TERG October 2019 Participant Abstracts

Participant Abstracts

​

 

 

2018-2019 Participant Abstracts

October 25th - 27th 

Armman, Jordan

Landmark Hotel

Al-Hussein Bin Ali Street

Funding by a generous grant from the Foundation to Promote Open Society

​

                                                                                                                          

Participant Abstracts

 

Alain Daou

American University of Beirut

Assistant Professor

ad73@aub.edu.lb

Lebanon

 

Project Title

A feminist perspective of angel investment

Abstract

Evidence suggests that gendered ascriptions leave women at a disadvantage in terms of both the supply and demand of angel finance where only a few women become angel investors and only a minority of women entrepreneurs receives such funding. We interviewed women seed-investors in a patriarchal, gendered social context to analyze the rationale of their funding decisions when investing solely in women-led ventures. We show that women business angels tend to be gender homophilous, and they are driven by the social responsibility to empower women and break embedded stereotypes. Acknowledging the signaling dilemma, those business angels mentor women entrepreneurs to strengthen their competencies. By giving voice and visibility to women-led ventures, they were able to secure the presence of more seed-investors on board.

 

 

Dounia Salamé 

Issam Fares Institute, AUB

Program Coordinator

Dounia.salame@gmail.com

Lebanon

 

Project Title

At the Intersection of Gender, Class and Belonging: Understanding Women’s Practices of Public Spaces

Abstract

Women are subjected to daily aggressions in their use of public spaces; either in the form of explicit violence and harassment, or through factors that make them feel unwelcome in that space. While this is a shared and common experience in Beirut, empirical research from an urban perspective yet needs to be undertaken. This paper aims to do so through the case study of the neighborhood of Geitawi in Beirut. Feminist researchers have produced accounts about how women meet obstacles in their everyday lives in the city, especially in public spaces. Arguing that cities were “man-made environments”, feminist geographers and urbanists highlighted several obstacles encountered by women in public spaces, such as street harassment (Smith, 1987; Witzman, 2013; Bernard and Schlaffer, 1984), the inadequacy of infrastructure for reproductive work (Bondi, 1998; Mackenzie, 1989; Bridenthal, 1976; Gamarnikow, Kuhn, & Wolpe, 1978; Saegert, 1980), the false dichotomy between men/public spaces and women/home (Hayden, 1980, Bridenthal 1976, Gamarnikow, Kuhn, & Wolpe, 1978, Saegert 1981), and, more generally, the feeling that cities are built for men (Hayden, 1980; Ruddick, 1996; ?). A more recent literature built on these ideas to highlight how women from different backgrounds experience the “gendered city” differently from each other. While some scholars have focused on how class (Mackenzie, 1989) or race (Peake, 1993) mediate women’s relation to public spaces, others have called for the use of the intersectionality framework to aim for more inclusive cities (Lacey, Miller, Reeves and Tankel, 2013). This framework also allows, as Parker (2016) argues, to keep in mind the question of power imbalance, whether imposed on women, or between women. This paper therefore aims to read women’s experiences of the neighborhood of Geitawi through an intersectional lens, asking : How do women’s backgrounds affect their perception of obstacles in public spaces?

By placing women’s urban practices and perceptions at the center, we argue that research needs to examine women’s multi-layered experiences to understand how urban contexts place obstacles in their everyday lives. In this exploratory research, it appears that class, belonging, and reproductive rolei all affect women’s abilities to navigate and dwell in their neighborhoods. In other words, perception of encountered obstacles, in the same neighborhood, differs highly between one woman and another, and is directly related to women’s profiles and positionality. In particular, we identified sect, race, citizenship (or rather, non-Lebanese citizenship and exposure to racism) and sexual orientation (or rather, queerness or non-conventional gender expression), as four indicators that have a direct impact on women identifying themselves as belonging -or not- to the studied neighborhood, which affects their experience of the neighborhood as much as class and their reproductive role in their household.

                                            

 

 

Project Title

Identifying Resilience & Coping Mechanisms among Wives of Martyrs within the Palestinian Context.

 

Abstract

This research is trying to find out what are the resilience methods and coping mechanisms that Palestinian wives of martyrs employ to maintain resilience among themselves and their families after losing their husbands in the Palestinian context. Suggesting that the Palestinian wives of martyrs create their own psychosocial resilience methods and conscious coping mechanisms, to help them in dealing with their loss, within the continuous colonized-patriarchal struggle context.

The main interest of this research came from the great interest in researching and writing about the resilience as a method of resisting in all social sciences fields. In previous literature we find a focus on Palestinian people as strugglers and freedom fighter, such as previous and current prisoners, where the debate itself encourage that resistance in this way as it is the only way to freedom, where I partially agree, but, I add to that the Palestinian people (referring to non-fighters or previous prisoners but living and suffering from the occupation consequences on daily basis), are also fighting it on their own methods, which is dealt with as part of the social context within the community support, the social norms, the meaning of loss to those people….etc., this way we can understand that there is a huge and dynamic psycho-social factors that help people in resilience. It is the way Palestinian people especially women perceive themselves as freedom fighter in a fair cause; this is enough for some people to maintain higher resilience methods.

Adding to that most of the psychology theories looks at the coping mechanisms in relation to one's mental health, as well as how each individual’s unique experiences and perspectives affect coping mechanisms. Freud stated that an individual's psyche was divided into the id, the ego and the superego (McLeod, 2008).These three stages develop at different periods of a person's life, and together make up the individual's mental-being (McLeod, 2008). In addition, from there he suggested that coping mechanism are the mind attempts to deal and live under certain circumstances and under tragic events where consciously cannot deal with. This suggestion is not enough to discuss when analyzing a different social non-individualized context such as the Palestinian context, for that, this approach can’t be the right way to understand how the Palestinian women perceive themselves within this event of loss and grief, where they are creating unique state of mind to fight

For that, there was a real need of such a research in this domain, and that is because most of the previous literature regarding resilience methods, showed that struggle from an individual angle, where it brought up the issue from a very westernized, individualized definition of subjectivity. Struggle and fighting back that struggle in all levels can’t be individual fight or even individual resilience, for that those answers where very adequate and missing the idea of the self within the community, the active subject as part of this community and even her own struggle and resilience is part of those built and supported by the community and social factors within it plays a main role in maintaining a better and higher resilience regarding the suffering.

In addition, it tries to shift the analysis to the psychosocial level trying to understand and analyze the factors of power relations inside the Palestinian society as colonized people, and understanding how women perceive their daily struggle from a community psychology perception where the subject and her intrapersonal aspects as formed through dialectical relation with the community, which leads us to understand that struggling within Palestinian women makes them stronger in all levels, not only in their struggle against colonization but also in all social-community levels, where they resist & fight back while raising families resisting the norms and the continuous hardship within a colonized-patriarchal context.

For that, we found until now through the interview that the meaning of loss differs from one to another related to its consequences so it is more important to analyze those meaning at the psychosocial and community level where it creates the resilience methods.

 

 

Project title

Violence against Women in Political Parties: Analysis of the situation in Morocco

Abstract

In attempting to answer the research question, “how does violence affect women’s political careers in Moroccan political parties? It is important first to understand the ways in which women are subjected to political violence. By focusing on the hypothesis that violence pushes women to abandon their political career in parties, this research proposal aims to analyze the impact of violence on women’s political career in political parties, then, I attempt to analyze the multiple ways in which acts of violence are gendered. For these purposes, a qualitative anthropological fieldwork will be carried out with women from eight different political parties. The data gathered will include a review of various public materials, as well as qualitative in-depth interviews with women who are elected leaders of political parties,political candidates, party members, designated officials, and party supporters. My contribution is introducing new data on political violence against women, particularly in political parties. This research project opens new ways of critical thinking about this area of investigation.

 

 

 

Project title

Cyberbullying and the ‘imagined other’. The vilification of Moroccan women in the Khaleeji Cybersphere

Abstract

When women bully each other: The vilification of Moroccan women in the Khaleeji Cybersphere Abstract: This project will be mainly concerned with examining the underlying mechanisms behind some of Khaleeji women engagement in cyberbullying behavior towards Moroccan women in social networking platforms. I conceptualize cyberbullying as any deliberate harm inflicted through the use of electronic devices that contains gender-based slurs, negative stereotyping and offensive language. I will seek therefore, to answer the research question of what are the main factors that are related to the activation of cyberbullying behavior by Khaleeji women towards Moroccan women in cyberspace?

 

 

Project title

Discovering the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and violence against gay men in the public spheres in Egypt

Abstract

There are pervasive patterns of gender-based violence against gay men within societies. This research provides a general description of the nature of violence against gay men in public spheres in Egypt. It also discovers the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and violence against gay men in such prejudice and hostile environment. The research uses the results of MENA Region surveys and reports in addition to a research questionnaire and in-depth interviews with a combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis to discover this relationship based on participants’ answers. The research examines anti-gay violence and harassment in public spheres in Egypt such as the schools, university campuses, public transportation venues, and streets. The paper would expose the tendency in anti-gay violence and the relationship between such violence and increasing awareness about masculinities and gender norms. It will show the limitations of the existing data and the need for greater attention to the issue.

 

 

 

Project title

The Impact of "Social Violence" on Female University Dropout: The Case of Cadi Ayyad University

Abstract

Despite the various reforms adopted by Morocco in recent years, the internal performance of the higher education system remains below the aspirations of society. Official statistics show that 64% of university students drop out in 2015 before graduation. This phenomenon is higher among female students. The aim of the paper is to describe and analysis the factors behind this phenomena by focusing our intention on social factors. The data come from a survey of a sample of students enrolled in the first year of the program "Economics and Management Sciences" program of the Faculty of Economic, Legal and Social Sciences. It is an open access institution of Cadi Ayyad University located in Marrakech, Morocco. The results show that the phenomenon of university drop-out is at the crossroads of the intersection of individual, social, economic and institutional factors.

 

 

 

Abstract

My research project examines how entities support female victims of gender-based physical spousal violence to seek divorce in the light of the lack of criminalization of domestic violence in Egypt. In other words, I aim to address the work of experts and their interactions with the law; and within that process, unpack the multi-facetedness of interventions around domestic violence with the law and the state. In that vein, I also examine how the Egyptian law, in its ambiguity, hinder or helps the survivors. Using a transnational feminist approach including a structural violence approach, this project shall interrogate how work around gender-based domestic violence operates in Egypt, and explore how the worker work with the plurality of the legal structure to support female survivors of gender-based physical spousal violence to exit their abusive marriages in Egypt post 2011.

 

 

 

Project title

The Impact of Social and Legal Exclusion on Gender Research in Egypt

Abstract

How does the Egyptian government’s exclusive definition of development post-2014, the new NGO law, and its –allegedly– conservative social attitudes affect its ability to learn about and address gender struggles comprehensively and inclusively? This study aims to explore the effects that a restrictive research environment in Egypt has had on knowledge production in the gender studies field and how this information deficit, in turn, inhibits its ability to produce effective /inclusive policies that address gender disparities. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews with researchers and development practitioners working in the field of gender in Cairo and a discourse analysis will be carried out to shed light on the Egyptian government’s stance on gender research and development.

 

 

 

 

 

Project title

Intimate partner violence and divorce rates in Upper Egypt

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a type of domestic violence practiced by the husband or partner in an intimate relationship with the wife or other partner. Intimate violence can take a number of forms (physical, verbal, emotional, economic, sexual abuse). This study seeks to answer the research question: What is the relationship between Intimate partner violence and divorce rates in Upper Egypt?

The common mental image of the Upper Egypt community refers to family cohesion, and divorce is an idea that is not reflected in the minds of women. Divorce rates in Upper Egypt are the lowest in Egypt, but the opposite is true. Egypt's divorce rate in 2012 reached 45% during the first year of marriage. The governorate of Assiut is one of the highest divorce rates among the other governorates. The concept of violence in the Upper Egypt community is limited to physical violence and the majority of reasons for divorce are attributed to this reason. However, there are real reasons for divorce, including the result of intimate partner violence, which is an obstacle to disclosure.

This study aims to identify the relationship between intimate partner violence, divorce rates or marital instability, and then work to educate and guide the next and future women to marry the dangers and consequences of intimate partner violence, as well as imparting some life skills through seminars and workshops to avoid falling into Intimate partner violence.

 

 

 

 

Project title

Language, Gender and Violence in Iraqi Proverbial Discourse

Abstract

In Iraq, gender violence is a widespread phenomenon. However, the cultural roots of gender violence are understudied and misunderstood. This research examined the discursive representation of linguistic violence against women in Iraqi folk proverbs. It explored the interplay between proverbial discourse, gender and violence among middle-class Iraqis in Baghdad. A sample of 100 Iraqi gendered proverbs was collected and analyzed using feminist critical discourse analysis. Also, qualitative data was collected through 40 semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 middle-class Iraqis of both genders. The analysis revealed that there is a correlation between linguistic violence within Iraqi proverbial discourse and diverse norms and practices related to gender violence and discrimination among middle-class Iraqis. Iraqi proverbial discourses depict derogatory gendered images that often relegate Iraqi women to a lesser position in society. Such negative representations associated with Iraqi women are instances of linguistic violence which varies in different womanhood-related roles. Hegemonic masculinity and gender inequality in Iraqi proverbial discourses are attributed to socio-cultural norms and perceptions. Finally, the research provides a set of conclusions and implications related to the significance of language to lived experiences of gender violence and to the acceptable cultural norms related to gender violence.

 

 

 

Project title

Embodied Means of Anticolonial Resistance On Palestinian Women Political Prisoners

Abstract

In Iraq, gender violence is a widespread phenomenon. However, the cultural roots of gender violence are understudied and misunderstood. This research examined the discursive representation of linguistic violence against women in Iraqi folk proverbs. It explored the interplay between proverbial discourse, gender and violence among middle-class Iraqis in Baghdad. A sample of 100 Iraqi gendered proverbs was collected and analyzed using feminist critical discourse analysis. Also, qualitative data was collected through 40 semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 middle-class Iraqis of both genders. The analysis revealed that there is a correlation between linguistic violence within Iraqi proverbial discourse and diverse norms and practices related to gender violence and discrimination among middle-class Iraqis. Iraqi proverbial discourses depict derogatory gendered images that often relegate Iraqi women to a lesser position in society. Such negative representations associated with Iraqi women are instances of linguistic violence which varies in different womanhood-related roles. Hegemonic masculinity and gender inequality in Iraqi proverbial discourses are attributed to socio-cultural norms and perceptions. Finally, the research provides a set of conclusions and implications related to the significance of language to lived experiences of gender violence and to the acceptable cultural norms related to gender violence.

 

 

 

Abstract

Much of our understanding of sexual harassment as researchers and activists comes from established theories often leading to ineffective on-the-ground interventions. Overwhelmingly, literature on gender-based violence, and particularly sexual harassment, in and from the Arab region was uncritical of the definition of sexual harassment in Western literature, based on the individualist construct of the self. What we missed by being uncritical of this definition is that different constructs of the self, yield different understandings and experiences of bodily discomfort or what we commonly refer to as sexual harassment. The term ‘sexual harassment’ as we know it, has hence failed to explain the phenomenon in our context, and to capture the vocabulary around it that is specific to how women experience discomfort without experiencing it as a violation. This failure is largely a result of exploring the two notions: selfhood, and gender-based violence in the Arab world, in isolation of one another, without giving sufficient attention to what the intersection of the two yields.

This project aims at exploring these two notions in what their intersection yields, in order to make sense of this experience of the women in Lebanon. It aims to look beyond the obvious understanding of sexual harassment. Through the narratives of Lebanese women living in Beirut, it aims to identify how our connective selves - constructed around our kin and intimate others in our homes - influence our experience and perception of bodily discomfort and uncomfortable encounters with non-kin in the street. The driving hypothesis is that the more women focus on the intent of the perpetrator of their discomfort in the street, the less they perceive it as sexual

harassment.

Only one focus group has been conducted thus far; but from the resistance encountered in the process of recruiting participants, one finding is obvious: the narratives of women in Beirut on their discomfort in public spaces are buried under layers of sometimes their own denial, but mostly behind the gates of their community and its gatekeepers.

 

 

 

Project Title

The cost of unsafe spaces on the working women in Egypt

 

Abstract

The paper is trying to estimate the direct cost women on her way to work bear and the indirect cost the state is losing when women do not take public transportation as they are not safe. Listening to the experience and stories of women facing and how that sometimes impacts their participation in joining the labor force. Providing safe mobility will improve the situation of women and affecting the empowerment. Besides, the issue of sexual harassment and unsafe mobility is like a moral and ethical one. People try to see it from a legislative perspective. I believe if policymakers and society see the impact in a real figure, it is expected to make more effort to provide them with safe mobility without paying high costs. I can see this work as a way to develop the women empowerment in the work environment. Most of the literature focuses on work environment and work safety measurements rarely take into consideration the cost women bear to provide safe and comfortable access to work. Sometimes, this factor even prevents her from doing some jobs which are far from her home or is not safe for her. Those risks lead to another opportunity cost that men only take those opportunities as they can afford the related risks.

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

This study explores the effect of designating women-only cars in the metro in Cairo on the female metro riders’ perceptions of safety. My hypothesis is that the women-only cars will provide different power relations than the space dominated by men. Men mainly dominate and use public space from a position of power and entitlement that often legitimizes sexual harassment against women. I assume that the dominance of female riders and the absence of men (except the occasional male intruders and vendors) will result in the absence of sexual risk and causes a shift in women’s perceptions of safety. This would be visible in the transformation in their behavior and spatial practices (their body language, their attire, their conversation and so on). Furthermore, due to the unique nature of this space (i.e. dominance of female riders in the metro car), I believe it will lead to the enactment of forms of power relations related to class and gender different from the ones in the non-segregated metro cars (e.g. women will have more power over than the male vendors and male intruders). This shift in power dynamics could cause women to negotiate the space differently based on how they perceive their safety in women-only cars. Some of these space negotiation techniques might be decreasing one’s visibility by avoiding to sit down next to others, staring at the phone or standing by the door (to avoid vendors). Another form ofnegotiations women might resort to is the avoidance of riding certain metro lines or riding at certain times of the day. To test this hypothesis, the study will be a qualitative study based on observation and in-depth interviews to explore how women perceive and define safety within the women-only metro cars and how this perception affects their negotiation techniques of the space.

 

 

 

Abstract

Women are subjected to daily aggressions in their use of public spaces; either in form of explicit violence and harassment, or through factors that make them feel unwelcome in that space. While this is a shared and common experience in Beirut, empirical research from an urban perspective yet needs to be undertaken. The feminist body

of literature is full of accounts about how women confront inequality and oppression regarding their reproductive rights, their workplace, their domestic labor, and others. But very few texts look at how women do so in their neighborhoods and cities, and even fewer analyze this according to class. Our research aims at understanding how the city shapes the practices of women in public spaces, and how class informs these practices. By placing women’s practices in the center and looking at how these practices are altered by the gendered public space, and by addressing the correlation between class and these practices, this research’s initial hypothesis is that women from upper class backgrounds deal with gendered obstacles in the city with individual strategies, whereas women from lower class backgrounds do so with communal ones.

The fieldwork conducted so far in a specific neighborhood of Beirut (Geitawi in Ashrafieh) confirms our initial

hypothesis. However, it also reveals that while coping mechanisms are related to class, the perception of obstacles is related to different dimensions. In particular, we recognized sect, race, citizenship (or rather, non-Lebanese citizenship and exposure to racism) and sexual orientation, as four very relevant indicators, and should be contemplated together with class.

A gendered perspective on physical urban space that addresses questions of class, race and sexual orientation, will support demands by feminist, urban and different social movements, towards a more inclusive city.

 

 

 

 

Project title

Production of Culture, Gentrification, and Gender Implications in the pottery village, Fustat, old Cairo

Abstract

The paper questions the impact of gentrification as a representation of cultural imperialism and the rising of the creative class as a social group in Darb1718 on the everyday life of the pottery village by capturing the gendered implications of gentrification, cultural practices, and gender implications. Moreover, it encounters a set of historical narratives that describe the process of the Egyptian millennium development plan and the causes behind gentrification starting from 1999 until now. The research hypothesizes that gentrification produces different social and cultural practices that gradually changes the image of the pottery village. Accordingly, the new comers/visitors to the pottery village create the semi-inclusive-socio-space inside the pottery village itself. Moreover, the paper aims at exploring the indicators of gender oppression resulted from the cultural imperialism and how oppression is spatially manifested in the pottery village. Theoretically, I take Young’s notion of oppression as a structural concept, five faces, her classification of social groups and other discussions on feminist geography, gentrification, and cultural practices. This is based on an ethnographic study that employs oral history, participant observations, and in-depth interviews. The paper presents findings based on an analysis of ‘space and time’ and the framework by young in which gentrification creates different social groups differentiated in social class. These social groups are highly visible in the pottery village with their cultural practices. These cultural practices, specifically by the Caucasian’s artists, create a different mode of resistance and protection from the working-class men in KomGhorab towards their wives and Darb1718 art center.

 

 

 

Abstract

Soulaliyates women are members of ethnic groups that own collectively communal land in Morocco. According to customary law, women were not allowed to inherit land, with tenure passing only from father to son. The increasing commodification of land driven by neoliberal urban restructuring in Morocco has brought to the forefront the conflict over women’s access to land and pushed Soulaliyate women to fight for legal and social recognition of their right to obtain compensation when the land they used to live and work in is sold. After more than 10 years of struggle, the Soulaliyate women’s movement, supported by feminist organisations in Morocco, gained the right to be included in the list of beneficiaries of compensation.

This research will try to identify the gendered impacts of this struggle at the family and community level by looking at how gender roles and norms were affected by Soulaliyates women’s participation in the movement and their subsequent access to compensation. The working hypothesis is that this movement created opportunities for Soulaliyate women to access public space, gain bargaining power through new skills and the awareness of their rights thus challenging some aspects of patriarchy while reinforcing others by using patrilineal affiliation to support their claim to land.

This project is important for three main reasons. First, it will contribute to the debate on the gendered impact of changes in women’s property and land rights. By creating knowledge about the complexity of social change, this research will allow scholars and policy makers to gain an understanding of the impact of changes in land tenure systems on gender relations and patriarchal systems. Second, it will fill the gap in the literature regarding the gendered impact of the Soulaliyate women’s mobilisation to access land since previous research is limited to the mobilisation itself and the legal changes that followed it.

 

 

 

 

Abstract

This study is based on numerous interviews and fieldwork in Egypt with human rights centers, Activists lawyers and female activists who were politically and sexually assaulted. This study will analysis the survivors’ stories from their perspectives during their political work between 2011 – 2015, Trying to find out how the state’s weapons such as the Egyptian law revictimize the survivors in an indirect and direct ways. and how this analysis can lead us to new findings and concepts.

 

 

 

 

Project title

Tunisian Feminist advocacy against gender-based violence

 

Abstract

This research connects studies of gender based violence with studies of democratization, social movements and discourse analysis. The study shows how the Tunisian feminist and Human Rights associations or activists in the post-revolution have struggled against increasing rates of gender violence. They have explored the issues of women's rights have long been used as an instrument of authoritarian hegemony since the masculine forms of domination are rooted in the societal mindset and the legislative system. The overall aim of this present study is to analyze the conflicting discourses of these activists (state feminism/Islamic feminism..) that are thematically connected to the current dynamics of political transition. This research has pointed to flaws in the work of parliamentary discussions, media debates, and civil society campaigns when it comes to presenting violence

against women laws and sexual harassment (2014-2017).

For that this study considers the GBV issues and Laws are profoundly implemented within a series of historical and ideological controversies over the ideal model of Tunisian Woman, the secular social pattern. So that, focusing on feminist advocacy against all forms of violence against women (2014-2017) as a category of abuse and political contest in Tunisia, this research identifies how it is routinized and politicized despite efforts of feminist advocacy. It contributes on gendered violence in Tunisia by describing the impacts of feminist advocacy, human rights activists and state initiatives on this public policy. This research is based on a qualitative analysis which comprised a content analysis, discourse analysis of media debates, activists campaigns, interviews..

Participant Abstracts

 

 

2018-2019 Participant Abstracts

October 25th - 27th 

Armman, Jordan

Landmark Hotel

Al-Hussein Bin Ali Street

Funding by a generous grant from the Foundation to Promote Open Society

                                                                                                                                                   

Participant Abstracts

 

Alain Daou

American University of Beirut

Assistant Professor

ad73@aub.edu.lb

Lebanon

 

Project Title

A feminist perspective of angel investment

Abstract

Evidence suggests that gendered ascriptions leave women at a disadvantage in terms of both the supply and demand of angel finance where only a few women become angel investors and only a minority of women entrepreneurs receives such funding. We interviewed women seed-investors in a patriarchal, gendered social context to analyze the rationale of their funding decisions when investing solely in women-led ventures. We show that women business angels tend to be gender homophilous, and they are driven by the social responsibility to empower women and break embedded stereotypes. Acknowledging the signaling dilemma, those business angels mentor women entrepreneurs to strengthen their competencies. By giving voice and visibility to women-led ventures, they were able to secure the presence of more seed-investors on board.

 

Dounia Salamé 

Issam Fares Institute, AUB

Program Coordinator

Dounia.salame@gmail.com

Lebanon

 

Project Title

At the Intersection of Gender, Class and Belonging: Understanding Women’s Practices of Public Spaces

Abstract

Women are subjected to daily aggressions in their use of public spaces; either in the form of explicit violence and harassment, or through factors that make them feel unwelcome in that space. While this is a shared and common experience in Beirut, empirical research from an urban perspective yet needs to be undertaken. This paper aims to do so through the case study of the neighborhood of Geitawi in Beirut. Feminist researchers have produced accounts about how women meet obstacles in their everyday lives in the city, especially in public spaces. Arguing that cities were “man-made environments”, feminist geographers and urbanists highlighted several obstacles encountered by women in public spaces, such as street harassment (Smith, 1987; Witzman, 2013; Bernard and Schlaffer, 1984), the inadequacy of infrastructure for reproductive work (Bondi, 1998; Mackenzie, 1989; Bridenthal, 1976; Gamarnikow, Kuhn, & Wolpe, 1978; Saegert, 1980), the false dichotomy between men/public spaces and women/home (Hayden, 1980, Bridenthal 1976, Gamarnikow, Kuhn, & Wolpe, 1978, Saegert 1981), and, more generally, the feeling that cities are built for men (Hayden, 1980; Ruddick, 1996; ?). A more recent literature built on these ideas to highlight how women from different backgrounds experience the “gendered city” differently from each other. While some scholars have focused on how class (Mackenzie, 1989) or race (Peake, 1993) mediate women’s relation to public spaces, others have called for the use of the intersectionality framework to aim for more inclusive cities (Lacey, Miller, Reeves and Tankel, 2013). This framework also allows, as Parker (2016) argues, to keep in mind the question of power imbalance, whether imposed on women, or between women. This paper therefore aims to read women’s experiences of the neighborhood of Geitawi through an intersectional lens, asking : How do women’s backgrounds affect their perception of obstacles in public spaces?

By placing women’s urban practices and perceptions at the center, we argue that research needs to examine women’s multi-layered experiences to understand how urban contexts place obstacles in their everyday lives. In this exploratory research, it appears that class, belonging, and reproductive rolei all affect women’s abilities to navigate and dwell in their neighborhoods. In other words, perception of encountered obstacles, in the same neighborhood, differs highly between one woman and another, and is directly related to women’s profiles and positionality. In particular, we identified sect, race, citizenship (or rather, non-Lebanese citizenship and exposure to racism) and sexual orientation (or rather, queerness or non-conventional gender expression), as four indicators that have a direct impact on women identifying themselves as belonging -or not- to the studied neighborhood, which affects their experience of the neighborhood as much as class and their reproductive role in their household.

                                            

 

 

Project Title

Identifying Resilience & Coping Mechanisms among Wives of Martyrs within the Palestinian Context.

 

Abstract

This research is trying to find out what are the resilience methods and coping mechanisms that Palestinian wives of martyrs employ to maintain resilience among themselves and their families after losing their husbands in the Palestinian context. Suggesting that the Palestinian wives of martyrs create their own psychosocial resilience methods and conscious coping mechanisms, to help them in dealing with their loss, within the continuous colonized-patriarchal struggle context.

The main interest of this research came from the great interest in researching and writing about the resilience as a method of resisting in all social sciences fields. In previous literature we find a focus on Palestinian people as strugglers and freedom fighter, such as previous and current prisoners, where the debate itself encourage that resistance in this way as it is the only way to freedom, where I partially agree, but, I add to that the Palestinian people (referring to non-fighters or previous prisoners but living and suffering from the occupation consequences on daily basis), are also fighting it on their own methods, which is dealt with as part of the social context within the community support, the social norms, the meaning of loss to those people….etc., this way we can understand that there is a huge and dynamic psycho-social factors that help people in resilience. It is the way Palestinian people especially women perceive themselves as freedom fighter in a fair cause; this is enough for some people to maintain higher resilience methods.

Adding to that most of the psychology theories looks at the coping mechanisms in relation to one's mental health, as well as how each individual’s unique experiences and perspectives affect coping mechanisms. Freud stated that an individual's psyche was divided into the id, the ego and the superego (McLeod, 2008).These three stages develop at different periods of a person's life, and together make up the individual's mental-being (McLeod, 2008). In addition, from there he suggested that coping mechanism are the mind attempts to deal and live under certain circumstances and under tragic events where consciously cannot deal with. This suggestion is not enough to discuss when analyzing a different social non-individualized context such as the Palestinian context, for that, this approach can’t be the right way to understand how the Palestinian women perceive themselves within this event of loss and grief, where they are creating unique state of mind to fight

For that, there was a real need of such a research in this domain, and that is because most of the previous literature regarding resilience methods, showed that struggle from an individual angle, where it brought up the issue from a very westernized, individualized definition of subjectivity. Struggle and fighting back that struggle in all levels can’t be individual fight or even individual resilience, for that those answers where very adequate and missing the idea of the self within the community, the active subject as part of this community and even her own struggle and resilience is part of those built and supported by the community and social factors within it plays a main role in maintaining a better and higher resilience regarding the suffering.

In addition, it tries to shift the analysis to the psychosocial level trying to understand and analyze the factors of power relations inside the Palestinian society as colonized people, and understanding how women perceive their daily struggle from a community psychology perception where the subject and her intrapersonal aspects as formed through dialectical relation with the community, which leads us to understand that struggling within Palestinian women makes them stronger in all levels, not only in their struggle against colonization but also in all social-community levels, where they resist & fight back while raising families resisting the norms and the continuous hardship within a colonized-patriarchal context.

For that, we found until now through the interview that the meaning of loss differs from one to another related to its consequences so it is more important to analyze those meaning at the psychosocial and community level where it creates the resilience methods.

 

 

Project title

Violence against Women in Political Parties: Analysis of the situation in Morocco

Abstract

In attempting to answer the research question, “how does violence affect women’s political careers in Moroccan political parties? It is important first to understand the ways in which women are subjected to political violence. By focusing on the hypothesis that violence pushes women to abandon their political career in parties, this research proposal aims to analyze the impact of violence on women’s political career in political parties, then, I attempt to analyze the multiple ways in which acts of violence are gendered. For these purposes, a qualitative anthropological fieldwork will be carried out with women from eight different political parties. The data gathered will include a review of various public materials, as well as qualitative in-depth interviews with women who are elected leaders of political parties,political candidates, party members, designated officials, and party supporters. My contribution is introducing new data on political violence against women, particularly in political parties. This research project opens new ways of critical thinking about this area of investigation.

 

 

 

Project title

Cyberbullying and the ‘imagined other’. The vilification of Moroccan women in the Khaleeji Cybersphere

Abstract

When women bully each other: The vilification of Moroccan women in the Khaleeji Cybersphere Abstract: This project will be mainly concerned with examining the underlying mechanisms behind some of Khaleeji women engagement in cyberbullying behavior towards Moroccan women in social networking platforms. I conceptualize cyberbullying as any deliberate harm inflicted through the use of electronic devices that contains gender-based slurs, negative stereotyping and offensive language. I will seek therefore, to answer the research question of what are the main factors that are related to the activation of cyberbullying behavior by Khaleeji women towards Moroccan women in cyberspace?

 

 

Project title

Discovering the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and violence against gay men in the public spheres in Egypt

Abstract

There are pervasive patterns of gender-based violence against gay men within societies. This research provides a general description of the nature of violence against gay men in public spheres in Egypt. It also discovers the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and violence against gay men in such prejudice and hostile environment. The research uses the results of MENA Region surveys and reports in addition to a research questionnaire and in-depth interviews with a combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis to discover this relationship based on participants’ answers. The research examines anti-gay violence and harassment in public spheres in Egypt such as the schools, university campuses, public transportation venues, and streets. The paper would expose the tendency in anti-gay violence and the relationship between such violence and increasing awareness about masculinities and gender norms. It will show the limitations of the existing data and the need for greater attention to the issue.

 

 

 

Project title

The Impact of "Social Violence" on Female University Dropout: The Case of Cadi Ayyad University

Abstract

Despite the various reforms adopted by Morocco in recent years, the internal performance of the higher education system remains below the aspirations of society. Official statistics show that 64% of university students drop out in 2015 before graduation. This phenomenon is higher among female students. The aim of the paper is to describe and analysis the factors behind this phenomena by focusing our intention on social factors. The data come from a survey of a sample of students enrolled in the first year of the program "Economics and Management Sciences" program of the Faculty of Economic, Legal and Social Sciences. It is an open access institution of Cadi Ayyad University located in Marrakech, Morocco. The results show that the phenomenon of university drop-out is at the crossroads of the intersection of individual, social, economic and institutional factors.

 

 

 

Abstract

My research project examines how entities support female victims of gender-based physical spousal violence to seek divorce in the light of the lack of criminalization of domestic violence in Egypt. In other words, I aim to address the work of experts and their interactions with the law; and within that process, unpack the multi-facetedness of interventions around domestic violence with the law and the state. In that vein, I also examine how the Egyptian law, in its ambiguity, hinder or helps the survivors. Using a transnational feminist approach including a structural violence approach, this project shall interrogate how work around gender-based domestic violence operates in Egypt, and explore how the worker work with the plurality of the legal structure to support female survivors of gender-based physical spousal violence to exit their abusive marriages in Egypt post 2011.

 

 

 

Project title

The Impact of Social and Legal Exclusion on Gender Research in Egypt

Abstract

How does the Egyptian government’s exclusive definition of development post-2014, the new NGO law, and its –allegedly– conservative social attitudes affect its ability to learn about and address gender struggles comprehensively and inclusively? This study aims to explore the effects that a restrictive research environment in Egypt has had on knowledge production in the gender studies field and how this information deficit, in turn, inhibits its ability to produce effective /inclusive policies that address gender disparities. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews with researchers and development practitioners working in the field of gender in Cairo and a discourse analysis will be carried out to shed light on the Egyptian government’s stance on gender research and development.

 

 

 

 

 

Project title

Intimate partner violence and divorce rates in Upper Egypt

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a type of domestic violence practiced by the husband or partner in an intimate relationship with the wife or other partner. Intimate violence can take a number of forms (physical, verbal, emotional, economic, sexual abuse). This study seeks to answer the research question: What is the relationship between Intimate partner violence and divorce rates in Upper Egypt?

The common mental image of the Upper Egypt community refers to family cohesion, and divorce is an idea that is not reflected in the minds of women. Divorce rates in Upper Egypt are the lowest in Egypt, but the opposite is true. Egypt's divorce rate in 2012 reached 45% during the first year of marriage. The governorate of Assiut is one of the highest divorce rates among the other governorates. The concept of violence in the Upper Egypt community is limited to physical violence and the majority of reasons for divorce are attributed to this reason. However, there are real reasons for divorce, including the result of intimate partner violence, which is an obstacle to disclosure.

This study aims to identify the relationship between intimate partner violence, divorce rates or marital instability, and then work to educate and guide the next and future women to marry the dangers and consequences of intimate partner violence, as well as imparting some life skills through seminars and workshops to avoid falling into Intimate partner violence.

 

 

 

 

Project title

Language, Gender and Violence in Iraqi Proverbial Discourse

Abstract

In Iraq, gender violence is a widespread phenomenon. However, the cultural roots of gender violence are understudied and misunderstood. This research examined the discursive representation of linguistic violence against women in Iraqi folk proverbs. It explored the interplay between proverbial discourse, gender and violence among middle-class Iraqis in Baghdad. A sample of 100 Iraqi gendered proverbs was collected and analyzed using feminist critical discourse analysis. Also, qualitative data was collected through 40 semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 middle-class Iraqis of both genders. The analysis revealed that there is a correlation between linguistic violence within Iraqi proverbial discourse and diverse norms and practices related to gender violence and discrimination among middle-class Iraqis. Iraqi proverbial discourses depict derogatory gendered images that often relegate Iraqi women to a lesser position in society. Such negative representations associated with Iraqi women are instances of linguistic violence which varies in different womanhood-related roles. Hegemonic masculinity and gender inequality in Iraqi proverbial discourses are attributed to socio-cultural norms and perceptions. Finally, the research provides a set of conclusions and implications related to the significance of language to lived experiences of gender violence and to the acceptable cultural norms related to gender violence.

 

 

 

Project title

Embodied Means of Anticolonial Resistance On Palestinian Women Political Prisoners

Abstract

In Iraq, gender violence is a widespread phenomenon. However, the cultural roots of gender violence are understudied and misunderstood. This research examined the discursive representation of linguistic violence against women in Iraqi folk proverbs. It explored the interplay between proverbial discourse, gender and violence among middle-class Iraqis in Baghdad. A sample of 100 Iraqi gendered proverbs was collected and analyzed using feminist critical discourse analysis. Also, qualitative data was collected through 40 semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 middle-class Iraqis of both genders. The analysis revealed that there is a correlation between linguistic violence within Iraqi proverbial discourse and diverse norms and practices related to gender violence and discrimination among middle-class Iraqis. Iraqi proverbial discourses depict derogatory gendered images that often relegate Iraqi women to a lesser position in society. Such negative representations associated with Iraqi women are instances of linguistic violence which varies in different womanhood-related roles. Hegemonic masculinity and gender inequality in Iraqi proverbial discourses are attributed to socio-cultural norms and perceptions. Finally, the research provides a set of conclusions and implications related to the significance of language to lived experiences of gender violence and to the acceptable cultural norms related to gender violence.

 

 

 

Abstract

Much of our understanding of sexual harassment as researchers and activists comes from established theories often leading to ineffective on-the-ground interventions. Overwhelmingly, literature on gender-based violence, and particularly sexual harassment, in and from the Arab region was uncritical of the definition of sexual harassment in Western literature, based on the individualist construct of the self. What we missed by being uncritical of this definition is that different constructs of the self, yield different understandings and experiences of bodily discomfort or what we commonly refer to as sexual harassment. The term ‘sexual harassment’ as we know it, has hence failed to explain the phenomenon in our context, and to capture the vocabulary around it that is specific to how women experience discomfort without experiencing it as a violation. This failure is largely a result of exploring the two notions: selfhood, and gender-based violence in the Arab world, in isolation of one another, without giving sufficient attention to what the intersection of the two yields.

This project aims at exploring these two notions in what their intersection yields, in order to make sense of this experience of the women in Lebanon. It aims to look beyond the obvious understanding of sexual harassment. Through the narratives of Lebanese women living in Beirut, it aims to identify how our connective selves - constructed around our kin and intimate others in our homes - influence our experience and perception of bodily discomfort and uncomfortable encounters with non-kin in the street. The driving hypothesis is that the more women focus on the intent of the perpetrator of their discomfort in the street, the less they perceive it as sexual

harassment.

Only one focus group has been conducted thus far; but from the resistance encountered in the process of recruiting participants, one finding is obvious: the narratives of women in Beirut on their discomfort in public spaces are buried under layers of sometimes their own denial, but mostly behind the gates of their community and its gatekeepers.

 

 

 

Project Title

The cost of unsafe spaces on the working women in Egypt

 

Abstract

The paper is trying to estimate the direct cost women on her way to work bear and the indirect cost the state is losing when women do not take public transportation as they are not safe. Listening to the experience and stories of women facing and how that sometimes impacts their participation in joining the labor force. Providing safe mobility will improve the situation of women and affecting the empowerment. Besides, the issue of sexual harassment and unsafe mobility is like a moral and ethical one. People try to see it from a legislative perspective. I believe if policymakers and society see the impact in a real figure, it is expected to make more effort to provide them with safe mobility without paying high costs. I can see this work as a way to develop the women empowerment in the work environment. Most of the literature focuses on work environment and work safety measurements rarely take into consideration the cost women bear to provide safe and comfortable access to work. Sometimes, this factor even prevents her from doing some jobs which are far from her home or is not safe for her. Those risks lead to another opportunity cost that men only take those opportunities as they can afford the related risks.

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

This study explores the effect of designating women-only cars in the metro in Cairo on the female metro riders’ perceptions of safety. My hypothesis is that the women-only cars will provide different power relations than the space dominated by men. Men mainly dominate and use public space from a position of power and entitlement that often legitimizes sexual harassment against women. I assume that the dominance of female riders and the absence of men (except the occasional male intruders and vendors) will result in the absence of sexual risk and causes a shift in women’s perceptions of safety. This would be visible in the transformation in their behavior and spatial practices (their body language, their attire, their conversation and so on). Furthermore, due to the unique nature of this space (i.e. dominance of female riders in the metro car), I believe it will lead to the enactment of forms of power relations related to class and gender different from the ones in the non-segregated metro cars (e.g. women will have more power over than the male vendors and male intruders). This shift in power dynamics could cause women to negotiate the space differently based on how they perceive their safety in women-only cars. Some of these space negotiation techniques might be decreasing one’s visibility by avoiding to sit down next to others, staring at the phone or standing by the door (to avoid vendors). Another form ofnegotiations women might resort to is the avoidance of riding certain metro lines or riding at certain times of the day. To test this hypothesis, the study will be a qualitative study based on observation and in-depth interviews to explore how women perceive and define safety within the women-only metro cars and how this perception affects their negotiation techniques of the space.

 

 

 

Abstract

Women are subjected to daily aggressions in their use of public spaces; either in form of explicit violence and harassment, or through factors that make them feel unwelcome in that space. While this is a shared and common experience in Beirut, empirical research from an urban perspective yet needs to be undertaken. The feminist body

of literature is full of accounts about how women confront inequality and oppression regarding their reproductive rights, their workplace, their domestic labor, and others. But very few texts look at how women do so in their neighborhoods and cities, and even fewer analyze this according to class. Our research aims at understanding how the city shapes the practices of women in public spaces, and how class informs these practices. By placing women’s practices in the center and looking at how these practices are altered by the gendered public space, and by addressing the correlation between class and these practices, this research’s initial hypothesis is that women from upper class backgrounds deal with gendered obstacles in the city with individual strategies, whereas women from lower class backgrounds do so with communal ones.

The fieldwork conducted so far in a specific neighborhood of Beirut (Geitawi in Ashrafieh) confirms our initial

hypothesis. However, it also reveals that while coping mechanisms are related to class, the perception of obstacles is related to different dimensions. In particular, we recognized sect, race, citizenship (or rather, non-Lebanese citizenship and exposure to racism) and sexual orientation, as four very relevant indicators, and should be contemplated together with class.

A gendered perspective on physical urban space that addresses questions of class, race and sexual orientation, will support demands by feminist, urban and different social movements, towards a more inclusive city.

 

 

 

 

Project title

Production of Culture, Gentrification, and Gender Implications in the pottery village, Fustat, old Cairo

Abstract

The paper questions the impact of gentrification as a representation of cultural imperialism and the rising of the creative class as a social group in Darb1718 on the everyday life of the pottery village by capturing the gendered implications of gentrification, cultural practices, and gender implications. Moreover, it encounters a set of historical narratives that describe the process of the Egyptian millennium development plan and the causes behind gentrification starting from 1999 until now. The research hypothesizes that gentrification produces different social and cultural practices that gradually changes the image of the pottery village. Accordingly, the new comers/visitors to the pottery village create the semi-inclusive-socio-space inside the pottery village itself. Moreover, the paper aims at exploring the indicators of gender oppression resulted from the cultural imperialism and how oppression is spatially manifested in the pottery village. Theoretically, I take Young’s notion of oppression as a structural concept, five faces, her classification of social groups and other discussions on feminist geography, gentrification, and cultural practices. This is based on an ethnographic study that employs oral history, participant observations, and in-depth interviews. The paper presents findings based on an analysis of ‘space and time’ and the framework by young in which gentrification creates different social groups differentiated in social class. These social groups are highly visible in the pottery village with their cultural practices. These cultural practices, specifically by the Caucasian’s artists, create a different mode of resistance and protection from the working-class men in KomGhorab towards their wives and Darb1718 art center.

 

 

 

Abstract

Soulaliyates women are members of ethnic groups that own collectively communal land in Morocco. According to customary law, women were not allowed to inherit land, with tenure passing only from father to son. The increasing commodification of land driven by neoliberal urban restructuring in Morocco has brought to the forefront the conflict over women’s access to land and pushed Soulaliyate women to fight for legal and social recognition of their right to obtain compensation when the land they used to live and work in is sold. After more than 10 years of struggle, the Soulaliyate women’s movement, supported by feminist organisations in Morocco, gained the right to be included in the list of beneficiaries of compensation.

This research will try to identify the gendered impacts of this struggle at the family and community level by looking at how gender roles and norms were affected by Soulaliyates women’s participation in the movement and their subsequent access to compensation. The working hypothesis is that this movement created opportunities for Soulaliyate women to access public space, gain bargaining power through new skills and the awareness of their rights thus challenging some aspects of patriarchy while reinforcing others by using patrilineal affiliation to support their claim to land.

This project is important for three main reasons. First, it will contribute to the debate on the gendered impact of changes in women’s property and land rights. By creating knowledge about the complexity of social change, this research will allow scholars and policy makers to gain an understanding of the impact of changes in land tenure systems on gender relations and patriarchal systems. Second, it will fill the gap in the literature regarding the gendered impact of the Soulaliyate women’s mobilisation to access land since previous research is limited to the mobilisation itself and the legal changes that followed it.

 

 

 

 

Abstract

This study is based on numerous interviews and fieldwork in Egypt with human rights centers, Activists lawyers and female activists who were politically and sexually assaulted. This study will analysis the survivors’ stories from their perspectives during their political work between 2011 – 2015, Trying to find out how the state’s weapons such as the Egyptian law revictimize the survivors in an indirect and direct ways. and how this analysis can lead us to new findings and concepts.

 

 

 

 

Project title

Tunisian Feminist advocacy against gender-based violence

 

Abstract

This research connects studies of gender based violence with studies of democratization, social movements and discourse analysis. The study shows how the Tunisian feminist and Human Rights associations or activists in the post-revolution have struggled against increasing rates of gender violence. They have explored the issues of women's rights have long been used as an instrument of authoritarian hegemony since the masculine forms of domination are rooted in the societal mindset and the legislative system. The overall aim of this present study is to analyze the conflicting discourses of these activists (state feminism/Islamic feminism..) that are thematically connected to the current dynamics of political transition. This research has pointed to flaws in the work of parliamentary discussions, media debates, and civil society campaigns when it comes to presenting violence

against women laws and sexual harassment (2014-2017).

For that this study considers the GBV issues and Laws are profoundly implemented within a series of historical and ideological controversies over the ideal model of Tunisian Woman, the secular social pattern. So that, focusing on feminist advocacy against all forms of violence against women (2014-2017) as a category of abuse and political contest in Tunisia, this research identifies how it is routinized and politicized despite efforts of feminist advocacy. It contributes on gendered violence in Tunisia by describing the impacts of feminist advocacy, human rights activists and state initiatives on this public policy. This research is based on a qualitative analysis which comprised a content analysis, discourse analysis of media debates, activists campaigns, interviews.

Participant Abstracts

 

 

2018-2019 Participant Abstracts

October 25th - 27th 

Armman, Jordan

Landmark Hotel

Al-Hussein Bin Ali Street

Funding by a generous grant from the Foundation to Promote Open Society

                                                                                                                                                   

Participant Abstracts

 

Alain Daou

American University of Beirut

Assistant Professor

ad73@aub.edu.lb

Lebanon

 

Project Title

A feminist perspective of angel investment

Abstract

Evidence suggests that gendered ascriptions leave women at a disadvantage in terms of both the supply and demand of angel finance where only a few women become angel investors and only a minority of women entrepreneurs receives such funding. We interviewed women seed-investors in a patriarchal, gendered social context to analyze the rationale of their funding decisions when investing solely in women-led ventures. We show that women business angels tend to be gender homophilous, and they are driven by the social responsibility to empower women and break embedded stereotypes. Acknowledging the signaling dilemma, those business angels mentor women entrepreneurs to strengthen their competencies. By giving voice and visibility to women-led ventures, they were able to secure the presence of more seed-investors on board.

 

Dounia Salamé 

Issam Fares Institute, AUB

Program Coordinator

Dounia.salame@gmail.com

Lebanon

 

Project Title

At the Intersection of Gender, Class and Belonging: Understanding Women’s Practices of Public Spaces

Abstract

Women are subjected to daily aggressions in their use of public spaces; either in the form of explicit violence and harassment, or through factors that make them feel unwelcome in that space. While this is a shared and common experience in Beirut, empirical research from an urban perspective yet needs to be undertaken. This paper aims to do so through the case study of the neighborhood of Geitawi in Beirut. Feminist researchers have produced accounts about how women meet obstacles in their everyday lives in the city, especially in public spaces. Arguing that cities were “man-made environments”, feminist geographers and urbanists highlighted several obstacles encountered by women in public spaces, such as street harassment (Smith, 1987; Witzman, 2013; Bernard and Schlaffer, 1984), the inadequacy of infrastructure for reproductive work (Bondi, 1998; Mackenzie, 1989; Bridenthal, 1976; Gamarnikow, Kuhn, & Wolpe, 1978; Saegert, 1980), the false dichotomy between men/public spaces and women/home (Hayden, 1980, Bridenthal 1976, Gamarnikow, Kuhn, & Wolpe, 1978, Saegert 1981), and, more generally, the feeling that cities are built for men (Hayden, 1980; Ruddick, 1996; ?). A more recent literature built on these ideas to highlight how women from different backgrounds experience the “gendered city” differently from each other. While some scholars have focused on how class (Mackenzie, 1989) or race (Peake, 1993) mediate women’s relation to public spaces, others have called for the use of the intersectionality framework to aim for more inclusive cities (Lacey, Miller, Reeves and Tankel, 2013). This framework also allows, as Parker (2016) argues, to keep in mind the question of power imbalance, whether imposed on women, or between women. This paper therefore aims to read women’s experiences of the neighborhood of Geitawi through an intersectional lens, asking : How do women’s backgrounds affect their perception of obstacles in public spaces?

By placing women’s urban practices and perceptions at the center, we argue that research needs to examine women’s multi-layered experiences to understand how urban contexts place obstacles in their everyday lives. In this exploratory research, it appears that class, belonging, and reproductive rolei all affect women’s abilities to navigate and dwell in their neighborhoods. In other words, perception of encountered obstacles, in the same neighborhood, differs highly between one woman and another, and is directly related to women’s profiles and positionality. In particular, we identified sect, race, citizenship (or rather, non-Lebanese citizenship and exposure to racism) and sexual orientation (or rather, queerness or non-conventional gender expression), as four indicators that have a direct impact on women identifying themselves as belonging -or not- to the studied neighborhood, which affects their experience of the neighborhood as much as class and their reproductive role in their household.

                                            

 

 

Project Title

Identifying Resilience & Coping Mechanisms among Wives of Martyrs within the Palestinian Context.

 

Abstract

This research is trying to find out what are the resilience methods and coping mechanisms that Palestinian wives of martyrs employ to maintain resilience among themselves and their families after losing their husbands in the Palestinian context. Suggesting that the Palestinian wives of martyrs create their own psychosocial resilience methods and conscious coping mechanisms, to help them in dealing with their loss, within the continuous colonized-patriarchal struggle context.

The main interest of this research came from the great interest in researching and writing about the resilience as a method of resisting in all social sciences fields. In previous literature we find a focus on Palestinian people as strugglers and freedom fighter, such as previous and current prisoners, where the debate itself encourage that resistance in this way as it is the only way to freedom, where I partially agree, but, I add to that the Palestinian people (referring to non-fighters or previous prisoners but living and suffering from the occupation consequences on daily basis), are also fighting it on their own methods, which is dealt with as part of the social context within the community support, the social norms, the meaning of loss to those people….etc., this way we can understand that there is a huge and dynamic psycho-social factors that help people in resilience. It is the way Palestinian people especially women perceive themselves as freedom fighter in a fair cause; this is enough for some people to maintain higher resilience methods.

Adding to that most of the psychology theories looks at the coping mechanisms in relation to one's mental health, as well as how each individual’s unique experiences and perspectives affect coping mechanisms. Freud stated that an individual's psyche was divided into the id, the ego and the superego (McLeod, 2008).These three stages develop at different periods of a person's life, and together make up the individual's mental-being (McLeod, 2008). In addition, from there he suggested that coping mechanism are the mind attempts to deal and live under certain circumstances and under tragic events where consciously cannot deal with. This suggestion is not enough to discuss when analyzing a different social non-individualized context such as the Palestinian context, for that, this approach can’t be the right way to understand how the Palestinian women perceive themselves within this event of loss and grief, where they are creating unique state of mind to fight

For that, there was a real need of such a research in this domain, and that is because most of the previous literature regarding resilience methods, showed that struggle from an individual angle, where it brought up the issue from a very westernized, individualized definition of subjectivity. Struggle and fighting back that struggle in all levels can’t be individual fight or even individual resilience, for that those answers where very adequate and missing the idea of the self within the community, the active subject as part of this community and even her own struggle and resilience is part of those built and supported by the community and social factors within it plays a main role in maintaining a better and higher resilience regarding the suffering.

In addition, it tries to shift the analysis to the psychosocial level trying to understand and analyze the factors of power relations inside the Palestinian society as colonized people, and understanding how women perceive their daily struggle from a community psychology perception where the subject and her intrapersonal aspects as formed through dialectical relation with the community, which leads us to understand that struggling within Palestinian women makes them stronger in all levels, not only in their struggle against colonization but also in all social-community levels, where they resist & fight back while raising families resisting the norms and the continuous hardship within a colonized-patriarchal context.

For that, we found until now through the interview that the meaning of loss differs from one to another related to its consequences so it is more important to analyze those meaning at the psychosocial and community level where it creates the resilience methods.

 

 

Project title

Violence against Women in Political Parties: Analysis of the situation in Morocco

Abstract

In attempting to answer the research question, “how does violence affect women’s political careers in Moroccan political parties? It is important first to understand the ways in which women are subjected to political violence. By focusing on the hypothesis that violence pushes women to abandon their political career in parties, this research proposal aims to analyze the impact of violence on women’s political career in political parties, then, I attempt to analyze the multiple ways in which acts of violence are gendered. For these purposes, a qualitative anthropological fieldwork will be carried out with women from eight different political parties. The data gathered will include a review of various public materials, as well as qualitative in-depth interviews with women who are elected leaders of political parties,political candidates, party members, designated officials, and party supporters. My contribution is introducing new data on political violence against women, particularly in political parties. This research project opens new ways of critical thinking about this area of investigation.

 

 

 

Project title

Cyberbullying and the ‘imagined other’. The vilification of Moroccan women in the Khaleeji Cybersphere

Abstract

When women bully each other: The vilification of Moroccan women in the Khaleeji Cybersphere Abstract: This project will be mainly concerned with examining the underlying mechanisms behind some of Khaleeji women engagement in cyberbullying behavior towards Moroccan women in social networking platforms. I conceptualize cyberbullying as any deliberate harm inflicted through the use of electronic devices that contains gender-based slurs, negative stereotyping and offensive language. I will seek therefore, to answer the research question of what are the main factors that are related to the activation of cyberbullying behavior by Khaleeji women towards Moroccan women in cyberspace?

 

 

Project title

Discovering the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and violence against gay men in the public spheres in Egypt

Abstract

There are pervasive patterns of gender-based violence against gay men within societies. This research provides a general description of the nature of violence against gay men in public spheres in Egypt. It also discovers the relationship between hegemonic masculinity and violence against gay men in such prejudice and hostile environment. The research uses the results of MENA Region surveys and reports in addition to a research questionnaire and in-depth interviews with a combination of quantitative and qualitative data analysis to discover this relationship based on participants’ answers. The research examines anti-gay violence and harassment in public spheres in Egypt such as the schools, university campuses, public transportation venues, and streets. The paper would expose the tendency in anti-gay violence and the relationship between such violence and increasing awareness about masculinities and gender norms. It will show the limitations of the existing data and the need for greater attention to the issue.

 

 

 

Project title

The Impact of "Social Violence" on Female University Dropout: The Case of Cadi Ayyad University

Abstract

Despite the various reforms adopted by Morocco in recent years, the internal performance of the higher education system remains below the aspirations of society. Official statistics show that 64% of university students drop out in 2015 before graduation. This phenomenon is higher among female students. The aim of the paper is to describe and analysis the factors behind this phenomena by focusing our intention on social factors. The data come from a survey of a sample of students enrolled in the first year of the program "Economics and Management Sciences" program of the Faculty of Economic, Legal and Social Sciences. It is an open access institution of Cadi Ayyad University located in Marrakech, Morocco. The results show that the phenomenon of university drop-out is at the crossroads of the intersection of individual, social, economic and institutional factors.

 

 

 

Abstract

My research project examines how entities support female victims of gender-based physical spousal violence to seek divorce in the light of the lack of criminalization of domestic violence in Egypt. In other words, I aim to address the work of experts and their interactions with the law; and within that process, unpack the multi-facetedness of interventions around domestic violence with the law and the state. In that vein, I also examine how the Egyptian law, in its ambiguity, hinder or helps the survivors. Using a transnational feminist approach including a structural violence approach, this project shall interrogate how work around gender-based domestic violence operates in Egypt, and explore how the worker work with the plurality of the legal structure to support female survivors of gender-based physical spousal violence to exit their abusive marriages in Egypt post 2011.

 

 

 

Project title

The Impact of Social and Legal Exclusion on Gender Research in Egypt

Abstract

How does the Egyptian government’s exclusive definition of development post-2014, the new NGO law, and its –allegedly– conservative social attitudes affect its ability to learn about and address gender struggles comprehensively and inclusively? This study aims to explore the effects that a restrictive research environment in Egypt has had on knowledge production in the gender studies field and how this information deficit, in turn, inhibits its ability to produce effective /inclusive policies that address gender disparities. Data will be collected through semi-structured interviews with researchers and development practitioners working in the field of gender in Cairo and a discourse analysis will be carried out to shed light on the Egyptian government’s stance on gender research and development.

 

 

 

 

 

Project title

Intimate partner violence and divorce rates in Upper Egypt

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a type of domestic violence practiced by the husband or partner in an intimate relationship with the wife or other partner. Intimate violence can take a number of forms (physical, verbal, emotional, economic, sexual abuse). This study seeks to answer the research question: What is the relationship between Intimate partner violence and divorce rates in Upper Egypt?

The common mental image of the Upper Egypt community refers to family cohesion, and divorce is an idea that is not reflected in the minds of women. Divorce rates in Upper Egypt are the lowest in Egypt, but the opposite is true. Egypt's divorce rate in 2012 reached 45% during the first year of marriage. The governorate of Assiut is one of the highest divorce rates among the other governorates. The concept of violence in the Upper Egypt community is limited to physical violence and the majority of reasons for divorce are attributed to this reason. However, there are real reasons for divorce, including the result of intimate partner violence, which is an obstacle to disclosure.

This study aims to identify the relationship between intimate partner violence, divorce rates or marital instability, and then work to educate and guide the next and future women to marry the dangers and consequences of intimate partner violence, as well as imparting some life skills through seminars and workshops to avoid falling into Intimate partner violence.

 

 

 

 

Project title

Language, Gender and Violence in Iraqi Proverbial Discourse

Abstract

In Iraq, gender violence is a widespread phenomenon. However, the cultural roots of gender violence are understudied and misunderstood. This research examined the discursive representation of linguistic violence against women in Iraqi folk proverbs. It explored the interplay between proverbial discourse, gender and violence among middle-class Iraqis in Baghdad. A sample of 100 Iraqi gendered proverbs was collected and analyzed using feminist critical discourse analysis. Also, qualitative data was collected through 40 semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 middle-class Iraqis of both genders. The analysis revealed that there is a correlation between linguistic violence within Iraqi proverbial discourse and diverse norms and practices related to gender violence and discrimination among middle-class Iraqis. Iraqi proverbial discourses depict derogatory gendered images that often relegate Iraqi women to a lesser position in society. Such negative representations associated with Iraqi women are instances of linguistic violence which varies in different womanhood-related roles. Hegemonic masculinity and gender inequality in Iraqi proverbial discourses are attributed to socio-cultural norms and perceptions. Finally, the research provides a set of conclusions and implications related to the significance of language to lived experiences of gender violence and to the acceptable cultural norms related to gender violence.

 

 

 

Project title

Embodied Means of Anticolonial Resistance On Palestinian Women Political Prisoners

Abstract

In Iraq, gender violence is a widespread phenomenon. However, the cultural roots of gender violence are understudied and misunderstood. This research examined the discursive representation of linguistic violence against women in Iraqi folk proverbs. It explored the interplay between proverbial discourse, gender and violence among middle-class Iraqis in Baghdad. A sample of 100 Iraqi gendered proverbs was collected and analyzed using feminist critical discourse analysis. Also, qualitative data was collected through 40 semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 middle-class Iraqis of both genders. The analysis revealed that there is a correlation between linguistic violence within Iraqi proverbial discourse and diverse norms and practices related to gender violence and discrimination among middle-class Iraqis. Iraqi proverbial discourses depict derogatory gendered images that often relegate Iraqi women to a lesser position in society. Such negative representations associated with Iraqi women are instances of linguistic violence which varies in different womanhood-related roles. Hegemonic masculinity and gender inequality in Iraqi proverbial discourses are attributed to socio-cultural norms and perceptions. Finally, the research provides a set of conclusions and implications related to the significance of language to lived experiences of gender violence and to the acceptable cultural norms related to gender violence.

 

 

 

Abstract

Much of our understanding of sexual harassment as researchers and activists comes from established theories often leading to ineffective on-the-ground interventions. Overwhelmingly, literature on gender-based violence, and particularly sexual harassment, in and from the Arab region was uncritical of the definition of sexual harassment in Western literature, based on the individualist construct of the self. What we missed by being uncritical of this definition is that different constructs of the self, yield different understandings and experiences of bodily discomfort or what we commonly refer to as sexual harassment. The term ‘sexual harassment’ as we know it, has hence failed to explain the phenomenon in our context, and to capture the vocabulary around it that is specific to how women experience discomfort without experiencing it as a violation. This failure is largely a result of exploring the two notions: selfhood, and gender-based violence in the Arab world, in isolation of one another, without giving sufficient attention to what the intersection of the two yields.

This project aims at exploring these two notions in what their intersection yields, in order to make sense of this experience of the women in Lebanon. It aims to look beyond the obvious understanding of sexual harassment. Through the narratives of Lebanese women living in Beirut, it aims to identify how our connective selves - constructed around our kin and intimate others in our homes - influence our experience and perception of bodily discomfort and uncomfortable encounters with non-kin in the street. The driving hypothesis is that the more women focus on the intent of the perpetrator of their discomfort in the street, the less they perceive it as sexual

harassment.

Only one focus group has been conducted thus far; but from the resistance encountered in the process of recruiting participants, one finding is obvious: the narratives of women in Beirut on their discomfort in public spaces are buried under layers of sometimes their own denial, but mostly behind the gates of their community and its gatekeepers.

 

 

 

Project Title

The cost of unsafe spaces on the working women in Egypt

 

Abstract

The paper is trying to estimate the direct cost women on her way to work bear and the indirect cost the state is losing when women do not take public transportation as they are not safe. Listening to the experience and stories of women facing and how that sometimes impacts their participation in joining the labor force. Providing safe mobility will improve the situation of women and affecting the empowerment. Besides, the issue of sexual harassment and unsafe mobility is like a moral and ethical one. People try to see it from a legislative perspective. I believe if policymakers and society see the impact in a real figure, it is expected to make more effort to provide them with safe mobility without paying high costs. I can see this work as a way to develop the women empowerment in the work environment. Most of the literature focuses on work environment and work safety measurements rarely take into consideration the cost women bear to provide safe and comfortable access to work. Sometimes, this factor even prevents her from doing some jobs which are far from her home or is not safe for her. Those risks lead to another opportunity cost that men only take those opportunities as they can afford the related risks.

 

 

 

 

 

Abstract

This study explores the effect of designating women-only cars in the metro in Cairo on the female metro riders’ perceptions of safety. My hypothesis is that the women-only cars will provide different power relations than the space dominated by men. Men mainly dominate and use public space from a position of power and entitlement that often legitimizes sexual harassment against women. I assume that the dominance of female riders and the absence of men (except the occasional male intruders and vendors) will result in the absence of sexual risk and causes a shift in women’s perceptions of safety. This would be visible in the transformation in their behavior and spatial practices (their body language, their attire, their conversation and so on). Furthermore, due to the unique nature of this space (i.e. dominance of female riders in the metro car), I believe it will lead to the enactment of forms of power relations related to class and gender different from the ones in the non-segregated metro cars (e.g. women will have more power over than the male vendors and male intruders). This shift in power dynamics could cause women to negotiate the space differently based on how they perceive their safety in women-only cars. Some of these space negotiation techniques might be decreasing one’s visibility by avoiding to sit down next to others, staring at the phone or standing by the door (to avoid vendors). Another form ofnegotiations women might resort to is the avoidance of riding certain metro lines or riding at certain times of the day. To test this hypothesis, the study will be a qualitative study based on observation and in-depth interviews to explore how women perceive and define safety within the women-only metro cars and how this perception affects their negotiation techniques of the space.

 

 

 

Abstract

Women are subjected to daily aggressions in their use of public spaces; either in form of explicit violence and harassment, or through factors that make them feel unwelcome in that space. While this is a shared and common experience in Beirut, empirical research from an urban perspective yet needs to be undertaken. The feminist body

of literature is full of accounts about how women confront inequality and oppression regarding their reproductive rights, their workplace, their domestic labor, and others. But very few texts look at how women do so in their neighborhoods and cities, and even fewer analyze this according to class. Our research aims at understanding how the city shapes the practices of women in public spaces, and how class informs these practices. By placing women’s practices in the center and looking at how these practices are altered by the gendered public space, and by addressing the correlation between class and these practices, this research’s initial hypothesis is that women from upper class backgrounds deal with gendered obstacles in the city with individual strategies, whereas women from lower class backgrounds do so with communal ones.

The fieldwork conducted so far in a specific neighborhood of Beirut (Geitawi in Ashrafieh) confirms our initial

hypothesis. However, it also reveals that while coping mechanisms are related to class, the perception of obstacles is related to different dimensions. In particular, we recognized sect, race, citizenship (or rather, non-Lebanese citizenship and exposure to racism) and sexual orientation, as four very relevant indicators, and should be contemplated together with class.

A gendered perspective on physical urban space that addresses questions of class, race and sexual orientation, will support demands by feminist, urban and different social movements, towards a more inclusive city.

 

 

 

 

Project title

Production of Culture, Gentrification, and Gender Implications in the pottery village, Fustat, old Cairo

Abstract

The paper questions the impact of gentrification as a representation of cultural imperialism and the rising of the creative class as a social group in Darb1718 on the everyday life of the pottery village by capturing the gendered implications of gentrification, cultural practices, and gender implications. Moreover, it encounters a set of historical narratives that describe the process of the Egyptian millennium development plan and the causes behind gentrification starting from 1999 until now. The research hypothesizes that gentrification produces different social and cultural practices that gradually changes the image of the pottery village. Accordingly, the new comers/visitors to the pottery village create the semi-inclusive-socio-space inside the pottery village itself. Moreover, the paper aims at exploring the indicators of gender oppression resulted from the cultural imperialism and how oppression is spatially manifested in the pottery village. Theoretically, I take Young’s notion of oppression as a structural concept, five faces, her classification of social groups and other discussions on feminist geography, gentrification, and cultural practices. This is based on an ethnographic study that employs oral history, participant observations, and in-depth interviews. The paper presents findings based on an analysis of ‘space and time’ and the framework by young in which gentrification creates different social groups differentiated in social class. These social groups are highly visible in the pottery village with their cultural practices. These cultural practices, specifically by the Caucasian’s artists, create a different mode of resistance and protection from the working-class men in KomGhorab towards their wives and Darb1718 art center.

 

 

 

Abstract

Soulaliyates women are members of ethnic groups that own collectively communal land in Morocco. According to customary law, women were not allowed to inherit land, with tenure passing only from father to son. The increasing commodification of land driven by neoliberal urban restructuring in Morocco has brought to the forefront the conflict over women’s access to land and pushed Soulaliyate women to fight for legal and social recognition of their right to obtain compensation when the land they used to live and work in is sold. After more than 10 years of struggle, the Soulaliyate women’s movement, supported by feminist organisations in Morocco, gained the right to be included in the list of beneficiaries of compensation.

This research will try to identify the gendered impacts of this struggle at the family and community level by looking at how gender roles and norms were affected by Soulaliyates women’s participation in the movement and their subsequent access to compensation. The working hypothesis is that this movement created opportunities for Soulaliyate women to access public space, gain bargaining power through new skills and the awareness of their rights thus challenging some aspects of patriarchy while reinforcing others by using patrilineal affiliation to support their claim to land.

This project is important for three main reasons. First, it will contribute to the debate on the gendered impact of changes in women’s property and land rights. By creating knowledge about the complexity of social change, this research will allow scholars and policy makers to gain an understanding of the impact of changes in land tenure systems on gender relations and patriarchal systems. Second, it will fill the gap in the literature regarding the gendered impact of the Soulaliyate women’s mobilisation to access land since previous research is limited to the mobilisation itself and the legal changes that followed it.

 

 

 

 

Abstract

This study is based on numerous interviews and fieldwork in Egypt with human rights centers, Activists lawyers and female activists who were politically and sexually assaulted. This study will analysis the survivors’ stories from their perspectives during their political work between 2011 – 2015, Trying to find out how the state’s weapons such as the Egyptian law revictimize the survivors in an indirect and direct ways. and how this analysis can lead us to new findings and concepts.

 

 

 

 

Project title

Tunisian Feminist advocacy against gender-based violence

 

Abstract

This research connects studies of gender based violence with studies of democratization, social movements and discourse analysis. The study shows how the Tunisian feminist and Human Rights associations or activists in the post-revolution have struggled against increasing rates of gender violence. They have explored the issues of women's rights have long been used as an instrument of authoritarian hegemony since the masculine forms of domination are rooted in the societal mindset and the legislative system. The overall aim of this present study is to analyze the conflicting discourses of these activists (state feminism/Islamic feminism..) that are thematically connected to the current dynamics of political transition. This research has pointed to flaws in the work of parliamentary discussions, media debates, and civil society campaigns when it comes to presenting violence

against women laws and sexual harassment (2014-2017).

For that this study considers the GBV issues and Laws are profoundly implemented within a series of historical and ideological controversies over the ideal model of Tunisian Woman, the secular social pattern. So that, focusing on feminist advocacy against all forms of violence against women (2014-2017) as a category of abuse and political contest in Tunisia, this research identifies how it is routinized and politicized despite efforts of feminist advocacy. It contributes on gendered violence in Tunisia by describing the impacts of feminist advocacy, human rights activists and state initiatives on this public policy. This research is based on a qualitative analysis which comprised a content analysis, discourse analysis of media debates, activists campaigns, interviews..