Oct 26, 2009

Sponsor: NED

From the Margins to the Center: Women and Democracy in the Middle East

Watch Video :: VIDEO

Women in the Middle East are working to change public opinion, laws, and policies in order to build democratic and inclusive societies.

NED Grantee Women’s Learning Partnership, in cooperation with NED, convened a panel of activists from campaigns for justice in Iran, Jordan, Morocco, and Bahrain to share their challenges and successes in demanding equal rights as citizens – in the family and in society.

Their campaigns grew from local experience and spread across national and regional divisions. They include:

  • Iran’s One Million Signatures for reform of family laws
  • the Arab regional CEDAW campaign, Equality without Reservation
  • Claiming Equal Citizenship campaign for reform of nationality laws in the Middle East and Gulf.

The event also launched a new book, Iranian Women’s One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality: The Inside Story. Narrated by Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani, the book details the history, strategies, and values of a movement that brought world attention to the injustice of gender apartheid in Iran.  Through door-to-door visits, impromptu street theatre, and use of alternative media, the campaign’s coordinated efforts, fraught with great risks and sacrifice, contributed to the solidarity that resulted in public protests against the contested presidential elections of June 2009.

Panelists

 
Mahnaz Afkhami (Iran/USA), president & CEO of Women’s Learning Partnership, executive director of Foundation for Iranian Studies, and former Minister for Women’s Affairs in Iran. She serves on advisory boards for Global Fund for Women, Ethical Globalization Initiative, International Museum of Women, World Movement for Democracy, and the Women’s Division of Human Rights Watch, among a number of other national and international organizations. Mahnaz has been a leading advocate of women’s rights internationally for more than three decades, and has written and lectured extensively on women’s human rights, women in leadership, and women, civil society, and democracy.  Her numerous publications have been widely translated and distributed internationally.

Wajeeha Al-Baharna (Bahrain), founding member and vice-president of Bahrain Women Association and board member of the Arab Thought Forum in Jordan and the Arab Network for Non-Governmental Organizations in Cairo. She leads the “Nationality Campaign” in Bahrain and appears frequently on Bahrain TV, Al Jazeera, and Al Manar, speaking to women’s issues in the Middle East and Gulf countries. Wajeeha has a PhD in Environmental Studies and worked as a Marine Biologist in the Public Commission for Protection of Marine Resources and Environment and Wild Life in Bahrain.

Asma Khader (Jordan), general coordinator of Sisterhood Is Global Institute/Jordan, secretary general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women, and former Minister of Culture. She is a well-known lawyer and human rights activist and a member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, the executive committee of the International Commission of Jurists, and the advisory committee of the Women’s Division of Human Rights Watch. Asma has received numerous awards and honors for her work, and has written and spoken widely on the topics of women, children’s rights, and human rights.

Rabea Naciri (Morocco), founding member of Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc, one of the largest Moroccan NGOs focused on the rights of women, and the former executive director of Collectif 95 Maghreb Egalité, a network of women’s associations and women researchers from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia committed to preventing violence against women. Rabea is a prominent activist in the Maghreb region and has written extensively on Arab women and poverty, women and Islam, and strategy development for the promotion of women’s rights. She is a professor in the   Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines at the University of Rabat.

Haig (2)Moderator:
Barbara Haig, Deputy to the President for Policy and Strategy at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), where she has worked since 1985. Previous to her current position, Ms. Haig served as  NED’s Vice President for Program, Planning and Evaluation, where she was responsible for the programmatic development, monitoring and evaluation of the Endowment's international grants program, which covers six regions of the world. In recent years, she has overseen a vast expansion of the Endowment's program in the Arab Middle East, especially Iraq, and Afghanistan. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, she oversaw the development and implementation of several large and complex democracy programs funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in South Africa, Nicaragua and Central and Eastern Europe. From 1981 to 1985, Ms. Haig was Special Assistant to the Associate Director of Programs, and then to the Director, of the United States Information Agency. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and has studied or worked in Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa.