Following a tide of revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, a panel spoke about the current and future role of Middle Eastern women in these protests on Saturday in the Stone Science building.
The president of the Nonviolent Initiative for Democracy, Dr. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, opened the evening by discussing the importance of human rights and dignity, focusing on the new void of leaders in the Middle East to an audience of about 70 students.
Harvard Kennedy School fellow and human rights activist, Mehrangiz Kar, said that as a member of the 1979 revolution in Iran, she is happy to watch women making change happen in the Middle East today.
“When Ayatollah Khomeini went to power, Iranian women were the subject of targeting under the name of Islam,” Kar said. “It was almost a week after coming to power … Iranian women immediately became angry [and] … feminists became worried.”
Kar said women’s rights should be more of a focus in the Middle East and North Africa.
“During the Revolution, by no means were women’s rights forgotten. Women were working hard for change in family law and in the political arena,” Kar said. “Today, the region is in crisis. That is a reality.”
Kar said the growing youth population in the region would face many challenges
“Over 70 percent of the Middle East is under the age of 30,” Kar said. “A new generation [is] growing up constrained by the dual challenge of governments and Islamic political movements.”
Director of women’s study at Purdue University, Dr. Valentine Moghadam, highlighted the role of women in democracies and traced the historic roots of the current movements in the Middle East.
“These mass social protests towards democracy did not occur in a vacuum,” Moghadam said, explaining that the three major detriments towards democracy were gender inequality, restrictions on knowledge and authoritarian rule.
Working toward female empowerment would lead to strengthened democracies, Moghadam said. “Solutions are a way towards a peaceful, democratic transition.”
“Mass social protests in the Middle East and North Africa are as a much a call for social justice as they are for political change,” Moghadam said. “The language of democracy has to include the language of social justice and citizens’ rights.”
Students attending the discussion enjoyed the expert knowledge of the panel.
“It was very interesting [to see] how revolutions can create the hope for social change in the Middle East,” said Marta Garnelo, a College of Arts and Sciences junior. “The speakers not only gave their opinions, but also solutions to suggest change.”
Delaram Mohamed, an Iranian College of Engineering sophomore, said he had heard of the speakers before and enjoyed hearing their opinions on how women can create change.
Layla AlBalooshi, a CAS graduate student, said she felt that more could have been said about women in the region.
“The talk was really great, but I felt that they could have touched more areas about the role of the Muslim women in the Middle East,” AlBalooshi said. “Especially with this massive uprisings in the region.”
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