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26/1/2012
Egypt: 'Why Women are at the Heart of Egypt's Political Trials and Tribulations'

The Egyptian elections delivered a parliament that has one of the lowest rates of female representation in the world. Yet this is the parliament that expresses the political will of the people of Egypt. It may also be one that ignores the social realities of gender and of women’s political participation, says Hania Sholkamy.

26/1/2012
Tunisia: 'Universities are the first test for Tunisian secularism'

Last Nov. 28, the dean of the Department of Letters, Arts and Humanities of Manouba University refused to give in to pressure from a group of protesters using violence to demand that classes be accessible to young women wearing the niqab, or face veil. Faced with this refusal the protesters erected barriers to block the professors and students from their classrooms and prevent classes from taking place. Numerous parents, students and professors quickly moved to protest these actions and defend the institution’s rules.

10/1/2012
Egypt: 'Egyptian Women Cane Morality Police'

Vigilante gangs of ultra-conservative Salafi men have been harassing shop owners and female customers in rural towns around Egypt for “indecent behavior,” according to reports in the Egyptian news media. But when they burst into a beauty salon in the Nile delta town of Benha this week and ordered the women inside to stop what they were doing or face physical punishment, the women struck back, whipping them with their own canes before kicking them out to the street in front of an astonished crowd of onlookers.

7/12/2011
MENA: 'Will the Arab Spring Backfire on Women?'

While the Arab Spring has provided women with space to make their voices heard, “It has also become clear that there are real risks, especially [for woman] in places like Egypt and Libya,” said Head of Human Rights Watch’s Women Division Liesl Gerntholtz. 

“[Arab] women were visible, they went out and demonstrated for changes, but unfortunately right after the ousters of [Tunisian President Zeineddine] Ben Ali and [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak, we saw a backlash,” added her colleague, Nadya Khalife, the Middle East North Africa researcher in HRW’s women's rights division. 

17/11/2011
Tunisia: 'Stop the violation of individual liberties'

Following the violence and violations of civil liberties that took place in a number of schools, institutes and universities, when some students and professors were physically attacked or otherwise threatened due to their clothing not being to the "taste" of the perpetrators, the Association of Tunisian Women for Research on Development (AFTURD) expresses its complete disapproval of and condemns these acts which are contrary to the principles of the Republic and of the public and individual freedoms it guarantees.

15/11/2011
Tunisia: 'Women Fearful of Islamists' Rise'

TUNIS, Nov 14, 2011 (IPS) - Tunisian women poured into the streets armed with the vote, their latest weapon, when the country voted in its first democratic election since a popular uprising unseated former president Zine Abidine Ben Ali, ending his 27-year- long stronghold on the country.

24/10/2011
Tunisia: 'In the name of democracy - What secularists and women have to lose in the Tunisian elections'

On the eve of the elections in Tunisia that will shape the future of the country and even that of the Arab world as well, Western do-gooders and Islamic fundamentalists hand in hand rejoice in ‘Tunisia’s first free elections’ and its access to ‘ democracy’. The recent history of Iran and Algeria have taught us better… And women in Tunisia watch in horror the rise of Muslim fundamentalists, as a possible replication of the Algerian scenario of 1989 .

24/10/2011
Libya: 'interim ruler unveils more radical than expected plans for Islamic law'

Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council and de fact president, had already declared that Libyan laws in future would have Sharia, the Islamic code, as its "basic source". But that formulation can be interpreted in many ways - it was also the basis of Egypt's largely secular constitution under President Hosni Mubarak, and remains so after his fall.Mr Abdul-Jalil went further, specifically lifting immediately, by decree, one law from Col. Gaddafi's era that he said was in conflict with Sharia - that banning polygamy.

20/10/2011
Tunisia: 'Tunisia's women fear veil over Islamist intentions in first vote of Arab spring'

In a tiny hall in Nasarallah, a poor agricultural village in the hills beyond Tunisia's historic Islamic city of Kairouan, Jamila Brahid is irate. Sitting in a huddle of country women wearing traditional rural headscarves, the 50-year-old villager is proud to have had a primary school education in a place where many of her female friends – mostly seasonal fruit-pickers – cannot read or write. A carpet-weaver who owed debts on wool and has never married because of her obligations looking after elderly relatives, she gives thanks for Tunisia's prized status as the most feminist country in the Arab world. But, she says, Sunday's elections will be the true test.

8/8/2011
Canada: Canadian Council of Muslim Women statement regarding Muslim congregational prayer services at Ontario’s public schools

The Issue: The practice of some public schools in Ontario to allow Muslim Friday congregational prayers during school hours and within the school’s space for students has created controversy and aroused strong feelings amongst other faith groups. We appreciate the non- Catholic Toronto School District Board’s effort to implement “freedom of religion” by accommodating the religious needs of their Muslim students.  However the provision of school space, such as the cafeteria at Valley Park Middle School raises a number of questions which require careful conside