May 04, 2023ProgramGender, Law, and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa
Participants from more than a dozen countries convened for a workshop on Gender, Law, and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa
On May 3, 2023, the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World at Harvard Law School hosted a full-day workshop on Gender, Law, and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), featuring cutting-edge research on the subject, with 17 participants representing 13 different academic institutions from across the United States, as well as Europe and the Middle East.
The workshop presented an opportunity for senior and junior scholars in the fields of law, political science, anthropology, gender studies, and Middle East studies to present their work in progress and receive valuable input and feedback. Presentations were divided into three panels.
The first broadly addressed research on “Feminist and Women’s Movements in the MENA,” analyzing grassroots mobilization on women’s issues in the region. The second panel focused on “Women’s Rights and the Law in the MENA,” featuring research on dynamics of legal reforms and their challenges. The third panel, titled, “Gender and the (Non-Democratic) State,” explored the interaction between state level politics and policies, international developments, and bottom-up efforts around women’s rights in non-democratic political contexts.
Three current Visiting Fellows of the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World – Lihi Ben Shitirt, Marwa Sharafeldin, and Fatima Essop – who all work at the intersection of law and gender, organized the workshop, with guidance and support from Faculty Director Kristen Stilt, Associate Director Salma Waheedi, and Program Administrator Ceallaigh Reddy.
Workshop Participants
Rawia Aburabia
Sapir College
Hind Ahmed Zaki
University of Connecticut
Veiled Transgressions: Transitional Justice, National Memory, and Women’s Rights in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia
Nadje Al-Ali
Brown University
Nermine Allam
Rutgers University
The Afterlife of the Egyptian Uprising
Lihi Ben Shitrit
University of Georgia and Harvard Law School
Bedouin Feminism in the Negev
Gamze Cavdar
Colorado State University
Anti-genderism as an Authoritarian Tool
Sarah Ihmoud
College of the Holy Cross
Palestinian Feminism in Occupied Jerusalem
Vickie Langohr
College of the Holy Cross
Anti-Public Sexual Harassment Movement in Egypt post-2011
Anwar Mhajne
Stonehill College
Instagram/Social Media as a Site for Sociopolitical Contestation and Regulation for Palestinian Women in Israel
Yuree Noh
Rhode Island College
Public Opinion and Women’s Rights
Asia Parker
University of Georgia
Marwa Sharafeldin
Harvard Law School
Islamic Law Meets Human Rights: Egyptian Women’s Rights NGOs Advocating for Muslim Family Law Reform
Mona Tajali
Agnes Scott College
Institutionalization of Women’s Rights in the MENA: Case Studies of Iran and Afghanistan