW convention has been signed by 17 Arab States.
PROJECT NAME:
Equality Without Reservation
KVINFO supports the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as a part of the focus area Legal Change. More specifically, support is given to efforts in the Middle East and North Africa to lift specific reservations to the convention. A campaign headed by a regional network calls for - equality without reservation.
No results
The CEDAW convention has been signed by 17 Arab States. However, most of these have ratified the convention with a number of very significant reservations or opt-outs regarding all articles dealing with nationality issues and equality articles that are deemed by these states to contradict Islamic law.The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women is an expert body comprising 23 women's issues experts from around the world. The Committee monitors the progress of women made in those countries that have ratified CEDAW. Every four years each state submits a national report which is reviewed by the Committee. NGOs are welcome to submit country-specific information (so-called CEDAW shadow reports) to ensure that the committee is as well informed as possible.
Ratification of CEDAW
In itself, the ratification of CEDAW does not ensure the end of all discrimination against women. It is an instrument that will only be effective if an enabling environment exists at national and local levels, and it is therefore necessary to follow up with appropriate laws and policies. Denmark ratified CEDAW in 1983, but it has yet to be integrated in Danish national law.
Regional Campaign
The Equality without Reservation coalition is lead by a number of civil society organisations representing most countries in the region. They have joined in a regional campaign working for the lifting of all reservations made by Arab states to the CEDAW convention. The ‘Equality without Reservation’ campaign is the outcome of a regional conference held in Rabat, Morocco, in June 2006 that also led to the adoption of two principal documents: ‘Strategy of the Regional Campaign’ and The Rabat call for ‘Equality without Reservation’. The campaign has shown good results and several countries represented in the network have declared that they will remove or reduce their reservations to CEDAW.
Advocacy, networking and training
The Equality without Reservation coalition is leading an advocacy campaign among political and legislative decision-makers in all Arab countries, as well as to regional institutions concerned by the issue. It is seeking support from civil society actors and works towards strengthening relationships and networks with the human rights and women’s right movements at national, regional and international levels.The network has launched an information campaign at regional level and has recently engaged in organising training activities for member organisations.
Organisation
The network steering group includes representatives from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Bahrain and the network is currently being coordinated by New Woman Foundation and supported by KVINFO, as well as other international donors.
Fund - Women's political participation
Women’s Political Participation Fund (WPP Fund) Supporting Jordanian initiatives working on women’s political participation.
About Engendering the Public Sphere
Gender equality and women’s economic participation in Jordan
About Women’s Political Participation in Jordan
Women’s participation in national and local politics
Jordan has seen important achievements regarding women’s rights over the last decade and the national as well as municipal elections in 2007 increased the focus on women’s political participation. A quota of 20% for women was introduced before the Jordanian municipal elections in 2007, which raised new debates.