Performing Gender Equality: Arab State Feminism and the Sectarian Exception
This application is to complete my book manuscript: Performing Gender Equality. In this book, I argue most Arab governments instrumentalize women’s rights to show the West their adoption of gender-equality norms. I study the link between gender and authoritarianism in Arab countries, then engage with the state-feminism literature to explain these gender-equality policies. The key instrument used is gender quotas. I show how Western norms of women’s rights have been diffused, adopted, and adapted in Arab countries, and argue these norms have led Arab political leaders to adopt a performative governance. This is a cynical performance that aims to burnish the leader’s modernizing credentials in the West. In states with diffuse leadership spread among several centers of power, the Arab form of state feminism is not implemented. The book analyzes the speeches of presidents and kings, and their implementation of policies and reforms. It integrates new information on current policies and the status of women’s rights in the region drawn from recent scholarship, analyses of policies, laws, and UN reports, and completed interviews with professionals in international organizations.
Final report
I spent the calendar year 2023 in the US at the University at Buffalo (SUNY system) at the department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies. The department was being restructured and a new head of department was being hired. I attended the job talks of the candidates in addition to other lectures and talks within the department. I also attended the doctoral defense of a PhD candidate working on gender and labor in a country I have previous expertise on, namely Lebanon. In addition, I gave a presentation on my research to the department.
Results and Publications
The book project has progressed, but not as rapidly as I had hoped. I developed a new theory for understanding how norms of human and gender rights have traveled from the west to be adopted by authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. This theory elaborated in Chapter one accounts for the role of the soft/normative power of the US and the EU and addresses the impact of approaches such as the Feminist Foreign Policy first established by Sweden. A version of this chapter is currently under review with the International Feminist Journal of Politics.
The theories I was addressing ended up being too long to present in one chapter, so I divided my theoretical framework in two parts (Chapters one and two of the book). Chapter two examines the role of cosmetic feminism in Arab states and especially the use of quotas in the legislative and the judiciary in addition to gender mainstreaming policies and the creation of national women’s machineries. The role of women in the judiciary has been understudied and examining the judiciaries of the eight Arab countries has helped raise new research questions.
I have published 3 online pieces aimed at a general audience (with a fourth piece on the judiciary in Tunisia to be published in 2024). An article based on Chapter One is currently under review with the International Feminist Journal of Politics. In addition, an article based on the keynote speech I gave in Prague is forthcoming with the Czech Journal of International Relations.
Results aside from Publications
I have also presented the results of my work at one national conference, two international conferences, and in two workshops. In addition, I gave a keynote speech on a related issue at a ministerial conference.
National Conference
• Participated in the Swedish Middle East Studies Association (SWEMENA) meeting in August 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden where I organized a panel and presented a new paper on gender in Lebanon.
International Conferences
• Participated in the European Consortium on Political Research (ECPR) meeting in September 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic where I organized and chaired a panel on women in the second wave of the Arab uprising.
• Participated in the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) meeting in Montreal, Canada where I co-organized a panel and presented a paper on gender in Lebanon.
Workshops
• Invited and participated in a workshop at Harvard University in May 2023 that brought together scholars from North American working on gender in the Middle East.
• Invited and participated in a workshop (in French) on methods in the study of the societies and politics of the Middle East at the University of Montreal in November 2023.
Keynote speech
• At the ECPR meeting in Prague I was introduced to scholars who invited me to give a keynote speech at the International Religious or Belief Alliance Ministerial Conference organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. https://mzv.gov.cz/jnp/en/foreign_relations/freedom_of_religion_or_belief/international_religious_freedom_or.html
An article based on the speech is forthcoming (see list of publications).
New Research Questions
The project has led to new research questions on women in Arab judiciaries. There are three types of countries: ones that have implemented a quota for women in the judiciary; ones that have allowed women in the judicial schools and therefore increased the number of women judges organically; and ones where women are mainly excluded from the judicial institutions—except for a very small number of women appointed by the executive. Do these women rule in different ways? If not, how different are these female judges’ rulings? What impact (if any do) they have on the average woman’s life?
Collaborations
The project resulted in increased collaboration with scholars based in the US, including Lihi Ben Shitrit at New York University (NYU) and Nermin Allam at Rutgers University (New Jersey). We are co-editing a special issue of the International Feminist Journal of Politics which should come out in 2025.
I have also begun discussions with Gwyn Thomas at SUNY Buffalo who specializes in gender in Latin America to organize a comparison of gender and authoritarianism in the two regions. We will start work on this project now that she has left her position as department head.
I am also continuing my work with Sarah Anne Rennick at the Arab Reform Initiative in Paris, France. We have organized a workshop on gender and youth in the second wave of the Arab uprisings (Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Sudan) that will take place in April 2024 in Lund. The workshop is the culmination of the series of panels we co-organized at conferences, and it will result in a special journal issue. We are currently approaching journals to find an appropriate venue for the special issue.
Results and Publications
The book project has progressed, but not as rapidly as I had hoped. I developed a new theory for understanding how norms of human and gender rights have traveled from the west to be adopted by authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. This theory elaborated in Chapter one accounts for the role of the soft/normative power of the US and the EU and addresses the impact of approaches such as the Feminist Foreign Policy first established by Sweden. A version of this chapter is currently under review with the International Feminist Journal of Politics.
The theories I was addressing ended up being too long to present in one chapter, so I divided my theoretical framework in two parts (Chapters one and two of the book). Chapter two examines the role of cosmetic feminism in Arab states and especially the use of quotas in the legislative and the judiciary in addition to gender mainstreaming policies and the creation of national women’s machineries. The role of women in the judiciary has been understudied and examining the judiciaries of the eight Arab countries has helped raise new research questions.
I have published 3 online pieces aimed at a general audience (with a fourth piece on the judiciary in Tunisia to be published in 2024). An article based on Chapter One is currently under review with the International Feminist Journal of Politics. In addition, an article based on the keynote speech I gave in Prague is forthcoming with the Czech Journal of International Relations.
Results aside from Publications
I have also presented the results of my work at one national conference, two international conferences, and in two workshops. In addition, I gave a keynote speech on a related issue at a ministerial conference.
National Conference
• Participated in the Swedish Middle East Studies Association (SWEMENA) meeting in August 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden where I organized a panel and presented a new paper on gender in Lebanon.
International Conferences
• Participated in the European Consortium on Political Research (ECPR) meeting in September 2023 in Prague, Czech Republic where I organized and chaired a panel on women in the second wave of the Arab uprising.
• Participated in the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) meeting in Montreal, Canada where I co-organized a panel and presented a paper on gender in Lebanon.
Workshops
• Invited and participated in a workshop at Harvard University in May 2023 that brought together scholars from North American working on gender in the Middle East.
• Invited and participated in a workshop (in French) on methods in the study of the societies and politics of the Middle East at the University of Montreal in November 2023.
Keynote speech
• At the ECPR meeting in Prague I was introduced to scholars who invited me to give a keynote speech at the International Religious or Belief Alliance Ministerial Conference organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. https://mzv.gov.cz/jnp/en/foreign_relations/freedom_of_religion_or_belief/international_religious_freedom_or.html
An article based on the speech is forthcoming (see list of publications).
New Research Questions
The project has led to new research questions on women in Arab judiciaries. There are three types of countries: ones that have implemented a quota for women in the judiciary; ones that have allowed women in the judicial schools and therefore increased the number of women judges organically; and ones where women are mainly excluded from the judicial institutions—except for a very small number of women appointed by the executive. Do these women rule in different ways? If not, how different are these female judges’ rulings? What impact (if any do) they have on the average woman’s life?
Collaborations
The project resulted in increased collaboration with scholars based in the US, including Lihi Ben Shitrit at New York University (NYU) and Nermin Allam at Rutgers University (New Jersey). We are co-editing a special issue of the International Feminist Journal of Politics which should come out in 2025.
I have also begun discussions with Gwyn Thomas at SUNY Buffalo who specializes in gender in Latin America to organize a comparison of gender and authoritarianism in the two regions. We will start work on this project now that she has left her position as department head.
I am also continuing my work with Sarah Anne Rennick at the Arab Reform Initiative in Paris, France. We have organized a workshop on gender and youth in the second wave of the Arab uprisings (Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Sudan) that will take place in April 2024 in Lund. The workshop is the culmination of the series of panels we co-organized at conferences, and it will result in a special journal issue. We are currently approaching journals to find an appropriate venue for the special issue.