Event Title
Women's Rights in the Middle East and The Arab Spring
Department
Political Science
Start Date
11-4-2015 10:00 AM
End Date
11-4-2015 11:15 AM
Description
It is widely believed that women in the Middle East suffer more discrimination than their counterparts in the rest of the world, and that the “Arab Spring” has either failed to increase their rights or even exposed them to new threats. We will first examine how social scientists measure women’s empowerment and how Middle Eastern women fare on these measurements. Then we will analyze the ways in which expanded space for citizen activism, and increased media freedoms, have significantly increased some forms of women’s rights in post- Mubarak Egypt.
Women's Rights in the Middle East and The Arab Spring
It is widely believed that women in the Middle East suffer more discrimination than their counterparts in the rest of the world, and that the “Arab Spring” has either failed to increase their rights or even exposed them to new threats. We will first examine how social scientists measure women’s empowerment and how Middle Eastern women fare on these measurements. Then we will analyze the ways in which expanded space for citizen activism, and increased media freedoms, have significantly increased some forms of women’s rights in post- Mubarak Egypt.