Setbacks for Arab Women Have Outpaced Gains
Women are in danger of losing social, political and economic gains made under previous regimes in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, writes Barbara Slavin. At a recent conference, experts presented a mixed picture in which setbacks for Arab women outnumber gains. The problem is not that Islam is anti-women, but rather male chauvinism in its interpretation.
Women have participated prominently in the popular protests that have swept the Arab world in the past 15 months, but are in danger of losing social, political and economic gains made under previous regimes.
Activists and experts studying transitions in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya as well as developments in the Gulf and in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein say that Arab women need to be vigilant and make sure that the rise to power of Islamist political parties does not come at their expense.
“We must safeguard the rights women have made before the Arab Spring,” said Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars. “They cannot be revisited.”
The topic of women’s rights — and the question of whether Islamist parties are inherently misogynistic — has ignited a heated debate among Arab women.
