Four women of Egypt : memory, geopolitics, and the Egyptian women's movement during the Nasser and Sadat Eras

This article addresses the Egyptian women’s movement of the 1950s–1970s through a recent film entitled Four Women of Egypt, which focuses on the lives of four prominent Egyptian women active in the movement during that period. Using the concept of political memory, the article traces some of the major debates within the women’s movement throughout this era. By focusing on the ways in which these women conceptualize the geopolitical, I show that the twin concepts of imperialism and capitalism were central to the ways in which they understood gender. The result was a complex understanding of how gender intersected with Egypt's position within a broader global system of imperial capitalism. Following the transition in the 1970s to an open-market economy, the women's movement shifted away from critiques of imperialism and capitalism. This shift can be understood only in terms of geopolitics: the rise of neoliberalism in Egypt. New neoliberal policies had dramatic effects on the women’s movement, showing why both the rise and fall of the movement must be contextualized geopolitically and transnationally

Arab Women and Political Development

Although many measures have been taken by the majority of Arab countries to enhance women’s representation in decision-making positions, women’s participation in public life and positions of power have not been achieved the desired level. The Arab region ranks the lowest in the world in terms of women’s participation in parliaments. The objective of this paper is to examine the Political participation of women in the Arab countries and identify different challenges that impede Arab women participation in politics and decision making. Challenges include: cultural factors, the stereotyped image of women, women\u27s low self-confidence, lack of coordination among women\u27s organizations, effectiveness/efficiency of women empowerment programs, shortcomings in the institutional and legal frameworks, practices of political parties and election process, skepticism about the Agenda for Women empowerment, the process of development of Women empowerment strategies. Thus, challenges facing women in politics are immense. They require the consolidation of all efforts with great belief in women’s capabilities as human beings who are able to lead and shoulder the responsibility in the building of their nations

The impact of political violence on domestic violence against women: Egypt as a case study from 2005-2015

The thesis discusses the impact of political violence represented by the 25th of January 2011 Uprising whether political, economic, institutional or legal violence, on domestic violence against women. The thesis also approaches social violence as it intersects with both political and domestic violence. So, the interaction between political and social violence, and domestic violence against women will be analyzed to find out how they interact and in what ways domestic violence against women is affected by both variables. Previous research work highlighted the relation between political and social violence or the relation between social and domestic violence with little attention to the impact of political violence on domestic violence against women; how political, social and domestic violence interact, and how social and domestic violence impede women’s political participation. The research methodology would be through interviewing and surveying female survivors from spousal violence whether divorced, separated or married and being exposed to marital violence within the thesis time frame from urban and rural communities. The thesis concludes that there is an impact of political violence on domestic violence against women. Additionally, it was inferred that political, social, and domestic violence limit women’s political participation in elections and demonstrations. Recommendations included reforming policies that protect women in family; enforcing gender equality at all fronts; raising men’s awareness of violence issues; providing better social, psychological and financial support for domestic violence female survivors

Does Wealth Influence Women’s Labor Participation Decision?: Evidence from Egypt

This study examines the behavior of labor supply of women at different levels of household wealth status. It is widely demonstrated in the literature that variables such as age and level of education, as well as the demographic, social, and financial characteristics of the household influence deciding to join the labor market. However, this study argues that these determinants work differently according to the level or the well-being of the household, adding another to the literature on women’s labor supply in MENA

Policies of Women Empowerment in Decision Making Positions: The Case of Egypt 2014- 2020

This study seeks to assess the policies of empowering Egyptian women in decision-making positions as well as identifying the challenges that limit the chances of women in taking over leadership positions. Additionally, a number of secondary goals were investigated such as; defining the concept of empowerment and leadership with a focus on their types and dimensions, identifying the characteristics and skills of women leaders, understanding the aspects of women empowerment in decision-making positions as well as monitoring and evaluating the existing stance of women in leading positions. The study showed that the leadership empowerment of women is progressing at a fast and advanced pace, which indicates that the empowerment of women is amongst the key goals of the 2030 vision and recommends additional procedures to ensure consistency of such policies to support sustainable societal development. Keywords: Women – Empowerment – Decision Making – Leadership positions - development DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/112-12 Publication date:August 31st 202

Political Religiosity and Gender Inequality Within the Arab World

Typically, stories of gender inequality in the Arab World points towards Islam as a major contributing factor. The research question of this project is: what is the cause of the gender inequality and lack of women’s rights in Arab countries? I hypothesized that the level of political religiosity of Arab countries is directly linked to gender inequality. The dependent variable for my research project is gender inequality, and the independent variable is political religiosity. My hypothesis was tested by rating and ranking countries in terms of political religiosity and gender inequality and comparing these two data sets graphically. According to the data, the hypothesis was unsupported. The graphs indicate that political religiosity and gender inequality are not linked. This indicates that other factors need to be investigated as a cause of gender inequality within the Arab World, and any effort to reduce that inequality should incorporate other factors such as culture and tradition

The CEDAW Convention : de jure and de facto dichotomy

The CEDAW Convention, which was adopted in 1979, recognizes a wide range of rights for women regarding non-discrimination and the eradication of gender violence. Together with CEDAW, its Committee and the Special Rapporteur on violence against women make sure that the scope of protection available to women at the normative level (de jure) is wide. However, when analyzing the enforcement mechanisms of CEDAW, which are the reporting procedure, the interstate procedure, the inquiry procedure and the individual complaints procedure, notorious limits of enforcement emerge (de facto). In addition, arguments such as the public/private divide or cultural relativism constitute further impediments for women in order to achieve full equality. Given these constraints, this paper develops four proposals that would contribute towards the goal of implementation

From gender equality to gender justice: the Egyptian revolution and public sphere debates

Living in an era of a global gender agenda in which concepts and frameworks travel across the world presents many challenges when it comes to discussions of women’s rights in Egypt. In the decade preceding the January 25, 2011 revolution, significant progress was made regarding Egyptian women’s legal rights, especially in the domain of family law reform. Hence expectations were high that Egyptian women’s rights would advance following the Jan 25, 2011 revolution. Unfortunately with the transformations of the political landscape suggested otherwise. During the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood between 2011 to June 2013, several women’s rights legislations were revisited and several attempts and concrete steps were taken to repeal certain family laws that had been regarded as gains for Egyptian women. This thesis explores the different strategies, tactics and engagement that women’s rights advocates adopted during this period. While the global conception of gender equality was one of the main frameworks adopted in Egypt to promote women’s rights prior to the revolution, in this thesis, I explore the tensions between women’s rights legal activists and the Muslim Brotherhood regarding conceptions of gender equality and gender justice

The Sacramental Nature of Church Marriage and its Implication for Inter-Faith Relations

While for the Church Marriage is a sacrament or covenant of life-long partnership of a man and a woman for their benefits procreation and education of children in the way of the Lord the Islamic system of marriage Nikah is a social legal and spiritual contract between the groom and bride which has a very significant role in society It is an act of Sunnah through which two families get closer Thus both Muslims and Christians value marriage and family but differ in the purpose structure and attributes which they associate with marriage from their different religious traditions In spite of their differences some of their members engage in interfaith marriages The challenges of such interfaith marriages and their prospects are of interest to us in this work We examine the dictates of scriptures and traditions to understand the theological implication of such marriages and with oral interviews and questionnaire administered we examine the practical issues involved Findings show that while some Christians take verses such as do not be un-equally yoked with unbelievers 2 Cor 6 14 as clear warning for Christians not to marry from among people of other faiths others rely on passages such as 1Corinthians 7 13-15 1Peter 3 1-6 to argue that the unbelieving husband or wife can become sanctified through the believing wife or husban