Who’s afraid of Aliaa el Mahdy?

October 2011: a young nineteen-year-old Egyptian woman blogs a naked picture of herself. What could have been but a mundane act in the west was about to stir a passionate debate around feminism religion and nudity in the Arab world. Two years later, after having been harassed, threatened and kidnapped in her home country, Aliaa […]

Relax… Don’t be afraid of Feminism(s)!

This is my answer to one ‘intellectual and highly educated person’ who expressed a while ago his ‘fear’ of Feminism in Lebanon and the Arab World: ‘you, Feminists, want women’s power over men. Men will not help you in your fight. Even most women in our countries, who are impregnated with the Patriarchal System, seem […]

Expanding Spaces of Equality in the Middle East/Western Asia: My Recommendations

Much is needed in order to implement full gender equality in the Middle East / Western Asia, or at least expand existing spaces of equality. Below are few recommendations: 1) First, extensive researches in the past of this region’s societies would shed a light on current diversity and gender management. A central finding is the […]

Feminisms in Dialogue (I)

Following a first encounter organized by ‘Women in Front’ yesterday afternoon of at least 30 Lebanese women activists, journalists, university professors, lawyers, etc. all wanting to improve women’s participation in politics and decision making, I remembered the experience I had while living in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) with a group of women under the leadership of […]

I am a Feminist Man

The word a�?feminista�? is being more and more associated with queer women, lesbians to be specific. And, what are lesbians known for? Answer: Hating men. So somewhere along the history of feminism, this link has been created and it has become hard to break this line of stereotypical thoughts. In all feminist movements women are […]

Womanhood in Western Asia: A Journey to the Past

“In the nineteenth century, the central moral challenge was slavery. In the twentieth century, it was the battle against totalitarianism. We believe that in this century the paramount moral challenge will be the struggle for gender equality around the world” (Nicholas D. Kristof, in Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide). In […]

What do I mean by Equality between Men and Women?

There are many challenges to be faced and overcome when living in Lebanon, including trying to answer questions that are not asked anymore in other societies, such as: ‘Is Feminism a movement of angry Lesbian women wanting to destroy men’s supremacy?’ or ‘Why are you fighting for equality? And what is equality anyways?’, ‘Isn’t it […]

Religious Identity versus Feminist Identity?

Do religious identities and feminist identities automatically fall in a conflictual dynamic? A question I have been asking myself for a long time… And my answer:  there are ‘spaces’ of clash, and ‘spaces’ of dialogue, even in the most chaotic geopolitical zones such as the Middle East (Western Asia) where the religious knowledge tends to […]

Living in a Patriarchal Society

The Lebanese society – such as most Western Asian societies – can be easily labeled as patriarchal. Males have central roles of political leadership, moral authority, religious authority, economical power and property. Sad reality in the 21st century C.E., especially when anthropological and historical evidence indicates that most prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies were generally relatively egalitarian. Our […]