Women's Action For Peace: Prospects and Challenges for Women in the MENA region

Women's Action For Peace: Prospects and Challenges for Women in the MENA region

MONDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2014
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
UNDP, DC-1 BCPR Conference Room on the 4th floor (Room #0472)

Join us for a briefing with civil society representatives and women's rights activists from the Arab region!

Hear from women living through the Arab uprisings and the ongoing conflicts across the Arab region and about efforts on ensuring women's participation in peace negotiations and peace building.

Planned one day before the High-level Forum on the Culture of Peace scheduled to take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 9 September 2014, the event will also provide briefings from delegates on the post-2015 development agenda in national contexts.

Come for an opportunity to listen and exchange ideas and proposals on ways to build and promote a culture of peace in the Arab region
from a gender perspective.

For further information please contact Selamawit Tesfaye at stesfaye@cwgl.rutgers.edu

Delegate Bios

EL-HASHMI Samia – Sudan, is a distinguished lawyer and the co-founder and chairwoman of Mutawinat, an organization that uses law as a strategic tool for change in favor of women in Sudan. It prioritizes women's human rights, women's rights in the constitution, and engagement of women in constitution writing. Legal reform, legal literacy, and women's access to justice are the leading aspects of Mutawinat's mission. It was the first organization in Sudan to initiate legal aid clinics and legal literacy programs targeting women. Mutawinat is highly engaged in civil society implementation of the co-operation agreements between Sudan and South Sudan.Ms El Hashmi is the founder of many women networks in Sudan, and is a prominent trainer and women's rights advocate.

FARRAJ Suheir – Palestine, is the General Director of Women, Media and Development, which she co-founded in the West Bank in 2004. A veteran documentary filmmaker, Ms. Farraj has directed and edited films discussing a wide range of social issues including the life of a Palestinian detainee, the story of a suicide bomber and the lives of children in Gaza, focusing on the impact of the intifada. She has worked as a trainer in the field of filmmaking since 1999, as well as led trainings on media and public discourse for women's leadership, counseling of women, and elections. Prior to this, she covered news events in Bethlehem and Hebron as a camerawoman for ABC for six years.

GHANEM Mouna – Syria, works as a deputy for the President of the Building the Syrian State movement (BSS) in Syria, which is considered to be the first opposition movement established in Syria. She is also one of the founders of the forum of “Women and Democracy,” which is affiliated with the BSS, and the coordinator and co-founder of the Syrian Women Making Peace Platform in Syria. Dr. Ghanem is also a Senior Gender Advisor and has worked for over ten years as an Assistant Representative for the United Nation Population Fund in Syria, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in Jordan, and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) in New York. Dr. Ghanem has published articles and papers on social issues and development in Syrian and Arab websites and newspapers.

HANTOULI Lamis Shua'ibi – is the Director of the Participation Enhancement Program at MIFTAH in Palestine.

KAMEL Azza – Egypt, founded Appropriate Communication Techniques for Development, a training NGO for which she remains the director. Over the past sixteen years, she has worked as a social development and gender consultant in implementing and evaluating projects in the social development field, including women's projects for various public, private, and non- governmental organizations. Her collaborations and projects have served NGOs such as the International Planned Parenthood Federation and Save the Children USA. She has also worked with UNICEF, UNDP, and the Egyptian Swiss Development Fund. Dr. Kamel holds a Ph.D. in Civic Education and has published many studies in the area of sexual harassment, the impact of all forms of violence perpetrated against women, and the image of men and women in the media.

KHAFAGY Fatemah- Egypt, is the Ombudsperson of Gender Equality In Egypt. She founded the Office of the Ombudsmen in 2002 and headed it for five years, through 2006. Since then, she has worked as Senior Gender Consultant in Egypt and in all other Arab countries for the EC, GIZ, UNDP, Agha Khan Foundation, the Netherlands Development and other donors. Recently, she has been asked to preside over the Office of the Ombudsmen. She has also headed the Gender and Development Program at UNICEF Egypt for fifteen years and the UNIFEM Regional Office in Amman, Jordan. She is a board member of the Alliance for Arab Women, member of the Think Tank for Arab Women, and member of the Trustees Board of the People's Socialist Alliance, which is a new political party founded after the Egyptian Revolution. Dr. Khafagy holds a PhD in Development Planning from the University of London.

LANGHI Zahra – Libya, is a gender specialist, civil society strategist and political activist advocating for peace, human rights, and women's leadership, and an academic and researcher in the field of Middle Eastern history, metaphysics, mysticism, and female spirituality in comparative religions. Ms. Langhi is the Co-Founder of the Libyan Women's Platform for Peace (LWPP), a pressure group/movement advocating for women's socio-political empowerment and peace-building. In conjunction with Karama and UN Women, she coordinated the Libyan Women's Political Empowerment (LWPE) program, which is aimed at empowering women in Libya to become active participants and leaders of political, economic, and social reforms, and to ensure gender equality and women's rights are fully integrated in democratic transition, including in governance processes, legislation, and policies.

MOHAMED Faiza – Somalia, has been the Director of the Nairobi Office of Equality Now since 2000 and has more than twenty years of experience working with international organizations. She has also worked extensively as part of the women's movement in Somalia and was instrumental in the coalition-building of women's organizations with a focus on promoting peace, gender equality and advocacy for women's rights. Ms. Mohamed has received numerous awards including the Hundred Heroines Award recognizing her activism in support of the human rights of women in Somalia and the Africa prize of the Hunger Project. She is a member of the African Union Women's Committee, the African Women's Rights Observatory panel, the Oxfam International Pan Africa Advisory Group, and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network. She holds an M.B.A. from California State University in Fresno and a Human Rights Diploma from the Institute of Social Studies at The Hague.

OUTALEB, Fatima – Morocco, is the Director of Union de l'Action Feminine's women's shelter and has been on its Board of Directors since 2007. An active women's rights advocate and defender, Ms. Outaleb is working with WILPF on its women, peace, and security program. She recently worked with SIPU, a local Moroccan partner for the implementation of a regional training program on gender equality and with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems as a local adviser for women's status in Morocco and for the SWEMENA project, which provides tools for local NGOs to develop policy recommendations on women's rights. Ms. Outaleb has worked as a consultant on gender equality and a trainer on gender and human rights instruments, namely CEDAW. She has a B.A. in English literature and a diploma in women's rights from Raoul Wallenberg Institute.