If Jordanian women marry non-Jordanians, they are only granted "services rights." Last December, the spokesman for the Jordanian government, Mohammed al-Moumani, announced that the government will not grant civil rights to Jordanian women married to non-Jordanian citizens. Instead, he...
Nepal’s constitution-making process has received limited participation from women and ethnic minorities. With a voter turnout of 70%, a new sense of optimism has emerged following Nepal’s November 19 elections — an exercise in reconciliation and democracy that held the potential...
New trends show future changes in female consumer roles, and western corporations want in on it. The axiom of advertising is to feel organic, but manage to represent a clarified and polished version of reality. "A reality to which one can aspire." The Arab woman is portrayed in many ways...
In the 19th century, the moral challenge was slavery. In the 20th century, it was totalitarianism. In the 21st century, let’s make it gender equality. As part of Fair Observer's 360° series, The Middle East: Fighting for Women's Rights, Sara El-Yafi reflects on the plight of women...
Attacks against women in Egypt are part of a new pattern of organized violence. On the first day of the feast after Ramadan in November 2006, the shocking and disturbing public assault and sexual molestation of women on Egyptian street by tens (some say hundreds) of youth marked a turning...
More than contributing to just and humane societies, the international gender industry, feminism’s institutionalized offshoot, has undeniably become part of multi-faceted attempts at periphery control. Just like threats and enemies often don’t turn out to be who we are told or believe...
As a minority within a minority, female Palestinian citizens of Israel face double discrimination: as women in a patriarchal society and as Palestinians in a Jewish country. Unfortunately, the situation of this minority has largely been ignored by mainstream discourses on women’s rights in...
Marina Nemat, Iranian activist and author of “Prisoner of Tehran” and “After Tehran,” speaks to Fair Observer's Manuel Langendorf about the situation of women and human rights issues in Iran. Nemat argues that women's rights cannot be improved unless there is...
After playing a major role in the Arab Spring and other regional reform movements, women are still fighting to ensure their rights and improve their societal status in the Middle East and North Africa. Background As we witness a pattern of sexual violence against women in the Middle East and...
