Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

No Revolutions without Equality and Justice: The struggle for women's rights in rethinking development in the Arab Region

  • Local/Global Encounters
  • Published:
Development Aims and scope

Abstract

Kinda Mohamadieh highlights the shortcomings of the last two decades of policy practice in the Arab Region. She looks at the positions of feminist and women's groups on economic and social rights and policies in the Arab region addressing how to enforce equality and gender justic'e in the policymaking in the region. She discusses the economic and social demands that lie at the heart of the revolutions witnessed in the Arab region, as well as the challenges to reclaiming citizenship and democracy within a system of global governance tilted to serve a mainstream orthodox economic model. She highlights the need for deepening the perspective and position of feminist and women's groups on economic and social rights and policies in the Arab region.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Figure 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. These are part of the package of neo-liberal policy reforms that came to be known as the Washington Consensus, see: http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidtrade/issues/washington.html.

  2. Arab countries have been witnessing growth in GDP since 2003, whereby they registered 7.3 percent GDP growth rate in 2003 compared with 3 percent in 2002. This continued throughout 2004, 2005, and 2006, where Arab countries registered an average growth rate of 7.3 percent, 8 percent, and 6.6 percent, respectively. The percentage of GDP growth rate achieved by Arab countries in 2008 was around 6.6 percent, up from 5.2 percent in 2007. (Joint Arab Economic Report 2010 and 2009; available online at: http://www.amf.org.ae/content/joint-arab-economic-report). For more information, see: http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm

  3. Decent work framework refers to work opportunities that are productive, deliver fair income, guarantees rights at work, social protection, gender equality, and social dialogue. http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm.

  4. Fagbonbe argues that ‘It is not uncommon for feminist human rights scholars to focus on domestic violence, such as female genital cutting or veiling. Although such a focus is not of itself unreasonable, the neglect of other areas is problematic’ Fagbonbe (2008).

  5. QIZ is a US trade initiative to promote the political goal of effective normalization between Israel and its Arab neighbours, Egypt and Jordan. QIZ were created based on the amendment of the United States–Israel FTA in 1996 to extend the preferential duty free treatment for products of Israeli origin in the United States market, to include exports from geographically designated areas in Egypt and Jordan given specific rules of origin requirements.

  6. Ghoneim and Awad explain that these numbers can be explained by the fact that: ‘activities are concentrated in garment and apparel sector, which is apparently better suited for female skills and or deemed less desired by Jordanian males’.

  7. ‘Statement On Labor Strikes in the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZ)’, 25 April 2011. Available at: http://www.menaobservatory.org/statement-on-labor-strikes-in-the.html, accessed on 8 June 2012) and ‘Jordan: Report notes regular abuse of workers in Qualified Industrial Zones’, 16 May 2006. Available at: http://www.irinnews.org/Report/26884/JORDAN-Report-notes-regular-abuse-of-workers-in-Qualified-Industrial-Zones (accesses on 8 June 2012)

  8. The IMF noted its offer to assist in developing the economic strategy of the MENA countries and translating it into a costed multi-year sector-by-sector development agenda, embedded in a medium-term macroeconomic framework (IMF, 2011). The World Bank announced additional lending under the Development Policy Lending. Available at: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/MENAEXT/0,,a:b~contentMDK:22946182~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:256299,00.html. World Bank Program Information Document (29 April 2011), Report No.: AB6555. Available at: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main?pagePK=64193027&piPK=64187937&theSitePK=523679&menuPK=64187510&searchMenuPK=64187283&siteName=WDS&entityID=000001843_20110601141936 and http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:23018433~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html

  9. As early as February 2011, in a statement resulting from their meeting in Paris, the G20 countries announced that they stand ready to support Egypt and Tunisia, with responses at the appropriate time well coordinated with the international institutions and the regional development banks to accompany reforms designed to the benefit of the whole population and the stabilization of their economies; http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-19/g-20-country-ready-to-support-egypt-tunisia-after-revolts.html (accessed 25 October 2011) and http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/3/12/5955/Business/Economy/G-offers-Egypt,-Tunisia-help,-not-blessing.aspx (Accessed 25 October, 2011)

  10. The report states: ‘Areas of action include strengthening the financial infrastructure (e.g., credit information and creditor rights); enhancing competition by removing barriers to entry and reducing regulatory tolerance toward large exposures and connected lending, reassessing the role of state banks; developing the non-bank financial system; and deepening local debt and equity markets to provide alternative sources of finance’ (IMF, 2011: 12).

  11. The report states: ‘With mostly limited fiscal space, MENA oil importers confront the immediate challenge of preserving macroeconomic stability while building social cohesion. Additional spending in the short term is understandable and necessary to ensure social cohesion. Nonetheless, oil importers cannot afford to strain public finances, in order not to derail – over the medium-term – the pursuit of the new inclusive growth agenda. To this end, they will need to partially offset some of the additional cost of higher subsidies and other support measures through cuts elsewhere. In the same vein, they will also need to avoid introducing measures that would raise spending on a permanent basis. To preserve market confidence and prevent further escalation of the cost of funding, governments should detail credible plans for unwinding emergency measures’ (IMF, 2011: 7).

  12. This set of policies has been described by Dani Rodrick as Augmented Washington Consensus reduction (Rodrik, 2006, cited by Braunstein, 2012: 2).

  13. The report states that ‘economic reforms had started in several countries during the last decade. But in the context of declining state legitimacy, low levels of political participation, nepotism, perceptions of corruption and predation, and little accountability, reforms were too partial to take real hold or to transform sclerotic intuitions. Often they were perceived to increase inequality, and benefit the politically connected elite’ (World Bank, 2011: 1).

  14. This approach claims that by undertaking reforms of regulations pertaining to competition, investment, dispute settlement, and so on, new economic stakeholders would play a bigger role in the national economy. (Griswold, D., 2007. Trade, Democracy and Peace: The Virtuous Cycle. Available at: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10712. It is worth noting that in 2001, the Bush administration called for the democratization of the Arab region through promoting bilateral FTAs.

  15. ‘Women's Letter to Christine Lagarde!’ (August 2011). Statement signed by more than 40 organizations worldwide. Available at: http://www.genderaction.org/campaigns/lagarde711.html.

References

Download references

Authors
  1. Kinda Mohamadieh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Analyzes how economic inequalities are intertwined with gender inequalities

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mohamadieh, K. No Revolutions without Equality and Justice: The struggle for women's rights in rethinking development in the Arab Region. Development 55, 369–381 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2012.28

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/dev.2012.28

Keywords

Search

Navigation