Organisations working with gender
The list on the following pages contains brief information on and links to selected organizations, unions, institutions and networks etc. working with gender issues and women’s rights in Denmark and the Middle East/North Africa. The listed organizations may be working internationally as well as at a regional, national or local level. They are not necessarily partners in projects or cooperating with KVINFO. If you have a suggestion for additional organizations to the list, please contact us at info@womendialogue.org.
Thara is a weekly review of scholarship, culture and literature on women's issues. It aims to monitor social problems and practices that violate rights of especially women and propose alternative courses of action. Thara is issued by Etana Press, which also facilitates activities aimed at raising civil awareness about social problems in Syria.
ATFD is one of the few genuinely independent feminist organizations in Tunisia, founded in 1989 by women who had already worked within feminist activism for years. ATFD works for women’s rights and gender equality within all spheres of society and through a rights based approach. ATFD established the first Tunisian counselling centre for women victims of violence, and later on the organization established the Feminist University of Ilhem Marzouki.
CREDIF is a centre working under the Tunisian Ministry of Women Affairs, Family, Children and the Elderly. The centre aims to contribute to the promotion of the status of women in Tunisia. CREDIF researches and disseminates information on Tunisian women’s issues as well as relationships and the social roles of both sexes.
SAF is a Yemeni organization aiming to support women’s political participation and strengthen human rights and laws. The organization focuses on supporting women’s rights, combating crimes of honour and violence against women and promoting the idea of Yemen’s inclusion in the international criminal court. The organization has a hotline with legal advice for women who are victims of gender based violence.
The center is a national and regional center for gender-related studies and research. The aim of its program is to improve the position of women in Yemen. The centre publishes a journal on women's studies, which includes research as well as papers and theses produced by its students.
WNC is a committee of the government of Yemen, operating under the Supreme Council for Women Affairs. The committee proposes policies, strategies and programs related to women's affairs and it evaluates the performance standard of gender legislation and laws in the different national bodies. The committee also carries out research and conducts seminars and workshops related to women issues.
The Yemeni Women's Union is a non-governmental organization. The organization aims to improve women’s decision-making through the promotion of their political participation as voters and candidates. The Yemeni Women’s Union offers development programs to raise women's capacities and enhance their conditions, for example projects on the legal protection of women and the support for girls’ education.
Women’s Research and Training Center is one out of ten research centers at Aden University. Amongst the center’s objectives are integration of gender issues within the faculties curricula,contribution to development and improvement of women’s status in Yemeni society and highlighting the aspects of Islamic culture promoting gender equality. The center aims to corporate with scientific institutions holding an expertise in gender issues in order to gain knowledge and discuss research and results at seminars and workshops and to establish an externally linked information system for family and women’s issues.
YLDF is a non-governmental and non-profit organization. The mission of the organization is to increase young people’s participation in social, political and economic aspects of society through training and education in for instance communication and leadership. The programs and projects aim to improve skills of young people, especially women and the underprivileged and to identify and enhance their leadership qualities.
News
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.
In Morocco, women have achieved impressive gains over the past decades, both legally and economically, and the human development index shows clear improvements in a wide range of areas, namely girl’s access to schooling or a decline in maternal mortality.
But why do women in Morocco play such a small part in the political, economic and social arenas?
Read more at Global Arab Network.
For the office in Rabat, Morocco, KVINFO - the Danish Centre for Information on Gender, Equality and Diversity - is looking for a new Programme Adviser.
Deadline for applications: June 3rd 2013.
Read the announcement here.
“One lesson from the 1979 Iranian revolution and the 2011 Arab revolutions is that activists seeking to promote women’s rights, human rights and the transition to democracy must challenge patriarchy from within the Muslim legal tradition.”
So writes Ziba Mir-Hosseini, a legal anthropologist and a founding member of Musawah Global Movement for Equality and Justice in the Muslim Family.
Read more at OpenDemocracy.
To combat the predominant mindset contributing to the failure of women in the workforce, the Qatar Career Fair recently hosted its second lecture, The working women in Qatar: professional aspirations and social traditions.
More Qatari women have university degrees than men, yet female participation in the workforce is only 35 percent, well below the national percentages in developed countries.
Read more at Arabian Gazette.
