Arab Women and Political Development

The level of political representation of women in different legislative bodies around the world varies greatly. The women in the Arab world, is that as in other areas of the world, have throughout history experienced discrimination and have been subject to restriction of their freedoms and rights. Many of these practices and limitations are based on cultural and emanate from tradition and not from religion as many people supposed, these main constraints that create an obstacle towards women’s rights and liberties are reflected in the participation of women in political life. Although there are differences between the countries, the Arab region in general is noted for the low participation of women in politics. Universal suffrage has become common in most countries, but there are still some Arab women who are denied such rights.
 There have been many highly respected female leaders in Arab history, such as Shajar al-Durr (13th century) in Egypt, Queen Orpha (d. 1090) in Yemen. In the modern era there have also been examples of female leadership in Arab countries. However, in Arabic-speaking countries no woman has ever been head of state, although many Arabs remarked on the presence of women such as Jehan Al Sadat, the wife of Anwar El Sadat in Egypt, and Wassila Bourguiba, the wife of Habib Bourguiba in Tunisia, who have strongly influenced their husbands in their dealings with matters of state. Many Arab countries allow women to vote in national elections. The first female Member of Parliament in the Arab world was Rawya Ateya, who was elected in Egypt in 1957. Some countries granted the female franchise in their constitutions following independence, while some extended the franchise to women in later constitutional amendments.

Ghana is one of the first countries in Africa to have ratified several international human rights treaties and conventions for women's rights and gender issues. Despite Ghana's democratic credentials and status, the level of women's participation in governance is low. The main objective of this chapter is to examine how sociocultural values influence women's political participation in the North and South of Ghana. Three research questions guided the study: How do cultural values contribute to the discrepancies of women's representation in politics in the North and South of Ghana? How do special measures such as UN gender quotas influence women's participation in politics? How do attitudes of political parties’ appeal to women's political participation? The chapter employed qualitative methodology, with data obtained through interviews and secondary data sources. The author purposively selected nine female parliamentarians (both current and former), two political party officials from the two main political parties, and four voters from the two regions to obtain a clear picture of the problem. This study contributed to the literature on sociocultural determinants of women political representation, by revealing how the female parliamentarians are restricted or empowered by the cultural norms.

The political and social status of women in the Arab world has gone through major changes since the beginning of the last century until this day and has witnessed turning points that brought advancements to women’s efforts in some occasions but also ridiculed their efforts and curtailed their struggles in others. These changes occurred in the turbulent context of the Arab region where foreign colonization, civil wars, coups d’etat, social renaissances and international social influences took place. The political status of Arab women is particularly worth studying following the most recent landmark events of the Arab uprisings, when several Arab states witnessed intense political alterations that raised the expectations of Women and Human Rights’ activists before the emergence of pushback forces from regimes and their security apparatuses. Women played an essential role in the eruption of these revolutions but, despite noted important gains, endured the consequences of patriarchal norms and values, regime crackdown and violence, and gender discrimination post-uprisings. Women, expecting to occupy a larger space in the political, social and economic fields, had to reestablish their roles to adapt to the new circumstances. This chapter presents an attempt to examine the path taken by women’s groups and movements in the context of the changes that occurred in the political fields and sheds light on the political participation of Arab women in different periods of the last century. It also records the advancements and the challenges women faced in the political domain and explores the effect of women-led movements on guiding their lives and countries to change. From their journey to assert equal rights to direct active involvement in the Arab uprisings, this chapter seeks to outline the history of women’s agency and struggles in the Arab world.

Participation is one of the fundamental aspects in the course of the Democratic administration. In this study, the Women's Political Participation in the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is quite high. It can be seen from their involvement in the management of the party. But the discussion of women's issues in politics and always have ups and downs of a women's political participation in the City field. From the results of this research note that women's political involvement or participation in the MCC is quite high. It is caused by several factors, including the most dominant cultural factors, and factors are less known women from the MCC. To keep pace with the need to understand the role and the authority held and used for the progress of women. The problems described in this study is the low level of political participation of women in Medan City Council 2009-2014 period, as pemeenuhan quota of 30% women candidates who have not really seriously implemented by parties that exist in Indonesia.

“Kadınların siyasal katılımları” konusu, teorik ve pratik uygulamalar ekseninde tartışılan ve araştırılan bir konudur. Kadınların siyasette yer alma şekilleri, siyasetteki yoklukları ve siyasal katılım kanalları ve araçları patriarkal sistemler temelinde farklı yansımalar bulmaktadır. Bu çalışma, Web of Science veri tabanından seçilen yayınların bibliyometrik analiz yöntemi kullanılarak kadınların siyasal katılımları ile ilgili yayınları çeşitli kriterler bağlamında haritalandırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalışmada, nicel bir yöntem olarak öne çıkan bibliyometrik analiz yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Dünyada etkin bir veri tabanı olan WoS veri tabanında, 12 Nisan 2023 tarihinde “kadınların siyasal katılımları” anahtar kelimeleri seçilerek yapılan arama sonucunda, ilgili veri tabanında yayınlanan toplam 254 çalışma belirlenmiştir. Bu çalışmalar içerisinde, sadece yayın dili sınırlaması uygulanarak İngilizce dilinde yayınlar seçilmiş ve analize toplam 220 çalışma dahil edilmiştir. Belirlenen çalışmalar WoS veri tabanı ve VOSviewier yazılımı kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Çalışmanın bulguları, kadınların siyasal katılımı konulu çalışmaların 2020 tarihinden itibaren önceki yıllara göre azaldığını göstermektedir. Ayrıca çalışmada, ilgili konuda yayın yapan ülkeler içerisinde Türkiye’nin alt sıralarda olduğunun tespiti bir diğer önemli ve sorgulanmaya muhtaç bulgu olarak belirlenmiştir. Bu çalışma araştırmacılara, siyasetçilere ve sivil toplum kuruluşlarına kadınların siyasal katılımı konusunun teorik ve pratik uygulamalarını içerecek şekilde tüm ayrıntılarını bilerek, eksiklikleri ve zenginlikleri belirleme konusunda önemli bir veri sağlayacaktır.

When 189 member states of the United Nations unanimously agreed to the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995, they committed themselves to ensuring women's equal access to, and full participation in, power structures and decision‐making. At the time of signing, women constituted fewer than 12% of parliamentary members worldwide, a percentage mirrored in Indonesia. What has happened in the intervening years in terms of women's political participation in Indonesia? To what extent have Indonesian women been able to enforce the sentiments of the Beijing Women's Conference and institute political gains, both quantitative (e.g., increasing political representation) and qualitative (e.g., ensuring women's issues are prioritised)? What obstacles continue to hinder women's entry into politics and what needs to be achieved in order to further facilitate women's political participation? In addressing these and other questions, this paper argues that while there have been substantial developments in terms of public recognition of women's right to participate in politics, women continue to be effectively invisible in Indonesian politics; indeed, the last decade has actually witnessed a decline in the number of women in politics in Indonesia.

The urgency of this research lies in the need to understand the trends, contributions, and dynamics of women's political participation globally. This article aims to map studies that focus on women's political participation. Research methods include bibliometric analysis with data sources from the Scopus database. The study's findings reflect significant growth in women's political participation research, especially in recent years, with distribution varying by country and research theme. The research findings also show that although there are themes that have received attention, there are still areas that need to be explored further, such as intersectionality, gender equality, gender, and the impact of social media that provide insight into the complexity of women's political participation issues. This study recommends the need for increased research and local understanding of the factors influencing women's political participation in Indonesia to strengthen women's role in politics by learning from other countries that have successfully implemented inclusive policies. In addition, by involving various parties, including the government, research institutions, and civil society, Indonesia can create an environment that supports, empowers, and encourages women's political participation optimally. The implications of these findings not only help shape academic discourse, but also lay the foundation for concrete efforts to achieve gender equality and women's empowerment in the wider political sphere.

In the previous chapter I presented a wide range of data pertaining to the nature of the provisions dealing with gender issues in 112 peace agreements signed between 2000 and 2008. The analysis established that women's political participation and gender-based violence are the highest coded categories in this database (21 and 20 peace agreements respectively). The data also showed that these peace agreements do not reflect the broader agenda for participation espoused by resolution 1325 since women's appointments to the judiciary, and recruitment to re-structured police forces, the army and security forces remain hardly addressed at all. Agreements also continue to marginalise women's participation in DDR and in transitional justice and reconciliation processes. Most importantly the findings reveal that the issue of women's economic and social rights remain largely absent from most peace agreements. However, quantitative data, if not combined with other methods, only provide a limited understanding of the reality of implementation that may lead to hasty or misguided conclusions. Therefore, for a fuller picture it is important to move beyond figures to critically evaluate how these issues are being addressed in peace agreements. This chapter will focus on women's political participation not least because it is one of the most common issues in peace agreements but also because it is one of the three main focuses of resolution 1325 and is an area that many women's groups have actively and repeatedly drawn attention to. The first part of this chapter critically engages with how the agenda on women, peace and security has treated the matter of women's political participation. This section will also map out how the peace agreements in the database have addressed the issue of women's political participation. The second part of this chapter attempts to answer the question of why peace agreements often address women's political participation but fail to tackle issues of women's economic and social inequalities that would, crucially, empower women and enable them to move towards gender equality as well as increased participation. The overall aim of the chapter is to reflect on the current impact of the UN agenda for women, peace and security on peace agreements. In pursuing this goal, I employ quantitative and qualitative data and include references to feminist literature, UN official documentation, peace agreements, and interviews conducted with elites within the field of peacemaking.

The purpose of this study is to analyze PKS's strategy to build women's political participation in its da'wah activities. The crisis of democracy is rationally caused by the lack of formal participation of the community, especially women in national politics. PKS has not maximized in utilizing alternative forms of women's participation through social media to fulfill affirmative policies. The efforts made by PKS have not been maximized in utilizing the strong influence of the media effects of the 4.0 era to increase women's political participation. The theoretical reference used is the theory proposed by Aeron Davis "Citizens, media effect and public participation" (Aeron Davis, 2019: 109-129). The concept of women's political participation in political parties can be brought closer to the term Ummah. This word is repeated 64 times in the word of Allah S.W.T, which is found among others in the 3rd surah (Ali-Imran) verse 110 and the 2nd surah (al-Baqarah) verse 143 and the 3rd surah (Ali-Imran) verse 110. Khyar means the best option, found in QS. As-Shaad [38]: 47. 'Aqibah which means impact or effect which in the Qur'an is mentioned 31 times of which is found in QS. Al-A'raf [7]: 128. This research paradigm is a critical paradigm using da'wah communication approaches, political communication, political parties and women's political participation. The research method consists of a type of research, namely descriptive qualitative. From this research, it can be seen that PKS encourages women to actively participate in politics as a manifestation of healthy democracy. Political awareness is built by conducting cadres every week through Ta'lim. The media used by PKS to build women's political participation is predominantly carried out through direct communication and is still minimal in the use of social media.

This study examines the approach to political empowerment of women in Algeria and Tunisia by studying the variable of decision-making and political participation, as the Arab region has the lowest participation of women in political life globally, and despite the improvement in the status of Arab women in general, there are many critical gaps, and challenges faced by empowering women in positions of decision-making and power. The aim of this study is to analyze the obstacles to women’s political participation in Tunisia and Algeria, which stand as a barrier to enabling Arab women’s participation in politics and decision-making. More on cultural, social, political, economic, and legal factors. The study concluded that the promotion of civil liberties, a high indicator of development, the electoral process and pluralism are elements that will increase the political participation of Arab women.

This paper investigates the history of Arab feminism. It traces how those women came from different parts of Arab world and how they developed their awareness towards women's issues, though they do not call themselves as 'feminists' at the beginning. The paper aims to study the history of feminism in the Arab world. To show the struggle of the first Arab women feminists. To focus on the crucial issues of women's concern. The paper uses feminist approach as it concerns with women's important issues. The study traces how the Arab feminism started in Egypt and then the other parts of Arab World as Egypt has been the first Arab country to get its independence from the British rule. The concern for women issues started first in the national level as struggle for their independence and after the independence the struggle changed to women issues. The paper concluded by stating that the struggle of Arab women's feminist discourse advocated to significant women's problems like education, work, and the right for suffrage. They also confronted by other troubles, such as breaking out of gender segregation.

Women are key factors in any society. No doubt, their sidelining or exclusion in the political arena and other decision making process is a problem that cannot be overlooked or swallowed hook, line and sinker. In Rivers State, the Judiciary arm of government is on hold presently because of a female appointment into the office of the Chief Justice of the State. This development motivated the study which examined women participation in grass-root politics: A community development perspective. The study with a sample size of 500 respondents, identified economical disadvantage, phobia for political vices amongst others as barriers to women participation in Rivers State grass-root politics. On the influence of women participation in politics on community development, it was accepted that women participation in politics, will increase women commitment to community goals and objectives achievement, influence and promote policies and programmes for the advancement of the women. Based on these findings, the study recommended sensitization and continuous creation of awareness to inform women on the need to be economically empowered as a way of facilitating their entry and relevance into politics, which will hitherto enhance development of their communities.

Background: Age and ethnicity are important factors in breast cancer (BC) disparities and outcome. However, studies examining both racial and age-related disparities are scarce. We sought to determine differences in epidemiological and clinicopathological characteristics of breast cancer between races in age-specific cohorts. Methods: Gulf Centre for Cancer Registration database and King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center BC registry database for Saudi/Arab women (n=4,206) and Cancer Incidence in Five Continents Volume XI reports, and Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results for African-American and non-Hispanic White women with BC were used. Results: Early onset BC (age < 50 years) was more prevalent among Arab women (63%) compared with African-American women (29%) and White-American women (21%). Young Arab and African-American women had more estrogen/progesterone receptor negativity than young White-American women. The triple negative and (HER2)+/(HR)– BC subtypes were more prevalent among young Arab women compared to African-American and White women. The Arab women had the worst prognosis, especially among young women cohort. The differences persisted even after stratification to aggressive BC subtypes. The age-standardized incidence rate was significantly higher in developed countries than in Arab countries within the elderly-women cohort, but was comparable in the young women cohort. Conclusions: While young Arab and Black women had significantly higher frequency of hormonal negativity than White women, Arab women showed significantly higher prevalence of HER2+/HR- and TNBC subtypes than Black and White women. The racial/ethnic differences were more pronounced in the young women cohort. Citation Format: Dilek Colak, Olfat Al-Harazi, Hala Khalil, Maha M. Aleid, Amal N. Almadouj, Sukina Qanbar, Dahish S. Ajarim, Ibrahim H. Kaya, Ali S. Al-Zahrani. Racial and ethnic differences in breast cancer incidence, clinicopathological features and survival by age and breast cancer subtypes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 15th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2022 Sep 16-19; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr C114.

This article examines the changing nature of women's political participation in Greece and argues that the period since 1974 has seen a shift from political participation through women's involvement in popular democratic struggles to the increasing incorporation of the women's movement by the Greek ‘party‐state’. From 1967–74 Greece lived under the repressive dictatorship of the Colonels. Yet Greece now enjoys some of the most progressive legislation in Europe in the area of equality between the sexes. Most of the demands of the Greek women's movement of the late 1970s were already translated into public policy provisions by the 1980s. Women's issues came to be accepted on to the political agenda in Greece in part as a result of women's participation in national struggles for liberation and democracy through which they developed close links with the parties of the Left. In the short term, collaboration with the newly formed or newly liberated parties of the Left brought important rewards for the women's organizations and allowed women a voice in Greek politics for the first time. However, it is argued that collaboration has also had its costs ‐ not least of which has been the linkage of progress on women's issues with the spoils of political office.

Women in Power and Decision-Making: Analysis of the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action in Finland