The Millennium Development Goals: Prospects for Gender Equality in the Arab World

This study is an assessment of the Millennium Development Goals in the Arab world with Egypt as a case study. The analysis focuses on access to primary education, gender equality, and women empowerment in the Arab world with special emphasis on Egypt. The study found that most Arab countries are on the right track toward achieving most of the MDGs by 2015. However, discriminatory social norms, laws, and practices are still at the heart of gender inequality in the Arab world, and therefore need to be further incorporated in the MDGs to advance a more egalitarian developmental approach

The Role of Women in the Arab World: Toward a New Wave of Democratization, or an Ebbing Wave Toward Authoritarianism?

The Special Issue is devoted to examining the role of Arab women in the ongoing uprisings and revolutions sweeping the Arab world over the past two years. It covers case studies of women in Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, the Sudan, and other countries in the region. Two major questions are going to be addressed: how influential were Arab women in the “Arab Spring” of uprisings, and to what degree are Arab women’s rights to equality and freedom going to be attained and respected after the creation of new regimes, such as in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria, which are the countries that are undergoing the most political change thus far

Egypt's upcoming parliamentary elections: weakened parliament, weakened parties

According to the roadmap for political transformation announced in July 2013, Egypt’s parliamentary elections should have taken place six months after the constitutional amendments. Yet, since then, they have been postponed several times. They are now scheduled for March and April 2015. Until recently, the regime has been reluctant to hold parliamentary elections, fearing an unruly parliament not dominated by a regime party, as in the past. In June and December 2014, the government enacted a new electoral law and an electoral district law, which will reduce the chances of political parties in general -and political opposition parties in particular- from gaining a substantive number of seats in parliament. By deliberately impeding political parties from playing an important role in parliament, the regime is just adding to its own volatility. Therefore, priority should be given to pushing for the inclusion of all political forces in the electoral process and the strengthening of political parties

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? Egyptian Women within the Confines of Authoritarianism

This paper examines the pre and post January 25th political dynamics in Egypt, how these have affected the role of women in the private, public and political spheres. It analyzes the dynamics of the development of Egyptian women’s organizations, and the extent to which these may develop into an Egyptian feminist movement. An overview of historical, political, and social contexts of the role of Egyptian women’s organizations will provide an understanding of their main accomplishments from Nasser to Mubarak. The study shows how the early women’s organizations were directly linked with the ruling authorities and how these have added to the authoritarian structure of the regime. The paper moves to analyze how women’s organizations have later evolved into more independent organizations, how they have influenced independent women activists, who have positioned themselves against the authoritarian power structure of the Egyptian political system. The paper finally assesses the extent to which women’s rights are going to be protected or rolled back under the rule of the military and later the Islamists in the post-Mubarak era

Egypt: Socio-political dimensions of migration

Euro-Mediterranean Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM)This study argues that the Egyptian government both prior to and after the January 25th revolution encourages the migration of Egyptians abroad, in order to lower unemployment, and to increase remittances. Bilateral agreements on temporary and irregular migration have been signed with different governments, of which the Egyptian-Italian agreement on migration remains the most important. Moreover, the Egyptian government applies stricter rules concerning foreign workers in Egypt. Finally, the Libyan crisis poses a challenge to the Egyptian policy makers, with almost 1.5 Egyptian return migrants who represent a burden on the economy.Cet article montre que le gouvernement égyptien, avant et après la révolution du 25 janvier 2011, encourage l’émigration, afin de limiter le chômage et de développer les remises. Plusieurs accords bilatéraux sur la migration temporaire et irrégulière ont été conclus, parmi lesquels l’accord Egypto- Italien est le plus important. Par ailleurs, le gouvernement égyptien applique sévèrement la législation relative aux travailleurs étrangers en Egypte. Enfin, la crise libyenne représente un défi pour les dirigeants égyptiens avec le retour de près de 1,5 million de migrants égyptiens qui représentent un fardeau pour l’économie.CARIM is co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Unio

Youth political engagement in Egypt: From abstention to uprising

This study analyses the dynamics of youth political engagement in Egypt in the light of \u27dual motivation\u27 theory, which defines political engagement in terms of both citizens\u27 interest in changing the outcome of elections and the prevalence of social capital conducive for political engagement. The first part of the article focuses on the dynamics of political mobilisation in general, prior to the uprising of 25 January 2011. The second part examines the political attitudes and levels of political participation of young people prior to the uprising. The study found that the youth believed in democratic values but did not participate politically. This is explained not by a lack of social capital but rather by an understanding of the dynamics of authoritarian rule and corruption, leading to a general abstention from civic and political engagement. Nevertheless, with the changing international circumstances, especially the Jasmine revolution in Tunisia, youth movements in Egypt have proved capable of framing the issue of regime change effectively, leading ultimately to contention on the streets and the toppling of Mubarak. Dualmotivation theory, therefore, might not be applicable in authoritarian regimes but in democratising regimes both elements of the theory appear relevant. © 2012 British Society of Middle Eastern Studies

Mobilization, Repression and Policy Concessions in Authoritarian Regimes: The Cases of Egypt and Jordan

In 2018 new economic reform measures were implemented in Egypt and Jordan under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund. These measures were met with public outrage in both countries. In Jordan, mass mobilization, demonstrations and strikes took place, lasted for a month and ended in policy concessions. In Egypt, however, only few independent demonstrations erupted, no mass mobilization occurred, and no policy concessions were enacted by the regime. This article seeks to understand, why activists were able to mobilize large numbers of citizens and attain policy concessions in Jordan, while they were not able to in Egypt. I argue that in authoritarian regimes, different types of repressive strategies against activists and their movements impact their ability to develop networks and advance short-term policy concessions. Targeted repression against activists enables the development of formal and informal networks in addition to coalitions, increasing a movements’ bargaining power. However, widespread repression hampers the development of all types of networks, especially formal networks, which impedes activists’ ability to bargain for policy concessions

Repression, Cooptation, and Movement Fragmentation in Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from the Youth Movement in Egypt

© The Author(s) 2018. How do authoritarian regimes fragment protest movements in the aftermath of mass protests? How do protest movements deal with these authoritarian measures in return? Based on qualitative fieldwork with 70 young people in Egypt from April until November 2015, I demonstrate that regimes which face major contentious events and transition back to authoritarian rule, utilize two main strategies for fragmenting protest movements: repression and cooptation. The main literature on protest movements contends that regimes respond to protest movements through a combination of repression and concession to offset movement gains and eliminate their motivations for further protests. More concessions are believed to be effective in democratic regimes, while more repression is effective in authoritarian regimes. However, the results of this fieldwork demonstrate the importance of repression in addition to cooptation in authoritarian regimes, which is largely ignored in the literature on protest movements. Cooptation is an instrumental tactic for the regime in two manners: first it creates internal struggles within the movements themselves, which adds to their fragmentation. Second, it facilitates a regime’s repression against protest movement actors. This creates more fragmentation in addition to deterrence to the development of new protest movements and protest activities