INTRODUCTION In January 2004, Lubna Olayan stepped up to the lectern to deliver a speech to the Jeddah Economic Summit. She was a natural choice to be the first woman to address the forum in the Saudi port city because she headed one of Saudi Arabia’s best-known conglomerates, the Olayan Financing Group. Lubna was a daughter of Sulayman Olayan, who had risen from humble circumstances to become one of Saudi Arabia’s most successful businessmen. Yet the organizers of the … [Read more...]
ALL I WANT IS EQUALITY WITH GIRLS: GENDER AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY GULF
By March 3, 2010
Women in Algeria Today and the Debate over Family Law
By March 5, 2009
The legal status as well as the private and public role of women is a central issue in Algeria today. The relationship between men and women is of political, social, and economic importance and a matter of national identity. According to historian Daho Djerbal, “The subaltern status of women can serve as an indicator for all other inequalities.”[#1] Discriminatory laws, social exclusion, and violence against women are enduring themes of public discourse and opinions how to address … [Read more...]
Women in the New Iraq
By September 3, 2008
Volume 12, No. 3 - September 2008, Total Circulation 25,000 Article 3 of 7 WOMEN IN THE NEW IRAQ Judith Colp Rubin* *The following article is an extract from Barry Rubin (ed.), Iraq After Saddam (Sharpe, forthcoming). Iraqi women once enjoyed more civil and social rights than many of their sisters in other Islamic nations. Ironically, that was thanks in part to the dictator Saddam Hussein, although in … [Read more...]
Approved in Islam, Denounced by the State: The Representation of Polygamy in Egyptian Popular Cinema, 1950s-1970s
By March 8, 2007
The Human Rights of Women and Social Transformation in the Arab Middle East
By June 8, 2005
THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE ARAB MIDDLE EASTBy Hayat Alvi* Although recently much attention has been paid to signs of reform and liberalization in the Arab world, there is also considerable evidence of trends in regressive social transformation. One such manifestation is the prevailing attitudes and social policies that continue to deny women their … [Read more...]
A Difficult Inheritance: Moroccan Society Under king Muhammad VI
By September 1, 2003
A Difficult Inheritance Volume 7, No. 3 - September 2003 A Difficult Inheritance: Moroccan Society under King Muhammad VI By Michael M. Laskier This article addresses King Hasan II's legacy and the central problems facing his son and successor, Muhammad VI. These problems include the need for reform in human rights and democracy, the Islamist challenge, the role of women, and the Berber awakening. While Morocco has begun making key reforms over the past decade to … [Read more...]
