[Bilimsel Haber] Fwd: H-Gender-MidEast: CFP Women and Public Life (July 2007, Syria)

[Nazan Haydari]

> H-Gender-MidEast
> **************
> 
> Women and Public Life:Empowerment and Participation
> in Social Studies  
> and Research
> 
> 
> The Middle East Research Competition (MERC) program
> in Tunis and the  
> Organization of Arab Women in Cairo will organize
> jointly a round- 
> table on « Women and the Public Life : Empowerment
> and Participation  
> in Social Studies and Research ». The seminar
> scheduled for July 2007  
> in Syria falls within a topic of interest to the two
> organizations,  
> focusing on research in the area of empowerment of
> Arab women and  
> developing ideas on the public sphere.
> 
> 
> Given the situation of women in the Arab world and
> varying  
> developments across countries, this seminar invites
> participants to  
> discuss the relationship between women and the
> public sphere through  
> an exploration of regional state of the art.
> 
> 
> It is an invitation to undertake a critical reading
> of what is being  
> written on women and the public sphere and an
> attempt to explore some  
> of the current features to identify gaps and are
> understudied areas.
> 
> 
> While some Arab countries have been able to make
> some achievements in  
> the area of women’s rights, others are still
> reserved, particularly  
> on the level of participation and involvement in
> public life. This  
> tendency had reflected on the social and civil
> levels of citizenship  
> (civil rights), as well as on economic levels (the
> high levels of  
> unemployment). In particular, women’s participation
> in associational  
> life seems remarkably weak in an atmosphere
> characterized by the  
> modesty of involvement on the part of both men and
> women.
> 
> 
> Political parties, regardless of their orientations
> rarely give women  
> priority due to their patriarchal nature. Thus, it
> often seems that  
> party politics collude a proper examination of
> women’s specific  
> issues. Moreover, the attempt to integrate women in
> parliamentary or  
> political life through the system of parliamentary
> or ministerial  
> quorum  has varied in terms of feasibility and
> efficiency, appearing  
> useful in some cases, and impractial and not too
> beneficial in  
> others. Patriarchal, tribal and sectarian politics
> have also left  
> their fingerprints on partisan politics as well as
> on the status of  
> women in public life.
> 
> 
> Women’s participation in mass media, as a public
> sphere is of vital  
> importance. The relevant developments in Arab mass
> media and the  
> increasing numbers of satellites, have been
> accompanied by some  
> improvements in women’s involvement in these areas
> but not to the  
> exepcted level. Women appear mainly press
> correspondents or are  
> involved in entertainment mass media, but rarely do
> they engage in  
> opinion journalism. Women’s experience in the media
> both in  
> satellites and specialized journals should be
> carefully analyzed.
> 
> 
> Public sphere includes the virtual sphere starting
> by cyber and  
> digital cafes which are today in control of most of
> the forms of  
> communication and information exchange. Differences
> between the  
> conventional public sphere and the digital sphere
> with regard to  
> women’s participation is apparent in a number of
> variables which are  
> themselves subject to several sociologtical readings
> reflecting  
> different approaches. Depending on one’s location
> and angle of study,  
> the approaches differ (e.g. Habermas, Bourdieu,
> Pierre Sansot and  
> Michel Maffesoli 
. etc..). The expression
> cyberspace is now used in  
> children’s books and in science fiction and
> materials addressing it  
> have greatly increased in the last decade.  However
> the presence of  
> women in cyberspace and their strategies in using it
> is still  
> understudied and underanalyzed.
> 
> 
> Despite women’s achievements in the area of equality
> and citizenship  
> in the Arab world, citizenship and equality before
> law remain  
> problematic due to the following reasons:
> 
> a) The patriarchal character of the laws
> 
> b) Practical applications of laws in daily life
> 
> c) New phenomena that have not been reflected in
> legislation
> 
> d) Women lack of participation in the formulating
> and interpretation  
> of citizenship related laws.
> 
> 
> In this context, the Arab street constitutes a
> territorial arena that  
> is different in its realities from the digital
> sphere which sometimes  
> makes up for women’s weak participation in the
> former arena. This  
> scene is characterized by rising but relative
> involvement and  
> increasing marginalization. Co-mingling is still
> problematic in some  
> societies and women find it difficult to enter alone
> some public  
> areas such as clubs, cafes and other places of
> entertainment.  In  
> this context, some Arab societies have exeprienced a
> remarkable  
> setback, despite their achievements on other fronts.
> 
> 
> Participants in the round-table will discuss the
> scope and nature of  
> current research on women and the public sphere by
> focusing on  
> following areas :
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Civil society and women’s participation
> 
> -Women and associational activities
> 
> -Political society and women’s participation
> 
> -Women, social citizenship and social movement
> 
> 
> Women, citizenship and laws : Between image and
> reality
> 
> -Development of the concept of citizenship and its
> relationship to  
> women’s social roles
> 
> -Women’s empowerment in Arab legislation
> 
> -Women and economic participation
> 
> 
> 
> Women’s presence in the public sphere :
> 
> -Women’s cultural and artistic contribution
> 
> -Women and the religious discourse between
> revivalism and exclusion
> 
> -Women and the mass media industry
> 
> -Women and the information technology
> 
> -Violence against women in the private and public
> spheres.
> 
> -Marginalization and involvement in public life and
> issues of co- 
> mingling
> 
> 
> The seminar is concerned with developments in
> studies and research on  
> the topic and seeks to answer the following
> questions:
> 
> To what extent do writings and studies on women and
> the public sphere  
> meet scientific standards ?
> To what extent do scientific and research products
> in the Arab world  
> reflect the reality of Arab women and developments
> and change in  
> their relationship with the public sphere ?
> 
> 
> Participants may also suggest new topics other than
> those mentioned  
> in the call for papers.
> 
> 
> Deadline for sending abstracts by email is end April
> 2007
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Deadline for sending papers : End pay 2007
> 
> 
> 
> Please write to
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Organization of Arab Women
> 
> Cairo
> 
> 
> MERC
> 
> Tunis
> 
> Info at arabwomenorg.net
> 
> contact at mercprogram.org
> 



 
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