Family Law And Gender In The Middle East And North Africa

The volume serves as reference point for anyone interested in the Middle East and North Africa as well as for those interested in women's rights and family law, generally or in the MENA region. It is the only book covering personal status codes of nearly a dozen countries. It covers Muslim family law in the following Middle East/north African countries: Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, and Qatar. Some of these countries were heavily affected by the Arab Spring, and some were not. With authors from around the world, each chapter of the book provides a history of personal status law both before and after the revolutionary period. Tunisia emerges as the country that made the most significant progress politically and with respect to women's rights. A decade on from the Arab Spring, across the region there is more evidence of stasis than change.

This report provides a comparative overview of the policies affecting women’s participation in public life across the MENA region. It examines the existing barriers to women’s access to public decision-making positions, and provides a cross-country assessment of current instruments and institutions.

Freedom HouseOs innovative publication WomenOs Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress Amid Resistance analyzes the status of women in the region, with a special focus on the gains and setbacks for womenOs rights since the first edition was released in 2005. The study presents a comparative evaluation of conditions for women in 17 countries and one territory: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine (Palestinian Authority and Israeli-Occupied Territories), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The publication identifies the causes and consequences of gender inequality in the Middle East, and provides concrete recommendations for national and international policymakers and implementers. Freedom House is an independent nongovernmental organization that supports democratic change, monitors freedom, and advocates for democracy and human rights. The project has been embraced as a resource not only by international players like the United Nations and the World Bank, but also by regional womenOs rights organizations, individual activists, scholars, and governments worldwide. WomenOs rights in each country are assessed in five key areas: (1) Nondiscrimination and Access to Justice; (2) Autonomy, Security, and Freedom of the Person; (3) Economic Rights and Equal Opportunity; (4) Political Rights and Civic Voice; and (5) Social and Cultural Rights. The methodology is based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the study results are presented through a set of numerical scores and analytical narrative reports.

Personal status laws remain a highly politicized area of debate in the Middle East, as the arena in which the contentious issues of women's rights, religion and minority groups meet. This is especially so when it comes to divorce. In Tunisia, with the moderate Islamist party Ennahda winning the first elections following the 2011 revolution, questions of religion in public life have gained greater primacy. The country is often hailed for its progressive personal status code, seen as an exception to the practice in many other Muslim countries. However, the legal system contains many gaps and leaves much room for interpretation. Maaike Voorhoeve investigates whether the ostensibly secular principles enshrined in Tunisia's legislation are in fact implemented in divorce cases, or whether judges frequently turn to custom or Sharia as their primary sources of guidance. Gender and Divorce Law in North Africa therefore sheds light on the wide-reaching debate concerning the role of Islam and Sharia in the public, political, legal and private spheres.

The essays in this collection examine issues of gender, family, and law in the Middle East and South Asia. In particular, the authors address the impact of colonialism on law, family, and gender relations; the role of religious politics in writing family law and the implications for gender relations; and the tension between international standards emerging from UN conferences and conventions and various nationalist projects. Employing the frame of globalization, the authors highlight how local and global forces interact and influence the experience and actions of people who engage with the law. By virtue of a "south-south" comparison of two quite similar and culturally linked regions, contributors avoid positing "the West" as a modern telos. Drawing upon the fields of anthropology, history, sociology, and law, this volume offers a wide-ranging exploration of the complicated history of jurisprudence with regard to family and gender.

Women's rights in the middle east and North Africa / edited by Sameena Nazir and Leigh Tomppert / 2005.

This book examines the position of women in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Although it is culturally diverse, this region shares many commonalities with relation to women that are strong, deep, and pervasive: a space-based patriarchy, a culturally strong sense of religion, a smooth co-existence of tradition and modernity, a transitional stage in development, and multilingualism/multiculturalism. Experts from within the region and from outside provide both theoretical angles and case studies, drawing on fieldwork from Egypt, Oman, Palestine, Israel, Turkey, Iran, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Spain. Addressing the historical, socio-cultural, political, economic, and legal issues in the region, the chapters cover five major aspects of women’s agency: political agency civil society activism legal reform cultural and social agencies religious and symbolic agencies. Bringing to light often marginalized topics and issues, the book underlines the importance of respecting specificities when judging societies and hints at possible ways of promoting the MENA region. As such, it is a valuable addition to existing literature in the field of political science, sociology, and women’s studies.

Freedom House has launched a new, comprehensive study titled Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Citizenship and Justice. The overarching goal of this survey is to facilitate and support national and international efforts to empower women in the Middle East and North Africa. The study presents a comparative evaluation of women's rights in 16 countries and one territory including: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine (Palestinian Authority and Israeli-Occupied Territories), Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The survey identifies critical issues relevant to women's rights advocates as well as to national and international policy makers and implementers. Women's rights in each country are assessed in five key areas: 1) Nondiscrimination and Access to Justice; 2) Autonomy, Security, and Freedom of the Person; 3) Economic Rights and Equal Opportunity; 4) Political Rights and Civic Voice; and 5) Social and Cultural Rights. Survey results are presented through a set of numerical scores and analytical narrative reports. The study also included a series of consultations with women's rights leaders in the region, and focus groups with the general population in Egypt, Kuwait, and Morocco in order to highlight the perspectives and recommendations of women's rights advocates and the general public.