WUNRN
WOMEN & THE ARAB SPRING: TAKING
THEIR PLACE? FIDH REPORT
7 March 2012 - On
the occasion of International Womens Day, FIDH launches a report on the role
of women in protests, revolutions and transitions in the Arab world and
proposes 20 measures for equality.
Women, alongside men, participated in the protest movements that shook the
Arab world in 2011, demanding freedom, equality, justice and democracy.
Women, as well as men, paid and continue to pay a high
price for their struggles. Today women must be able to play their full part in
building the futures of their countries, declared
Souhayr Belhassen, FIDH President. Womens
participation in public and political life, on an equal basis with men, is an
essential condition for democracy and social justice, values at the heart of
the Arab spring, she added.
The full
report is available here: |
The changes sweeping the region, which in some countries have transformed the
political landscapes, present real opportunities for women to push for their
rights. Yet they also present risks of regression.
Demands for equality tend to be set aside, while the
efforts of protesters focus on bringing down regimes and dismantling oppressive
state institutions, stated Sophie Bessis, FIDH
Deputy Secretary General. Recent history painfully
reminds us that the massive occupation of public space by women during
revolutions, in no way guarantees their role in the political bodies of the
regimes that follow.
Read the 20
measures for equality: |
Although the situation of women varies across the region, threats to their
human rights converge. In countries in transition, women are confronting
attempts to exclude them from public life. In
At these times of great change and as conservative
forces appear to be growing in strength, it is vital that steps are taken to
establish and protect equal rights between men and women, as the very
foundation of democratic societies, concluded
Khadija Cherif, FIDH Secretary General. To the
governments of region and the international community, we address this message:
the rights of women are a priority and must be at the core of political reforms.