Marwa Shalaby

The current electoral labyrinth in Egypt continues to pose a significant challenge to creating a just and all-inclusive political system. Despite the myriad electoral reforms and constitutional amendments passed in the past four years, women continue to play a minor role in the decision-making process in postrevolutionary Egypt. The new constitution unveiled in early 2014 lacks a constitutional provision or a quota system that would guarantee equal political representation for women; this will negatively impact women’s ability to exert influence in the political arena. Continue Reading →

What is empowerment? How can women across the MENA region become empowered? Is it possible for Western born concepts — such as female empowerment — to travel across complex contexts and patriarchal/male-dominated cultures? While agreeing on a definition for female empowerment has proved to be a challenging task among scholars and policy practitioners, working out a universal framework that is applicable to different settings has proven to be an even more daunting task. Continue Reading →

This summer I traveled throughout the Middle East to explore research partnerships with scholars and experts in the region. My first stop was Amman, Jordan, where I had the opportunity to participate in a forum on “The Role of Think Tanks in Supporting Policy Dialogue and Consensus Building in the Arab World.” The forum featured a number of prominent policymakers, policy researchers and practitioners, representatives from civil organizations, and delegates from regional policy-research centers. This four-day event focused on the role of think tanks in the transitional Middle East, and on promoting gender equality. Policy research and analysis in the region has progressed by leaps and bounds in the past decade. However, there are many caveats worth further discussion in regard to the relationship between public policy and the support of political transitions in the region, as well as the future role of Arab think tanks in the region. Continue Reading →

  Women in the Middle East were, and are still, facing many hardships and challenges on different economic, social and cultural fronts. When the winds of change started to blow throughout the Middle East, Arab women were on the front… Continue Reading →