My Feminism between the USA and the UAE

Feminism Is Too Strong of a Word I did not identify myself as a feminist until fairly recently.  Growing up, I always had the image of a feminist as an angry men-hating, bra-burning, refusing-to-shave-her-legs woman.  I have since been enlightened- according to recent research, there are numerous self-identified feminists who have never burned a bra […]

What is Empowerment and what does Feminism have to do with it?

Empowering Women makes for empowered Men, creating empowered Children, producing empowered Communities and builds empowered Societies. Empowerment is a concept used extensively in a wide range of applications and human interaction. To understand empowerment, first power dynamics need to be understood, which is an area too intensive for this piece. The basics of power dynamics […]

"Weak, undependable, defective and inferiors" ? More than enough!

I have been a girl that lived in a conservative society for my whole life. Thank god, to a point my parents were a bit loose. But that doesn’t mean I have not seen what a cruel moral and physical treatment a woman receives. So next, I’m  not going to talk about women’s right in […]

Why I’m against “Women’s Rights”

No, there is no typo in my title. Yes, I know that this article is written for a “women’s rights in the middle east” website. I’m against the expression “women’s rights” because it implicates in itself an implicit differentiation between men and women at the level of their rights. Merely labeling these rights “women’s” highlights […]

A glimpse at the Battle of the Sexes

I recently got into this new life; the working class. And it is in this domain that Ia��ve seen and heard of sexual harassment, any kind of harassment actually. It is also in this domain that Ia��ve met young men and women, who would be considered to be the youth and part of the upcoming […]

How I Do Feminism

I will not focus here on answering the question of ‘why’ doing feminism in a closed circle with tiny windows, but I will definitely talk about the ‘how’ – in fact, the ‘how’ is related to the ‘why’ -: while seeing and defining ‘change’ from different yet complementary perspectives – as a professor and academic […]

هل يمكن أن نتكلم عن "ربيع" المرأة في العالم العربي؟

 كثر الكلام عن الخطر الذي يكمن في إستيلاء الجماعات الإسلامية المتطرفة على إدارة المجتمعات والسياسات الوطنية، ولكن تهب رياح التغيير في العالم العربي – من المطالبة بالحريات والحقوق الإنسانية والإطاحة بالإستبداد السياسي ومعها حركات جديدة تطالب بحقوق المرأة؛ حركات متنوعة في المنهجية المعتمدة والخطاب النسوي و الآراء والممارسات، منها تعبر عن غضبها وترصد الإنتهاكات للحقوق، […]

Feminist and Peace Activist

A student of mine, studying Theology, future clerk, asked me a while ago: ‘‘Why, a woman ‘like you’ (describing me as ‘young trendy secular woman’), not attached to any religious function, is interested in religions, cultures, philosophy, politics, etc. in a country like Lebanon where the production of knowledge – if it exists – on […]

I am a Heel Wearer and my Footwear is Feminist !!

One of the questions many women ask me when they look at me or when they read ‘Red Lips High Heels’ is: how can you say you are feminist when you wear red lipstick and high heels? Strange how I have to defend my feminism within a movement fighting for women’s rights. True we do […]

About Femen… My opinion!

With the article on Red Lips High Heels about the Egyptian activist and her affiliation with the FEMEN group came a lot of prolonged thoughts and debates. What is FEMEN? FEMEN is a feminist group, in Kiev, known for its topless protests. Theya��ve taken part in protests against religious institutions, international marriage agencies, sexism, sex […]