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72. Citizens in Training: Conscription and Nation-building in the United Arab Emirates
- Author:
- Jon B. Alterman
- Publication Date:
- 03-2018
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
- Abstract:
- n 2014, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) embarked on a bold experiment: It began drafting young men into the military. This move was not only a departure for the Emirates, it was a departure from world trends. Governments have been moving away from national service requirements for decades as military missions have changed and governments have sought to create highly skilled all-volunteer armies. But the UAE move to press young men into military service was meant to build the country, not just the army. Several factors contributed to the decision to adopt conscription. One was a deeply unsettled regional environment. Another was a drive to promote a stronger sense of shared Emirati identity. A third was a growing fear that young Emirati men were becoming lazy and “soft” just as the government eyed an increasing imperative to shape its workforce for a world less centered on oil. A fourth consideration was the UAE’s resolve to blunt the forces that contributed to the Arab uprisings in 2011. Staring down all of these factors, the UAE leadership decided a bold intervention was needed. The leadership constructed a program combining intensive physical fitness training with military training, national education, and character education. It did not only reach 18 year-olds. Everyone 30 years of age and younger is required to register, pulling men from their jobs and families to live with their peers in barracks, perform predawn calisthenics, and clean toilets. Those lacking the fitness for military training—nearly one in five—are not exempted, but rather are trained for civilian roles in vital sectors. The UAE drew from careful studies of other national service programs around the world—especially in Finland, Singapore, and South Korea—and had indirect knowledge of Israel’s program. Compared to these countries, the UAE has made innovations in its approach to citizenship education, workforce development, and public health. Women can volunteer, but fewer than 850 have done so, compared to 50,000 male conscripts. Women are cast largely in a supportive role as relatives of conscripts.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Women, Citizenship, and Services
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Persian Gulf, and UAE
73. An International Look at the Women’s Movement: The Gender Agenda of the Global South
- Author:
- Berfu Şeker
- Publication Date:
- 12-2018
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
- Abstract:
- We are at a time when the global politics of women’s rights, gender and feminism are intersecting at the regional and national level, forming around similar dynamics and practices. Against the gains made by women and LGBTI+ groups towards changing gender politics until the 2000s, we are seeing that new populist trends have been gaining power since 2000s.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Women, Inequality, Populism, Feminism, and LGBT+
- Political Geography:
- Turkey and Middle East
74. Purple Economy: A Strategy for Women’s Equal Economic Participation towards Sustainable Cities
- Author:
- İpek İlkkaracan
- Publication Date:
- 02-2018
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
- Abstract:
- This policy brief is published in the framework of “Women’s Participation for Sustainable City” project under the umbrella project “Supporting Sustainable Cities” of TESEV funded by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty. If one were asked to associate a color with the concept of “sustainable cities,” the first to come to mind would be probably green. Not surprising, given that the issue of sustainability originated out of concerns for the environmental crisis and the green economy was proposed as a vision of an environmentally sustainable economy. Today it is widely acknowledged that an additional challenge to sustainability has to do with inequalities in the economic and social sphere. Gender is an important crosscutting dimension of multi-layered inequalities. Hence I would like to propose another color to associate with the concept of sustainable cities and sustainable economies, complementing the green: Purple, the symbolic color of the women’s movement in Turkey and in many countries around the world. The purple economy entails the vision of a gender egalitarian and hence a socially sustainable economy. It starts from the premise that the root cause of obstacles to women’s equal economic participation lies within the gender imbalances in the distribution of caring labor. Caring labor entails provisioning of goods and services to caredependent groups such as children, elderly, ill and people with disabilities as well as healthy adults necessary for their physical, social, mental and emotional wellbeing.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Women, Economy, and Urban
- Political Geography:
- Turkey and Middle East
75. Lens on Palestine: Stitching Palestine discussion with Nusayba Hammad
- Author:
- Nusayba Hammad
- Publication Date:
- 07-2018
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Middle East Institute (MEI)
- Abstract:
- The Middle East Institute's Arts and Culture program is proud to present a documentary series highlighting the voices of Palestinian women in collaboration with Filmlab: Palestine. Twelve resilient, determined and articulate Palestinian women speak about their lives, memories and identities before their exile. Their narratives are connected by the enduring thread of the Palestinian tradition of embroidery, directed by Carol Mansour. A conversation with Nusayba Hammad, managing director of the D.C. Palestinian Film and Arts Festival, on Emwas and Stitching Palestine followed the screening.
- Topic:
- Arts, Women, Film, and Material Culture
- Political Geography:
- Middle East, Palestine, and United States of America
76. Lens on Palestine: The Judge discussion with Lama Abu-Odeh
- Author:
- Lama Abu-Odeh
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Middle East Institute (MEI)
- Abstract:
- The Middle East Institute's Arts and Culture program is proud to present a documentary series highlighting the voices of Palestinian women in collaboration with Filmlab: Palestine and the Foundation for Middle East Peace, Directed by Erika Cohn, The Judge chronicles the struggle of Kholoud Al-Faqih, who became the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East's Shari'a (Islamic law) courts.The film was followed by a conversation with Lama Abu-Odeh.
- Topic:
- Islam, Women, Film, and Courts
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Palestine
77. Lens on Palestine: Speed Sisters discussion with Rhana Natour
- Author:
- Rhana Natour
- Publication Date:
- 06-2018
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Middle East Institute (MEI)
- Abstract:
- The Middle East Institute's Arts and Culture program is proud to present a documentary series highlighting the voices of Palestinian women in collaboration with Filmlab: Palestine and the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Directed by Amber Fares, Speed Sisters is a documentary follows the first all-female Palestinian car racing team and explores the social issues surrounding their career. The film was followed by a conversation with assistant producer Rhana Natour.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Women, Sports, and Film
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and Palestine
78. Rethinking Orientalism
- Author:
- Nadje al-Ali
- Publication Date:
- 11-2018
- Content Type:
- Video
- Institution:
- Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR), Rutgers University School of Law
- Abstract:
- The lecture will address the relevance of Edward Said’s Orientalism for the contemporary study of women and gender in the Middle East. What are the main challenges of researching and talking about gender in the Middle East? What are the continuities in our engagement with Orientalism and where do we find ruptures and limitations? Based on empirical research as well as activism in relation to Egypt, Iraq, Turkey and Lebanon, this lecture will discuss the centrality of a gendered analysis in understanding recent developments in the region. It will pay particular attention to the centrality of body politics in challenging authoritarianism.
- Topic:
- Politics, Authoritarianism, Women, Research, Orientalism, Activism, and Gender
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, Turkey, Middle East, Lebanon, and Egypt
79. Women in the Middle East and North Africa: A Divide between Rights and Roles
- Author:
- Michael Robbins and Kathrin Thomas
- Publication Date:
- 10-2018
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Arab Barometer
- Abstract:
- Across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), most publics surveyed believe women should have equal rights to men in a variety of areas including access to university education (75 percent), employment (84 percent), and political o ce (62 percent). • Yet, despite widespread support for women’s rights, majorities in many Arab publics favor limiting the roles women play in society. For example, one third believe women are as effective in public leadership compared with men. Six-in-ten believe that the husband should have the final say in decision making within the family. • Unsurprisingly, men are, in general, less supportive of women’s rights and more restrictive in their desired roles for women. Additionally, citizens with lower levels of education are often more likely to hold unequal views, suggesting that as educational attainment increases across MENA, attitudes toward women may also shift. • Overall, these results from nationally representative public opinion surveys carried out by the Arab Barometer imply that exports to improve women’s equality need to move beyond ensuring equal rights to focus on attitudinal shifts about the roles women should play in society.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Politics, Public Opinion, Women, Democracy, Equality, and Political Rights
- Political Geography:
- Middle East and North Africa
80. August 2017 Issue
- Author:
- Aaron Brantly, Charlie Winter, Devorah Margolin, Michael Knights, Kristina Hummel, and Raffaello Pantucci
- Publication Date:
- 08-2017
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- CTC Sentinel
- Institution:
- The Combating Terrorism Center at West Point
- Abstract:
- After a respite from mass-casualty terrorism for more than a decade, the United Kingdom this past spring suffered three such attacks in the space of just 73 days, making clear it faces an unprecedented security challenge from jihadi terrorism. In our cover article, Raffaello Pantucci outlines what investigations have revealed so far about the March attack on Westminster Bridge, the bombing at a pop concert in Manchester in May, and the June attack on London Bridge and Borough Market. The early indications are that the Westminster attacker, Khalid Masood, had no contact with the Islamic State and the Manchester and London Bridge attackers were, at most, loosely connected to the group. The current threat environment, Pantucci writes, continues to be mostly made up of individuals and smaller scattered cells planning lower-tech attacks with very short planning and operational cycles—sometimes remotely guided by the Islamic State—rather than cells trained and dispatched by the Islamic State to launch large-scale, Paris-type attacks, but this could change as more British Islamic State recruits return home. Our interview this month is with Edward You, a Supervisory Special Agent in the Biological Countermeasures Unit in the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. While the full liberation of Mosul last month effectively ended the Islamic State’s caliphate pretensions, Michael Knights warns the Islamic State and other jihadis are already bouncing back in several parts of Iraq and more strongly and quickly in areas where the security forces are either not strong enough or not politically flexible enough to activate the population as a source of resistance. As the Islamic State transitions from administering territory to a renewed campaign of terrorism and insurgency, Charlie Winter and Devorah Margolin examine the Islamic State’s apparent lifting of its moratorium on using women as suicide bombers. In a commentary, Aaron Brantly argues that creating back-doors in encryption, or banning it, would create significant societal costs without stopping terrorists from accessing the technology.
- Topic:
- Gender Issues, Science and Technology, Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Insurgency, Counter-terrorism, Women, Islamic State, and Encryption
- Political Geography:
- Iraq, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, and Global Focus