Discourses and Reflections 'Masculinities in the Arab World: Trajectories to Peace and Gender Equality'
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
DISCOURSES AND REFLECTIONS FROM THE CONFERENCE MASCULINITIES IN THE ARAB WORLD: TRAJECTORIES TO “PEACE AND GENDER EQUALITY” DISCOURSES AND REFLECTIONS FROM THE CONFERENCE MASCULINITIES IN THE ARAB WORLD: TRAJECTORIES TO “PEACE AND GENDER EQUALITY 2-4 MAY 2017 BEIRUT, LEBANON ” CONTENTS 1 Introduction 3 Background 5 Key IMAGES findings 7 The state of men and masculinities in the Arab region 11 Overarching recommendations 17 Ending men’s violence against women 21 Men’s health and sexuality 25 Manhood in times of war 29 Education, work and migration 31 Family dynamics, fatherhood, and unpaid care work 35 Faith-based approaches to achieving gender equality 39 Conclusions 4I Annexes 43 Resources 48 Conference Agenda 52 Interview Participants ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ACRONYMS We would like to thank Promundo-US, ABAAD and UN CEDAW: Convention on the Elimination of all Discriminations Against Women Women Arab Regional Office for organizing this conference. FGM: Female Genital Mutilation We would also like to thank the Swedish International GBV: Gender-based Violence Development Agency (Sida), Rutgers Netherlands and UN IMAGES: International Men’s Attitudes on Gender Equality Survey Women Arab Regional Office for providing financial support MENA: Middle East and Northern Africa and enabling the participation of MenEngage Alliance Global Secretariat staff in the conference. SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals Sida: Swedish International Development Agency We would like to acknowledge ABAAD for providing logistical support and warm hospitality, and all conference UN Women: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women participants and interviewees for their valuable insights. We VAW: Violence against Women would also like to thank the team members who volunteered VAWG: Violence against Women and Girls their time for notetaking and interviews, from Promundo- WILPF: Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom US (especially Alexa Hassink, Nina Ford, Natko Geres, and Abigail Fried), ABAAD (especially Soulayma Mardam), UN Women Arab Regional Office (especially Radwa Tarek and Lena Karlsson) and the MenEngage Alliance Global Secretariat (especially Sinéad Nolan, Laxman Belbase, and Joni van de Sand). We are grateful to Gary Barker, Natko Geres, Alexa Hassink, Joni van de Sand, Maria Ghazzaoui and Lena Karlsson for their critical review of this report. We would like to thank Sinead Nolan and Laxman Belbase, who put together this report. Global Secretariat, MenEngage Alliance Promundo US ABAAD UN Women Arab Regional Office network was created in Lebanon. MenEngage Alliance Global Secretariat has been working INTRODUCTION with ABAAD and other organizations, including UN Women and Promundo-US to mobilize towards creating networks in countries in the region with a view to establishing a regional network in the MENA region. MenEngage Alliance seeks to support practitioners and other organizations in MENA countries to translate the findings and Nearly 250 activists, researchers, The event also featured the launch recommendations emerging from the conference practitioners, and policy makers of results from the International sessions and the IMAGES study into practical civil came together in Beirut, Lebanon Men and Gender Equality Survey in society-led actions, programs and collective from 2-4 May 2017 to take part in North America and Northern Africa advocacy at local, national and regional levels. the conference “Masculinities in the (IMAGES MENA) - a first study of its Arab World: Trajectories to Peace kind to explore men’s and women’s and Gender Equality”. Promundo- attitudes and practices towards US, ABAAD-Resource Centre for gender equality in the region, as This action-oriented report compiles the outcomes Gender Equality and UN Women well as the effects of conflict and of the conference, based on the discussions Arab Regional Office brought displacement on masculinities in at each of the 12 sessions as well as interviews together the experts and policy the region. The study examines four with 14 key stakeholders. It focuses primarily on makers from across the MENA region countries, chosen in part to reflect recommendations, including from the IMAGES and beyond to collectively identify the diversity of the region, Egypt, report, and ways forward for men and masculinities actionable strategies for engaging Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine. work in the region. Divided into 6 thematic focus men and boys as allies in achieving areas, it outlines key IMAGES findings, provides a gender equality and peace in In 2015, under the leadership of brief description of the context and main discussion the Arab world. Other partners at ABAAD, a new MenEngage1 country points at the conference and identifies some the conference were Institute for existing promising initiatives in the MENA region. Women’s Studies in the Arab World The report then presents recommendations for 1/ MenEngage Alliance is an international network (IWSAW) at Lebanese American future strategies for engaging men and boys in of over 700 civil society organizations working on gender equality in the areas of civil society action, University, Connecting Research to transforming masculinities and engaging boys advocacy opportunities and potential policies, and Development (CRD), International and men in gender justice. The Alliance strongly Alert, Women’s International League believes that while the challenges we face in the research. for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) world today have many common denominators, and Womanity Foundation, and the a deeper understanding of the issues and the LIMITATIONS OF THE REPORT development and implementation of effective event was supported by Ministry of strategies and activities that can help address This report has some limitations as to reflecting all Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands, them, requires contextualized expertise and the presentations and good practices shared at Swedish International Development implementation. We therefore value regional Cooperation Agency (Sida) and and country-specific priorities and activities and the conference. If there is anything missing that was United States Institute of Peace (USIP). facilitate partnership building among actors in the shared at the conference, please don’t hesitate to field of women’s rights, gender and social justice. contact us. 1 2 BACKGROUND Considerable advances have been made in the status of As the report demonstrates, however, certain transformations women in most parts of the Arab world in the past two decades. in gender relations and attitudes – some prompted by Health indicators, including female life expectancy and structural forces themselves, some emerging from individual maternal mortality, have notably improved in many countries. and collective resistance to occupation, and others hard won Female literacy has risen substantially, and in some parts of by local women’s rights movements – are taking place in most the region, women now exceed men in terms of attendance, countries in the region. However, for deep and radical change as well as performance, in secondary and post-secondary to happen, structural changes at the political, economic, and education. The vast majority of countries in the region have social levels are necessary. ratified CEDAW (although in some cases with reservations), and female political participation, at the ballot box and in Against this backdrop, gender relations in the Arab world are government, has grown in several countries since the Arab a topic of heated debate, all the more so with the political, uprisings.2 economic and social upheaval and conflict of recent years. But gender, as conventionally defined in the region, has mostly And yet, these gains are matched by formidable hurdles and focused on women. Far less has focused on understanding setbacks. At a regional average of 25%, female labour force how men’s opposition or support of gender equality is a key participation in the Arab world remains amongst the lowest factor in achieving it. There is also limited discussion on how globally. While gender equality is enshrined in constitutions gender relations are affected by conflict and social upheaval across the region, laws on the books—and in practice—in in the region, and what pathways to gender equitable most countries offer greater rights and freedoms to men than attitudes and practices exist or may be possible for men and women, a position reflected in various country reservations boys in the current context of the Arab World. Similarly, most to CEDAW based on conservative interpretations of Shari‘ah. of the discussion on gender within the peace and security New research affirms that gender-based violence is common, agenda, in the Arab world as in the rest of the world, has with growing research revealing substantial rates of sexual focused on “women, peace and security,” with a limited harassment in public spaces, workplaces and schools, and an understanding of how masculinities and men’s gendered alarming prevalence of domestic violence. Widespread conflict perceptions and realities can and need to be part of that 3 and migration further jeopardize women’s welfare. equation.4 4/ ibid 2/ El Feki, S., Heilman, B. and Barker, G., Eds. (2017) Understanding Masculinities: Results from the International Men and Gender Equality Survey (IMAGES) – Middle East and North Africa. Cairo and Washington, D.C.: UN Women and Promundo-US 3/ ibid 3 4 KEY IMAGES FINDINGS5 The results of IMAGES MENA offer a nuanced picture of gender relations