The idea of learning from the past so that mistakes are not repeated is one of the basic foundations for studying the past. But it should be remembered that each situation is different, no matter how close it resembles a past. The trick is to pick the correct lessons of the past and apply them to the […]
Category Archives: Gender Studies
Middle Eastern Men should be involved in the Race for Gender Equality
Dr. Pamela Chrabieh raised quite the interesting bullet points: a�?We have to consider such questions as: How do we think about and understand mena��s relations to and involvement with gender equality? What are the different kinds of relationship that men have to gender equality? Why is gender equality of interest to some, often relatively few, […]
Relax… Don’t be afraid of Feminism(s)!
This is my answer to one ‘intellectual and highly educated person’ who expressed a while ago his ‘fear’ of Feminism in Lebanon and the Arab World: ‘you, Feminists, want women’s power over men. Men will not help you in your fight. Even most women in our countries, who are impregnated with the Patriarchal System, seem […]
Expanding Spaces of Equality in the Middle East/Western Asia: My Recommendations
Much is needed in order to implement full gender equality in the Middle East / Western Asia, or at least expand existing spaces of equality. Below are few recommendations: 1) First, extensive researches in the past of this region’s societies would shed a light on current diversity and gender management. A central finding is the […]
Le Grand Rapt (Une analyse d’un fanatisme. A l’occasion de la montée du féminisme au Moyen-Orient)
Robert Fisk raconte: “The airline crew offered me a lift on their bus into Jalalabad, the same dusty frontier town I remembered from the previous July but this time with half its population missing. There were no women. Just occasionally I would catch site of them, cowled and burqa-ed in their shrouds, sometimes holding hands […]
La femme guerrière: mythe ou réalité?
En lisant la presse ce matin, je tombe sur la photo d’une franc-tireuse syrienne, la ‘première’ femme guerrière de renom au sein du bataillon de l’opposition au régime en place (‘Armée Syrienne Libre’), nommée ‘Guevara’, opérant surtout à Alep, et voilée. Flash back à ‘la Violence et le Sacré’ par René Girard, et surtout, aux amazones, […]
Feminisms in Dialogue (I)
Following a first encounter organized by ‘Women in Front’ yesterday afternoon of at least 30 Lebanese women activists, journalists, university professors, lawyers, etc. all wanting to improve women’s participation in politics and decision making, I remembered the experience I had while living in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) with a group of women under the leadership of […]
Adultery in Lebanon: a Crime?
A question I have been asking for years , especially when I hear of women being publicly humiliated or murdered when caught in extra-marital relations or having sexual intercourse without being married, whereas men are generally ‘heroes’, or are easily forgiven for their acts – men are seen ‘naturally’ polygamous. Men and women are treated […]
« Transmettre la nationalité au conjoint et aux enfants »: un droit encore non acquis pour les Libanaises!
En tant que Libanaise vivant au Liban, je jouis certes d’une marge de liberté introuvable dans certains pays avoisinants. Je peux conduire une auto, enseigner à l’université, boire un kir royal dans un bar huppé de Beyrouth, me pavaner en mini-jupe en toute saison, fumer le cigare ou la pipe, débattre de sujets ‘sensibles’ en […]
Womanhood in Western Asia Cannot be Summarized in ‘Clichés’
Most Western Asian societies are struggling nowadays with social, political and economic crisis. They also suffer from diverse forms of discrimination (gender, religious, political, etc.) based partly on highly selective memories serving particular interests and ideological positions. However, there are spaces of dialogue and conviviality, and gender equality cases. Just as memory and identity support […]