North Africa and Middle East

Women are at a crossroads in the Middle East and North Africa. This is widely reflected in the current battles over the adoption of quotas aimed at improving women's chances of being elected into parliaments. Although women's quotas were introduced as early as 1979 in Egypt, there are new efforts underway in the Middle East to implement them. Last year, Tunisia adopted a law requiring that party lists alternate between men and women.

United Nations, New York, 1 March 2012 — At a high-level event at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director, issued a new call for proposals for UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality from organizations working to advance economic and political empowerment in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia.

05 Mar 2012 - Across the Middle East, countries are witnessing parliamentary changes under newly-installed governments which have been credited as a result of the Arab Spring. 

25 Mar 2012 - Dubai: Despite obstacles facing women in many regions of the world, over 130 female students from 30 countries were urged to help bring about change by simply showing the willingness to engage and champion causes.

A variety of speakers held up examples for students on the concluding day of the Dubai Women's College's (DWC) Insight Dubai Conference last week on how to bring about change.

Read the full news article at Gulf News.

Egypt's revolution is now often described as hijacked and women's legal rights are seen as vulnerable to an Islamic-style promotion of marriage and family. But in a show of their own force, women keep braving the deadly dangers of street protests.

We invite our users to read the complete article published May 11th 2012