Gendering Reconstruction: Iraqi Women between Dictatorship, Wars, Sanctions and Occupation

The article explores the role of women and changing gender relations in reconstruction processes in Iraq. It will provide a historical background in terms of changing women’s status and gender ideologies & relations during the regime of Saddam Hussein. I will focus particularly on the impacts of the early developmental-modernist discourses of the state to the impacts of war (Iran-Iraq war 1980-88 & Gulf War 1991) as well as comprehensive economic sanctions (1990-2003). The latter involved wider social changes affected women and gender but also society at large, i.e. impoverishment of well-educated middle-class, wide-scale unemployment and economic crises pushing women back home, and a shift towards more conservative values and morals. It is against this backdrop that the impact of the latest war (2003), the occupation and reconstruction attempts need to analysed. In addition to the most immediate effects of the current situation (humanitarian crisis, lack of security, lack of mobility, general exclusion form political process), the article will explore more long- term issues with respect to the need to mainstream gender in reconstruction processes. It will also attempt to provide a brief overview of the emerging Iraqi women’s national and transnational women’s initiatives and organisations

Gendering the Arab Spring

The article discusses the gendered implications of recent political developments in the region. It argues that women and gender are key to both revolutionary and counter- revolutionary processes and developments and not marginal to them. It explores the significance of women 19s involvement, the historical context of women 19s political participation and marginalization in political transition. Theoretically, developments in the region point to the centrality of women and gender when it comes to constructing and controlling communities, be they ethnic, religious or political; the significance of the state in reproducing, maintaining and challenging prevailing gender regimes, ideologies, discourses and relations; the instrumentalization of women 19s bodies and sexualities in regulating and controlling citizens and members of communities; the prevalence of gender- based violence; the historically and cross-culturally predominant construction of women as second-class citizens; the relationship between militarization and a militarized masculinity that privileges authoritarianism, social hierarchies and tries to marginalize and control not only women but also non-normative men

Feminist Dilemmas in (Counter-)revolutionary Egypt

The article discusses feminist dilemmas in Egypt in the context of polarised positions between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military

Contextualizing the Plight of Iraqi Women

The fact that Iraqi women are living under abhorrent conditions often leads to generalized depictions of these women as faceless victims. The author draws attention to the stories and life-courses of individual Iraqi women, as these do not only give a human face to their plight, but also reveal how women have been further marginalized during the U.S. occupation. Set against this background it becomes understandable why so many Iraqi women are nostalgic for a past that was far from peaceful