Event (DC): Manal Omar discusses Iraq, Women and Identity on

Tuesday, November 9 at 12pm in J1-050 Auditorium RSVP to infoshopevents@worldbank.org or click here.

AUTHOR: Manal Omar Director of Iraq Programs, United States Institute of Peace
Ms. Omar has worked with Women for Women International, a nonprofit NGO, as Regional Coordinator for Afghanistan, Iraq, and Sudan. Formerly a journalist, she began work in Iraq in 1997 and 1998 for UNESCO, and worked for OxFam in the Middle East. Currently, she is the Director of Iraq Programs at United States Institute of Peace, based in Washington, D.C. Over the last two years she has been working to respond to the emergency humanitarian crisis in Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon.

Multimedia: The Gold of Moqatam – Solar Technology and Gender Empowerment

Event (DC): Ensuring Vulnerable Women’s Autonomy Through Economic Independence and Professional Integration:Morocco’s Accomplishments of the Millennium Development Goals

ABSTRACT: In recent years the Kingdom of Morocco has made important strides in achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set out by the United Nations. One of the MDGs is the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women. Aicha Ech-Channa will discuss her 25-year experience as a social activist defending the rights of women and providing them with the necessary psychological counseling and legal assistance. Other topics include women’s literacy, property rights, and political participation.

Brief: Rural women and agriculture in the MENA by CIHEAM

This briefing note will attempt to shed the light on some facts and figures related to the status of rural women in the MENA, all the while focusing on the main challenges to be taken into account in terms of rural women’s entitlements in the MENA. These key features can then help delineate where the efforts for the improvement of rural women’s lives in the MENA need to be directed.

Access it here

Call for Papers: Mediterranean Research Meeting

The Mediterranean Research Meeting (MRM) is scheduled for April 6-9, 2011, in Florence, Italy. Reaching its Twelfth Session, the MRM aims:

• to foster theoretical and empirical research and dialogue among scholars from countries across
  the Mediterranean and with Mediterranean issue concerns;
• to reach as wide as possible coverage of all Mediterranean areas, with topics relating to the
  Middle East, North Africa, Southern Europe and the Balkans, their mutual relationships and their relations with Europe;
• to focus on legal, historical, economic and socio-political issues;
• to enable junior scholars to meet more senior scholars in an interactive environment, and to promote further research collaboration;
• to encourage publication and dissemination of this research in edited volumes, thematic issues of learned journals, and Mediterranean Programme Working Papers.

The meeting will include workshops on the topics including:

1. Social Policy and Religion in the Middle East: Questioning Existing Paradigms
2. The Many Faces of Islamic Feminism
3. Informal Challenges to the MENA Formal Politics
4. Gender and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa