I will be speaking at this conference tomorrow – just realized it will be open to the public, so come along if you’re interested!

The Global Fund for Women invites you to attend the conference “Feminism in the Middle East and North Africa: Theory, Practice, and Realities” of its Advisory Council Members of the Middle East and North Africa. The Conference will bring together GFW Advisors, experienced women’s rights activists in the MENA region, to collectively analyze and present the challenges, problematic, opportunities and success of the women’s rights movements. The conference will be held at the Sun Meeting Room in the Kempinski Hotel (Abdul Hamid Shoman Street, Shmeisani) in Amman. Please find below the conference program details and speakers. Kindly, RSVP as soon as possible to MENA region manager at GFW, Zeina Zaatari, at zzaatari@globalfundforwomen.org.

First Day; Friday, March 19:

9 – 9:30 Welcome and Introductory Remarks
9:30 – 11:15 Feminist Thought: Efforts to Reinforce Women’s Rights

Moderator: Pinar Ilkkaracan

Speakers: Rym Abdou, Raufa Hassan, Zeina Zaatari
11:15 – 11:30 Coffee Break
11:30 – 1:00 Strategies of feminist change in the age of poverty, economic globalization (services, development and/or rights), cultural globalization and the new technologies of communication

Moderator: Rym Abdou

Speakers: Lina Abou Habib, Aminettou Mint el Mokhtar, Nurcan Baysal
2:30 – 4:15 Legal Reform: Success Stories and Future Challenges to changing Personal Status and Other Codes

Moderator: Layla Naffa Hamarneh

Speakers: Wajeeha Al-Baharna, Pinar Ilkkaracan, Halima Oulami, Boriana Jonsson
4:15 – 4:30 Coffee Break
4:30 – 6:00 Funding Agencies and Feminist Institutions: Their role, agendas and Effect on the Social Change Process

Moderator: Lina Abou Habib

Speakers: Terry Greenblatt, Caroline Sakina de la Brac Perriere, Eileen Kuttab

Second Day; Saturday, March 20:

9 – 10:40 Women’s movements between religious extremism, politicized religion, and popular religiosity

Moderator: Caroline Sakina de la Brac Perriere

Speakers: Mozn Hassan, Yanar Mohammed, Nehad Aboul Komsan
10:40 – 10:55 Coffee Break
10:55 – 12:45 Exposing the Taboos (Personal and Sexual freedoms, the body, violence): Whose Responsibility?

Moderator: Mozn Hassan

Speakers: Nadine Moawad, Zeinabou Mint Taleb Musa, Naima Zitan
2:20 – 4:00 Women’s movements under occupation, conflict zones and political repression

Moderator: Suad El Gedsi

Speakers: Majeda Al-Saqqa, Trees Zbidat-Kosterman, Shirouk Abayachi
4:50 – 4:15 Coffee Break
4:15 – 5:45 Political Participation in the age of no democracy and the American Imperial Project

Moderator: Nurcan Baysal

Speakers: Suad El Gedsi, Areen Hawari, Layla Naffa Hamarneh