In the years before the civil war broke out in 2011, Syrian families where women were the main income providers and oversaw family affairs remained the exception. At the time, about 15% of women were in the labor force, a large proportion of them in agriculture. Women occupying jobs in...
In today’s world, where refugee crises are exacerbated by xenophobic border policies, where the global north refuses to engage in burden sharing, where people’s freedom of movement is ruthlessly repudiated, the ability to travel is a particularly salient privilege. As Dallen Timothy and Victor...
In October 2017, Tarana Burke’s 2006 "me too" movement was revived by a simple tweet from actress Alyssa Milano. A year later, the hashtag had been tweeted over 19 million times by women around the world. There is no question that the #MeToo campaign mobilized and united women across the globe....
In 2006, long before hashtags, Tarana Burke began a grassroots “me too” movement to try and reach women and girl survivors of sexual assault, particularly women of color in low wealth communities. In 2017, actor Alyssa Milano used “me too” as a hashtag, and it went viral. While much has...
It comes as welcome news that authorities in Saudi Arabia have taken important steps toward dismantling the repressive male guardianship system, which treats women in the country as minors. Women will no longer require permission from a male guardian to travel abroad and can apply for a...
For many people, July 6 marked the passing of just another Saturday. But to over 1 billion people, it was of tremendous significance as it was the 25th UN International Day of Cooperatives. Over 12% of humanity contribute to one of the 3 million cooperatives on the planet. Cooperatives not only...
May 15 marks an unhappy anniversary for Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul and all those who care about women’s rights everywhere. “I always wished I was a man, always, since I was a child.” In her home country of Saudi Arabia, Loujain al-Hathloul is a controversial figure. Her habit of...
In this edition of the Interview, Fair Observer talks to Gilbert Achcar, professor of international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The Middle East and North Africa continues to reverberate from the 2011 Arab Spring protests that rocked the region...
For many Bahrainis, repression is nothing new, and it remains a dark and troubling story. First to the good news, at least from the perspective of the government of Bahrain and its supporters: Despite an opposition call to boycott the November election, turnout, at 67%, was impressively high....
In this edition of The Interview, Fair Observer talks to Sana Afouaiz, an award-winning women’s rights advocate. Invisible Women of the Middle East: True Stories is a 2018 book by Moroccan author Sana Afouaiz, exploring the deepest layers of women’s lives across the Middle East and North...
Following Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination, serious questions are finally being asked about British and American involvement in the Yemen War. There is a link between the disappearance and murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the terrible war in Yemen that, after more than three...
