LAGGING FAR BEHIND: WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE EAST Judith Colp Rubin*

*The following article is an extract from the author’s book Women in the Middle East (Sharpe, forthcoming).

This article reviews the political and social situation of women in the Islamic Middle East over the past decade. It concludes that while these women have been guaranteed equal rights under their own constitutions and international laws adopted by the government, in practice, they have not enjoyed these rights in politics, marriage, divorce, freedom of movement, education, or work.

Two major studies conducted in 2005 of the dead weight of such issues as a woman’s situation of women in the Arab Middle East right to education, work and political states all came to the same conclusion: activity, matters long resolved elsewhere.”2 Women there are lagging behind the rest of The majority of Middle Eastern the world. The May 2005 Freedom House countries have long had constitutions report ranked 16 Arab nations on a scale granting women equal rights with men. between one and five in several categories With the exception of Iran and Qatar, these related to women’s rights, including countries have also ratified the Convention freedom; economic, political, and social on the Elimination of All Forms of rights; and nondiscrimination. The highest Discrimination Again Women (CEDAW), overall score was given to Tunisia, which an international document that calls for received an average rating of 3.24, while guaranteeing women’s rights. However, Saudi Arabia had the lowest score of 1.26. these documents have not translated into “The Middle East is not, of course, the equality in marriage and divorce rights or only region of the world where women are, employment, or to a decline in domestic in effect, relegated to the status of second- violence against women. One major reason class citizens,” the Freedom House report for continued inequality is that there have stated, pointing out that in Asia, Africa, not been enough women from these Latin America, Europe, and North America, countries elected to political office. there is still a gender gap. “It is, however, in According to a public opinion poll these countries where the gap between the included in the Arab Human Development rights of men and those of women is the Report, which canvassed participants in most visible and significant and where four sample Arab countries—Morocco, resistance to women’s equality has been Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan—79 percent most challenging.”1 said women have an equal right to political The second study, “Towards the Rise of activity. Women have been able to vote and Women in the Arab World,” issued by the run for office in 22 Arab League countries Arab Human Development Report, which as well as in Iran and Israel. The two examined the same countries, concluded exceptions have been the United Arab that women there “have entered the twenty- Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia. first century still dragging behind them the

16 Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 2007) Judith Colp-Rubin

One of the last Middle Eastern countries parliamentary elections in 2002, the king to grant women suffrage was Kuwait, in appointed six women. In the next round of May 2005, although women there were first parliamentary elections in 2006, the sole promised that right in 1991 by the emir, female candidate, Latifa al-Qu’ud, was who took seven years to introduce the among 221 candidates vying for 40 seats. measure. It was then defeated in parliament. Yet she was the only one running in her This was due in part to liberal members, district—a virtually uninhabited island, who while favoring other democratizing Hawar, in southern Bahrain—thereby reforms, opposed female suffrage because ensuring her victory. they feared that women—who would Electoral quotas have meant that become the majority of the electorate— women must constitute a certain number or wouldn’t vote for them. percentage of a candidate list or Nor did female voters vote for other parliamentary assembly. Egypt’s case women. The first electoral test for female dramatically illustrated the difference voters and candidates in Kuwait was in quotas have made in getting women into April 2006, when two women were among government. Egypt was one of the first the 11 candidates vying for a seat that had countries in the Middle East to institute become vacant on the municipal council in electoral quotas, with a 1979 decree by the district of Salmiyya, 15 kilometers from President Anwar Sadat reserving ten Kuwait City. Women voters were in the percent of the seats in parliament for majority, but the female candidates lost by women. However, in 1986, quotas were wide margins. Female candidates have abolished. As a result, the number of fared equally badly in other countries. women in parliament has consistently April 2005 statistics from the plummeted. Interparliamentary Union ranking the Following December 2005 elections, representation of women in elected only two percent of the Egyptian parliament governments worldwide found that Arab were women. In Morocco, women states were at the bottom, with an average comprised only 0.66 percent of the elected of less than seven percent representation in deputies in 1993, placing it 118th the parliament. That was compared to 20 internationally. After quotas were imposed percent in North America, 16 percent in in 2002, that figure increased to 10.77, sub-Sahara Africa, and 14 percent in Israel. making Morocco a respectable 69th in the In Iran, women only made up four percent world. In the Arab world, it was surpassed of parliament in 2006, while Israel the only by Tunisia, where quotas ensured that figure was 15 percent—still below that of 14 percent of the parliament has been North America and sub-Sahara Africa. female. In Jordan no women were elected between 1993 and 2003, when an electoral THE QUOTA SYSTEM law reserved six seats for the top female vote-getters. The two most effective ways shown to Two recent successes in getting quotas get women into elected office in the region imposed were in Iraq and Afghanistan after has been through appointments, U.S. military intervention changed the uncontested elections, and quotas. The first governments there. In Iraq, 25 percent of two ways were illustrated in Bahrain. When the seats in the parliament has been no women were elected in their first reserved for women, and in the 2005

Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 2007) 17 Lagging Far Behind: Women in the Middle East parliamentary elections, close to that only countries where a woman has run for percentage, 20 percent, were elected. In head of state is in Algeria with the 2004 Afghanistan, where 25 percent of seats in presidential candidacy of Louisa Hanoun, the lower house of parliament and the leader of the left-wing Algeria’s Worker’s provincial councils were reserved for Party. Hanoun, however, only placed fifth women, about that number were elected the out of a six-person race. Moreover, only 51 same year. percent of those participants in the Arab A new phenomenon in the Middle East Human Development Report poll said that has been the rise of elected Islamist women. women have the right to become head of Many of the women elected in Iraq in state. December 2005 were from the Shi’a United All the Islamic Middle Eastern Alliance ticket, which was dominated by countries have had women as government religious parties. Another example was the ministers, with the exception of Saudi January 2006 Palestinian Authority Arabia. One of the most recent countries Legislative Council elections; the largest that did so was the UAE, which in 2005 number of women elected were from appointed a woman as economics minister Hamas, an Islamist party with the highest and in 2006 appointed a woman as minister electoral plurality. of public works. In 2005, Kuwait appointed An electoral quota required that its first female cabinet minister with the Palestinian political parties had to have at portfolio of planning and administrative least one woman among the first three development. Yet these appointments, as candidates on a list, at least one woman well as the vast majority throughout the among the next four, and for the rest a region in the past, have been in social or woman for every fifth. That resulted in six women’s affairs and none have been in the of Hamas’ 74 seats in parliament being held most important positions, such as foreign by women. One of those elected was affairs, defense, interior, or finance. Mariam Farhat, a mother of three Hamas Attitudes toward women in the cabinet supporters killed while waging terrorist differed, according to a Gallup poll released attacks on Israelis. Female support for in 2006 in which participants were asked Hamas was critical to their party’s victory whether women should be allowed to hold in 2005. The reason was the success of leadership positions there. While 91 percent Hamas’ social programs, which have of those in Lebanon, 78 percent in Iran, and included financial assistance for widows of 74 percent in Morocco answered in the suicide bombers, health clinics, day care affirmative, the number dipped down to 55 centers, kindergartens and preschools, and percent in Jordan, 54 percent in Egypt, and even beauty parlors and women-only gyms. 40 percent in Saudi Arabia.

WOMEN IN POLITICS WOMEN IN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

Although most Middle Eastern For advocates of women’s rights as countries have permitted women to run for important as getting women elected as parliament, it has been even more of a politicians and named as cabinet members struggle for them to run for head of state. In has been getting them appointed as judges. 2005, women were legally barred from A female judge in the Islamic world has running for president in Iran. One of the been even more taboo than a female

18 Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 2007) Judith Colp-Rubin politician or cabinet, because this is court, where she could influence divorce discouraged by the interpretation of Islamic and children’s custody issues. doctrine. A judge, by the nature of that job, In Iraq, where the Middle East’s first has represented the essence of reason, ever female judge was appointed, efforts in something in which women have been 2003 to appoint the first female judge in supposedly innately lacking. In Iran, Najaf, a Shi’a religious city, resulted in following the revolution, women were no fatwas (religious edicts) being issued by longer able to become judges, although they two prominent clerics and angry remained in the government. In the Arab demonstrators against it. The U.S. military Human Development Report poll only 66 indefinitely suspended the appointment, percent of those polled said they supported although women have remained on the women as judges. bench in other parts of the country. Eleven Islamic Middle Eastern nations had female judges by 2006—Morocco, PERSONAL STATUS LAWS Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Jordan, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Judges in Islamic countries are Yemen. However, getting these especially important, because they are able appointments wasn’t easy. In Egypt, for to render decisions interpreting personal example, where only about half of those status laws dealing with marriage, divorce, participating in the Arab Human guardianship, and children’s custody. In Development Report poll supported female these countries, these personal status laws judges, it took 25 years. In 1949, a female have been influenced by Shari’a, or Islamic lawyer, Aisha Ratib, unsuccessfully sued law. The sources of Shari’a are the Koran the government when she was passed over and the Hadith, or the recorded actions and for a judgeship on the State Council, the sayings of Muhammad. At one extreme are highest administrative court. It was the those nations, such as Saudi Arabia and same result 40 years later when another other Gulf states, that strictly follow female attorney, Fatma Lashin, filed a Shari’a, and at the other extreme are those sexual discrimination suit after being like Tunisia that have replaced much of denied a position on the bench, but also Shari’a with laws meeting international failed to get an appointment. The standards on these issues. Most Islamic government’s refusal to appoint a female countries fall in the middle. judge was consistent with public opinions In those Islamic Middle Eastern on the subject. A 1997 opinion poll countries more strictly governed by Shari’a, conducted by the Cairo-based Arab Center women have not been entirely their own for the Independence of the Judiciary and guardians with the right to make major Legal Profession found that the strongest decisions or have unrestricted freedom of opponents of female judges in Egypt were movement. Rather they have been under the women. In 2003, the government appointed control of a male guardian, their husband (if Tahani al-Gibali as the first nation’s first married), or their father or another close female judge. Although Gibali’s relative (if unmarried). A guardian has been appointment was prestigious, since she was able to prevent their ward’s marriage, tapped to the Supreme Constitutional Court, although in many countries—even Saudi some activists said it would have been Arabia, which has the strictest rules better if she had been appointed to a family regarding the role of guardian—not to force

Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 2007) 19 Lagging Far Behind: Women in the Middle East her into marriage. The guardian has also husband didn’t give her permission to do been empowered to hinder a woman’s so, while in Syria, a wife whose husband freedom of movement outside the home, refuses her right to work may do so especially from leaving the country, since anyway, but only if she forfeits financial their permission has been needed to acquire support from him. and use a passport. Men have been allowed by Shari’a law However, that provision is no longer to have up to four wives simultaneously, if strictly enforced in many countries. In they could treat them all equally and Kuwait, for example, while women have provide them with separate places to live. traditionally needed to seek permission This has been the situation in the Gulf from guardians to travel outside the country States. On the opposite end of the spectrum or even inside the country overnight, has been Tunisia where polygamy was violations have not been enforced. made illegal in 1956, while in Morocco, Moreover, while a married woman in although it was not officially outlawed, Kuwait is able to acquire a passport without polygamy was made so difficult in 2003 as the approval of her husband, an unmarried to have been de facto eradicated. Most woman over the age of 21 cannot. Islamic nations fall between these cases. Although Syrian laws empower a Algerian women have been granted the husband to stop his wife from leaving the right to a "no-polygamy clause" in their country by contacting the Ministry of prenuptial agreement and to initiate divorce Interior, this has rarely happened; and a if they were not informed in advance of the Syrian woman may obtain a passport existence of other wives. Egyptian without her husband’s permission. Yet only husbands have had the rights to another 54 percent of those in the Arab Human wife if the man has told his other wives Development Report poll believed that who could then initiate a divorce on those women should be allowed to travel on their grounds, but only if she can prove to a own. judge that an additional marriage would Legal marriage ages for women in harm her. Jordan has required a judge to several countries in the Islamic world are ascertain that the husband can financially lower than the international norm of 18, support multiple wives, and that each wife since this is mandated in Islamic law, and was informed of other marriages. which could be made even lower with In divorce, in those nations that strictly consent from a religious judge. In Iran, the govern under Shari’a, such as Saudi Arabia, legal age of marriage for women has been a man has been able to divorce his wife 13, while in Yemen and Kuwait, it has without cause by simply uttering “I divorce been. In Afghanistan, 57 percent, of all girls thee,” three times over three months. One were married before the legal age of 16, concession to women was that he had to some as young as six. then pay her a sum of money agreed to A husband is empowered to support his before the wedding in the marriage contract wife and in exchange to receive her full and let her keep her dowry. Women’s rights obedience, while a wife is not allowed to to divorce have been extremely limited, act against her husband's wishes, according only possible in such cases as male to Shari’a. That has meant, for example, infertility at the time of marriage, insanity, that in Yemen and Algeria, a woman was or a contagious skin disease such as not allowed to work outside the home if her leprosy. Some countries have granted

20 Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 2007) Judith Colp-Rubin women other conditions under which they Eastern countries in which a woman has can initiate a divorce, a right which was been able to become a legal guardian of the supported by 68 percent of those children. This has meant that although the participating in the Arab Human children have been able to stay with mother Development Report poll. in several countries just until the end of In Syria, both husbands and wives have childhood—age seven for both boys and been able to claim adultery as grounds for girls in Iran, 13 for boys and 15 for girls in divorce. Yet a husband would only be Syria—she has had to rely upon the father considered guilty if he cheated in the to register for school or for passports. It has couple’s home and has also confessed or also meant that divorced mothers who there has been testimony of a third witness. remarry have lost custody of their children. A Syrian wife could be accused of adultery Even in countries like Morocco and Tunisia committed anywhere, backed up by any a woman has only been able to become a evidence. legal guardian if her husband were deceased There were also different penalties for or legally incompetent, while in countries men and women regarding adultery. governed by Shari’a that right has gone to Egyptian male adulterers have been likely paternal grandparents. to get imprisonment for only six months, The only such nations where women while women have received two years. have been able to pass on nationality are Under Egyptian law, a husband who kills Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt. In the UAE, a his wife after finding her in bed with woman has been required to surrender another man would be charged with a non- citizenship if she marries a man who was felony crime, while a woman doing the not a citizen of a Gulf state. These laws same would be charged with a felony. In have created major logistical problems for Lebanon, men have also received lighter those families with members without sentences for such cases of murder than citizenship. Non-citizens must constantly women have. renew residence permits in their own By 2007, there were no reported cases country, cannot travel without visas, and are where a Syrian woman successfully filed prohibited from holding certain jobs (such for divorce based on adultery. A Kuwaiti as in the government). Morocco, Jordan, woman who has been physically abused and Bahrain have adopted measures to may initiate divorce but she must provide at allow children from a citizen mother and a least two male witnesses to attest to the non-citizen father to receive more services injury committed. In Jordan, a woman can and benefits if the family decides to reside divorce without cause provided she gives in the mother's country. up her financial rights, which she can keep In most of the Middle Eastern Islamic if she can prove that she was physically countries, even Tunisia, women have abused. From 2001 to 2005, only 500 inherited less, usually half the amount that Jordanian women initiated and received men inherit. A woman who is an only child divorces. A Jordanian man could still still receives only half, with the rest going divorce without providing any reason, to the closest male relative. These although he had to pay his wife’s expenses inheritance laws have been fair, say some, for at least one year and no more than three. because male Muslim heirs have the duty to After a divorce when there are children provide for all family members, which involved, there are few Islamic Middle women do not. Even in Saudi Arabia, a

Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 2007) 21 Lagging Far Behind: Women in the Middle East woman has been allowed to keep her from her husband. Her husband, however, money throughout marriage, while in Syria only ended up serving three months and a male heir can even be sued if he doesn’t receiving 300 lashes, after he worked out an provide financially for his close female arrangement with Baz, who agreed to a relatives. lesser sentence in return for a divorce and In a courtroom, women in those custody of her sons. countries with a strict interpretation of Muslim clerics both parallel and inspire Shari’a, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, the judicial situation. They may set limits have considered a woman’s testimony on domestic violence—one suggesting that worth half that of a man, and a woman’s hitting be done with a toothpick—but do life half that of a man for purposes of blood not oppose it, which has meant effectively money—murder cases which are settled by endorsing it. For example, Lebanese cleric payment from the perpetrator’s family to Zakariyya Ghandur provided specific the victim’s family. advice for wife beaters saying on television Courts in the region have been reluctant that: to go after perpetrators of domestic violence. Although 97 percent of those in Disciplining by beating occurs as a the Arab Human Development Report poll reprimand—not brutal beating. Brutal believed that women should not be subject beating is forbidden. Use of a ruler or… to physical violence, domestic violence has beating on the hand, the shoulder, the been rampant. In Bahrain, an estimated 30 buttocks, or anything like that [is percent of the nation’s married women were permitted] as a reprimand of a woman victims of verbal, physical, or when all methods of guidance have psychological spousal violence in 2004, failed. [This should be] like a mother or while in the UAE the figure was 66 percent. father who beat their son or daughter to In Syria, 25 percent of married women have prevent them from wrongdoing, and not claimed to have been beaten. out of hatred or animosity.3 Yet there is no Islamic Middle Eastern nation with a law clearly prohibiting Muslim women are also victims of domestic violence or marital rape, and “honor killings.” This usually occurs to courts have made it difficult to prove. In unmarried women who were killed by a Algeria, spousal abuse can be prosecuted close relative after they were believed to only if a victim were incapacitated for over have “disgraced” their family by having two weeks and had a doctor’s evaluation. sexual relations, or even unchaperoned Not surprisingly, a 2004 study by women’s contact, with a man who was not a relative. groups there found that 70 percent of Whether the woman was a willing domestic violence victims did not file a participant or was raped was not even complaint. A Bahraini man convicted in relevant; she had to be murdered to save the 2004 for beating his wife to death was family’s honor, a situation which largely or found guilty to a lesser degree, involuntary partly exonerated her murderer. This has manslaughter, because the court ruled that been practiced in many countries including the beating was a form of discipline. In Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon, and has Saudi Arabia, Rania al-Baz, host of a been tough to eradicate. popular morning show, lapsed into a coma Take the case of Jordan, where in 1998 in 2004 as the result of a brutal beating some 100 women were the victims of honor

22 Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 2007) Judith Colp-Rubin crimes. When in 1999, King Abdallah tried 2006. The most significant educational to increase the punishment—which in some gains for women were in the wealthy Gulf cases was only three months—he was met nations of Bahrain, Qatar, and the UAE— with widespread resistance. The Islamic usually among the most conservative with Action Front issued a fatwa saying that a respect to rights for women but where repeal would, “Destroy... family values by education has been guaranteed free through stripping men of their humanity when they university for all citizens. In these surprise their wives or female relatives countries, and also in Jordan, between 80 to committing adultery.”4 According to a 85 percent were literate. Jordan Times poll, 62 percent of Jordanians In all but four Arab countries, less than opposed increasing punishments. The 80 percent of girls were attending monarch’s effort to tighten the punishment secondary school in 2005. Higher passed the Jordanian Senate but was percentages were found in Qatar, Jordan, rejected by the lower house. and the Palestinian Authority. One of the Lebanon, whose legal system once worst rates was in Yemen, where only 20 outright pardoned honor crime murders, has percent of females were in secondary recently allowed those responsible to get a school—less than half that of boys in reduced sentence if they personally saw school. their victim having sex with a man other At least as many women as men were than her spouse. However, sometimes even studying in universities in Algeria, Bahrain, that has not been necessary. In 2005, a 19- Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, the year-old Lebanese man who admitted Palestinian Authority, Oman, Qatar, the stabbing his older sister to death simply UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. In because he thought she was guilty of Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE more women adultery was sentenced to six months in jail. than men were in universities. Yet part of In 2001, Lebanon held a conference on the reason for this was that a certain honor killings citing evidence that on percentage of men had left the country to average, one woman per month is killed by study abroad, something which many a close male relative, although activists female students usually could not consider believe the figure to be higher. because of parental objections or restrictions on traveling. Female university EDUCATION AND THE WORK students in some countries have faced FORCE discrimination. Kuwait University increased the minimum grades needed for women to The area in which women have made get accepted into the departments of the greatest gains has been in education, engineering and petroleum so that more although the successes there have also been men could be admitted. In Saudi Arabia, mixed. In 2005, half of all women in Arab women were still prevented from studying countries were illiterate compared to only engineering, astronomy, physical education, one-third of men, and only three-quarters of agriculture, tourism, computer science, women had access to education compared administration and journalism, and could to four-fifths of men. Those Arab countries not attend the King Fahd University for Oil that were less wealthy, such as Yemen, and Minerals in Dhahran—the training Egypt, and Morocco, had female literacy ground for the nation’s most lucrative rates of less than 50 percent of women in industry, among other subjects.

Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 2007) 23 Lagging Far Behind: Women in the Middle East

One field that recently opened to 2000, they were 100 percent of nursery women in a few countries is religious school teachers, 74 percent of primary clerical studies. Morocco has taken the lead school teachers, and 54 percent of in this area. In May 2006, 50 women secondary school teachers. They have even graduated along with 150 men from Dar al- become police officers, military volunteers, Hadith al-Hassaniyya—a religious seminar and taxi drivers. once just reserved for men—to become the Several countries in the Middle East first female imams, or clerics. These women such as Egypt, Bahrain, Lebanon, Tunisia, will not lead prayers, like their male Morocco, and Kuwait have tried to make counterparts, but will answer religious conditions easier for working women with queries and teach. The efforts to promote paid maternity leave. In Kuwait, for women were pushed by the king as one of example, women have been entitled to up to several ways to promote a liberal Islam. two months at their full salary, and an extra Yet the high percentage of female four months at half salary if they showed students has not resulted in more women in that they were sick due to the pregnancy. the workforce. Although 91 percent of Other countries have also passed laws those surveyed in the Arab Human prohibiting gender discrimination in the Development Report believed that a woman workplace. For example in 2002, Lebanon’s should have an equal right to work, Arab law was changed to make it illegal for women’s economic participation has been employers to discriminate based on gender the lowest in the world. in the nature of work, salary, or promotion. The Arab world only had 32 percent of Yet women there were loathe to try to sue its women in the labor force in 2005. The violators. A group of employers in the Gulf greatest number of working women was countries said in 2006 that they preferred found in Tunisia, where women represented women for many job openings, because 36 percent of judges, 31 percent of the they could pay them ten percent less than country's lawyers, and 51 percent of their male counterparts, although they also doctors. In neighboring Morocco during the admitted that women were harder-working same time, women comprised 35 percent of than men. the workforce, including one-third of all An increasing number of women have doctors and one-quarter of university become more prominent in business by professors. In Syria, working women either starting their own companies or rising constituted 13 percent of judges, 15 percent to high-level positions in others. Most of of lawyers, 57 percent of teachers below these women were in the service industry, university level, and 20 percent of and more such women than men had family university professors. ties to the business. One consistent business Even countries such as Saudi Arabia growth area for women has been banking to have focused on increasing the number of service the growing assets of women. In working women by expanding the kinds of Bahrain, a woman became the general jobs available to them. The UAE also began manager of the National Bank of promoting the role of women in the Commerce while three other women workplace and has guaranteed public sector became a bank-branch manager. employment for all women who have With the increase of women in business sought it. Women have been the majority of have come critical networking associations. workers in education and health care. By The 2006 Global Summit for Women, an

24 Middle East Review of International Affairs, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 2007) Judith Colp-Rubin annual event drawing female business *Judith Colp-Rubin is an author and leaders worldwide, was held in Cairo. The journalist. She is the author of Women in main speakers were Sana’a Mun’im al- the Middle East, soon to be published by Bana, chairperson of the Egyptian Sharpe Publishers and co-author of Yasir Petrochemicals Holding Company; and Arafat: A Political Biography, (Oxford, Sahar al-Sallab, vice chairperson and 2003), "Hating America: A History," managing director of the Commercial (Oxford, 2004) and Anti-American International Bank, the largest private bank Terrorism in the Middle East, (Oxford, in Egypt. In Egypt by 2005, there were 22 2001). She was also founder and publisher businesswomen’s associations, compared to of Women's International Net, a magazine only one ten years earlier. In 2004, the first about women worldwide. She has reported Gulf Cooperation Council about the Middle East for several Businesswomen’s Forum was held in publications in North America. Oman, drawing 400 women.

CONCLUSION NOTES Experts have disagreed as to the causes of the continued gap between female and 1 Freedom House, “Women’s Rights in the male rights. Some have blamed Islam. Middle East and North Africa: Citizenship Others have blamed the region’s economic and Justice,” October 14, 2005, failure, corruption, political oppression, http://65.110.85.181/template.cfm?page=14 armed conflicts in the region, and scarcity 8. of resources. It has not even been clear how 2 The Arab Human Development Report eager those in the Arab world have been for 2005, “Towards the Rise of Women in the change. Some 88 percent of those Arab World,” (United Nations participating in the Arab Human Development Program, 2006), p. 146. Development Report poll said that an Arab 3 Heya TV, December 30, 2004. Excerpted human renaissance demanded the rise of and translated in “Wife-Beating Debated on women. However, when a 2004 poll Lebanese TV Channels,” Middle East conducted by Zogby International asked Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Clip men and women in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, No. 588, December 30, 2004, Jordan, Lebanon, and the UAE to rank the http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1 importance of ten different reform issues, =588. they put women’s rights second to last in 4 Quoted in Jeff Chiu, “Raising their importance. Voices,” Time Europe Magazine, February Women in the Islamic Middle East have 15, 2004, been guaranteed equal rights under their http://www.time.com/time/europe/html/040 own constitutions and international laws 223/story_3.html. adopted by the government. Yet women have not enjoyed these rights in politics, marriage, divorce, freedom of movement, education, or work.

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