Region: Middle East & North Africa
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Why we need Women Empowered for Leadership in Lebanon
“There is no abstract mass of Lebanese citizens; there are Lebanese male citizens and Lebanese female citizens.” – May Mikdashi, “A Legal Guide to being a Lebanese Woman” Why Lebanon? Lebanon has always had the image and reputation of being the most open and liberal country in the Arab world. Lebanese women in particular are…
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EMMA organisation’s mission to help Yezidi women who flee IS
Behar Ali is a woman with a mission. As a young woman, she lived through the infamous poison gas attack on Halabja in the late eighties in Iraq. When Saddam Hussein started another campaign of violence against the Kurds in the mid-nineties, Behar fled to the Netherlands where she specialised in women’s rights. After the…
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Bridges helps move the decent work agenda forward
The Bridges project (formerly known as Shelter Me) is a unique initiative in the Gulf region, in which Migrant-Rights.org and Hivos collaborate to improve the employment relationship between employers and their domestic workers. Part of our approach is to work with international businesses to develop a Code of Conduct to support and guide their staff…
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Women on the Frontline in Syria
16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence November 25, 2016 marks the beginning of the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, an international campaign which commences on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (Nov 25) and concludes on International Human Rights Day (Dec 10). In the context of…
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Why the Lebanese presidential election was not a laughing matter for women
The 31st of October was not a particularly good day for Lebanese women. An overhead visual of the Lebanese parliament reminded us of the stark reality that we have only 4 women MPs, that’s 3 % of the total number of MPs, one of the lowest percentages in the world. Not only did we have…
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Women on the Frontline’s activists tell their stories on the big screen
In partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Women on the Frontline programme is honoured to have organised the ‘Women on the Frontline: THEIR STORIES’ film screening, the second in a series of screenings around the world. Three films depicting the experiences of three activists from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen were…
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Bridges regional campaigns for migrant domestic workers
On June 16, International Domestic Worker’s Day, Hivos is focussing attention on the range of abuses domestic workers from Southeast Asia face in the Gulf Region every day: non-payment of salaries, forced confinement, food deprivation, excessive workloads, and instances of severe psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. Especially now in the month of Ramadan, their working…
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Interview with Hivos partner and Four Freedoms laureate Mazen Darwish
Edited and translated version of original interview in Dutch by PZC Just over a year ago, our long-standing partner Mazen Darwish, director of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, was languishing in a Syrian prison for the simple reason that he fought for freedom of expression. The lawyer and journalist was released…
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Syria: Fears for Life of Free Expression Advocate
Update 17 March 2016: 31 international organisations, including Hivos, renew their call for Bassel’s release on the fourth anniversay of his detention (see the joint statement in the right sidebar) +++++++++++++++++ November 19, 2015Bassel Khartabil, a defender of freedom expression being held in conditions amounting to enforced disappearance may be facing a death sentence, 36 local and…
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‘Things we don’t talk about’ in Egypt
Today marks International Women’s Day, an excellent opportunity to celebrate the work of our partner civil society organisations that promote women’s rights. Around the world, men and women are openly challenging situations that impede women’s equal position in society. Hivos’ Women on the Frontline (WoF) programme strengthens women’s organisations across the Middle East and North…
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On #HumanRightsDay We remember Libyan Human Rights Activist Salwa Bugaighis
On this International Human Rights Day, we take the opportunity to remember the brave Libyan activist Salwa Bugaighis, who believed deeply in human rights, women´s rights and equality for all, and who paid the ultimate price for her convictions. Salwa was one of the founders of the Libyan Women’s Platform for Peace, and played a…
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MENA region needs innovative ways to end violence against women
‘Prevention’ is the 2015 theme of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence Campaign. Violence against women is one of the most widespread human rights violations in the world. Many of the responses to address violence against women have focused mainly on supporting victims. Such strategies are crucial, but at the same time there…