Credit: IPS TerraViva

By Thalif Deen

Amidst the more widespread denial of fair rights to women in much of the Arab world, some countries are recording success.

“Women can already been seen in greater numbers in our parliament, ministries, judiciary, armed forces and police, and they have also assumed very senior positions in both public office and the private sector,” says Hala Latouf, head of the Jordanian delegation to the Commission on the Status of Women.

She says Jordan now has women governors, mayors, judges and ambassadors, in addition to women chief executive officers (CEOs) in key industries and businesses, consultative bodies and chambers of commerce and industry.

“The new draft law on elections is expected to allocate even greater number of (parliamentary) seats for women,” she declared.

Dr Jouhaina Sultan Seif El-Issa, deputy chairperson of Qatar’s Supreme Council for Family Affairs, points out that Qatari business women account for more than 50 percent of the total equity investors and dealers in the Doha Stock Market. The number of women-owned companies in Qatar now amount to nearly 1,500.

But, says Nadya Khalife of Human Rights Watch, most governments in the region discriminate against women in personal status laws which govern their everyday lives, including issues of marriage, divorce, custody and guardianship, and inheritance.

Khalife tells Terraviva that some provisions in penal laws also allow for perpetrators of so-called honour crimes to receive a mitigated sentence or be exempt from punishment. “These crimes are typically committed in cases of adultery or sex outside of marriage.

And some countries in the region, she says, do not have laws to protect women from domestic violence. “Women are often not encouraged to report abuses to police and find difficulties in seeking redress.”

A study released by the Washington-based Freedom House singles out 15 countries in the region as having recorded “some gains in women’s rights” over the past five years. Kuwait, Algeria and Jordan saw the most significant progress while Iraq, Yemen and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories record overall decline.

Nadia Hijab, an independent analyst who works on gender, human rights, and the Arab-Israeli conflict, tells Terraviva that Arab women are constantly making progress in securing political, economic, and social rights – but it is slow and incremental.

“That there is progress is a testament to the increasingly sophisticated and determined efforts of women’s groups that are pushing the boundaries of debate in all these areas.”