In This Issue

CONFERENCES & OPPORTUNITIES
Call for Experts – Sexual Violence
Call for Papers - Middle Eastern Women's Issues, Debates, and Priorities
LAU Arab Women’s Rights Scholarship Opportunity

NEWS & ARTICLES
CRISIS IN GAZA
Poverty Will Devastate Palestinian People Without Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza
YWCAs around the World Hold Vigil for Gaza & Call for Middle East Peace

CAMPAIGNING ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Bahraini Women’s Petition Committee Statement on International Human Rights Day

GENDER & WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Bahrain Shiite Clergy Feud with Parliament Over Family Law
First Muslim Woman Mazouna in Egypt Defies Male Dominance
Saudi Mufti Objects to Women Working in Lingerie Shops

GENDER & CITIZENSHIP
Lebanese Women Wed to Foreigners Want Equality

GENDER & VIOLENCE
Doctor Stops Wedding of 5-Year-Old Girl in Saudi Arabia
Growing Pressure to Tackle Domestic Abuse in Syria
Indian Men's Action for Stopping Violence against Women - "Not Alone Anymore"
It Takes More Than a Law to Stop FGM in Sudan
Saudi Girl, Eight, Married off to 58-year-Old is Denied Divorce

GENDER & THE ECONOMY
Yemen: Gender-Responsive Budgeting Needed for Women's Development

BOOKS & REPORTS
GENDER & CTIZENSHIP
Knowing our Rights – Women, Family, Laws and Customs in the Muslim World

GENDER & TRADE
Report on Doha Conference on Financing for Development
The Gendered Impacts of Liberalization: Towards "Embedded Liberalism"?

GENDER RESOURCES
Bahrain – Women Gateway Web Portal
Women in Law Program Web Site Launch

PROJECT PROFILES
Women’s Art Collaboration Project 6+ | Daughters of Palestine

CONFERENCES & OPPORTUNITIES
Call for Experts – Sexual Violence
The Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) Coordinating Group Requests Nominations for Experts to Join the SVRI Coordinating Group.
The SVRI is particularly interested in identifying candidates from, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia, with particular emphasis on China, although nominations of people from other parts of the world will also be accepted. Send to: svri@mrc.ac.za by Deadline 27 January 2009. For more information

Call for Papers - Middle Eastern Women's Issues, Debates, and Priorities
Despite the growth of the academic field of women in the Middle East, and the number of women graduates who have made contributions to their countries in the Middle East and globally, large gaps in theory, methods, policy and action still exist.

LAU Arab Women’s Rights Scholarship Opportunity
Scholarship opportunity offered by the Lebanese American University for 20 women rights activists from organizations in the Arab Gulf countries. Successful candidates will be funded by the Young Women leadership program (YWL) to participate in two summer leadership training modules at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. For more information, email: ywl@lau.edu.lb

NEWS & ARTICLES
CRISIS IN GAZA
Poverty Will Devastate Palestinian People Without Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza
The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) condemns the prolonged border blockade, the on-going air and ground attacks on Gaza and missile attacks on Israel. The world’s largest anti-poverty alliance calls upon the international community to intervene to bring about an immediate ceasefire so goods and people can move freely through Gaza’s borders.

YWCAs Around the World Hold Vigil for Gaza & Call for Middle East Peace
YWCAs around the world held candlelight vigils on January 8 in commemoration of hundreds of lives lost in the recent crisis in Gaza and to call for peace in the Middle East. The campaign was initiated by the YWCA of Palestine in a statement released on December 29 in response to Israel's invasion of the Gaza strip.

CAMPAIGNING ON WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Bahraini Women’s Petition Committee Statement on International Human Rights Day
A Statement by Women's Petition Committee (Bahrain) on the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "We are witnessing this year the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at a time the issues of human rights are important on the international level, particularly developing countries. For more information

GENDER & WOMEN’S RIGHTS
Bahrain Shiite Clergy Feud With Parliament over Family Law
Bahraini Shiite Muslim clergymen on Saturday declared that a proposed family law cannot pass parliament and insisted that only the Shiite religious authority has jurisdiction over family matters.
The six Shiite clergymen said the law, which was referred to parliament for approval on Saturday, should be drafted by clergymen and approved by the highest Shiite marjaia (Shiite religious authority) Ali al-Sistani. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090103/wl_mideast_afp/bahrainshiitefamilyl...

First Muslim Woman Mazouna in Egypt Defies Male Dominance
Amal Soliman, a 32-year-old Egyptian woman, has endured intimidation and ridicule in the year since she applied for a job as the Muslim world's first mazouna, or female marriage registrar, but she says her victory has been worth the fight. For more information

Saudi Mufti Objects to Women Working in Lingerie Shops
Saudi Arabia's grand mufti has objected to women working in lingerie shops, despite the labour ministry's approval and rising complaints from female customers about male-only staff, papers said. "Women are entrusted to us, we should not involve them in matters far from their nature," mufti Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh said.

GENDER & CITIZENSHIP
Lebanese Women Wed to Foreigners Want Equality
Every year, Salha Solh spends half her small income of $3,600 just to keep her three sons and three daughters from being deported from their homeland.
Solh is Lebanese but her husband is Pakistani, and under Lebanese law she cannot pass her citizenship on to her children. They are Pakistanis in the law's eyes and need expensive annual residency visas, even though they were born and raised here and have never been to their father's country.

GENDER & VIOLENCE
Doctor Stops Wedding of 5-Year-Old Girl in Saudi Arabia
A doctor in Saudi Arabia was able to stop the wedding of a five and 11 year-old whose family wanted to marry them to protect financial assets. "Thanks to the law that compels spouses to carry out blood analyses before marriage, we were able to stop a wedding with underage girls, among them a five year-old," said Hani Harsani, the doctor in charge of laboratory analysis in an interview with Saudi daily al-Watan.

Growing Pressure to Tackle Domestic Abuse in Syria
"Throughout her 25 years of marriage, Olfat, was regularly beaten and humiliated by her husband. Yet she never complained to anyone for fear of tarnishing her family’s reputation." “I suffered a great deal of psychological and physical violence,” said Olfat, now a 49-year-old mother of four. Her husband was always accusing her of having relationships with other men as an excuse to hit her.

Indian Men's Action for Stopping Violence against Women - "Not Alone Anymore"
Across India, Satish Singh inspires men to break with brutal traditions and stand behind the women in their lives and villages. “We started meeting survivors and saying, ‘You are not alone; we will stand by you.’"

It Takes More Than a Law to Stop FGM in Sudan
A law passed in November 2008 prohibiting female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in the state of Southern Kordofan is unique in Sudan. But for it to translate into genuine abolition, deep-seated attitudes and misinformation will have to be overcome. For more information

Saudi Girl, Eight, Married off to 58-year-Old is Denied Divorce
An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man has been told she cannot divorce her husband until she reaches puberty.
Lawyer Abdu Jtili said the divorce petition was filed by the unnamed girl's divorced mother in August after the marriage contract was signed by her father and the groom. For more information
 
GENDER & THE ECONOMY
Yemen: Gender-Responsive Budgeting Needed for Women's Development
SANA'A, YEMEN, Jan. 3, 2009 — A survey on the extent and understanding of gender-responsive budgeting among governmental, non-governmental, and international organizations revealed that only 33 percent of the surveyed sample had taken gender into consideration while drawing up their budgets. More Information

BOOKS & REPORTS
GENDER & CTIZENSHIP
Knowing our Rights – Women, Family, Laws and Customs in the Muslim World
Direct Link to Download Publication

GENDER & TRADE
Report on Doha Conference on Financing for Development
The work WIDE has been doing together with other networks and women’s organizations, such as AWID, DAWN, IGTN, FEMNET and NETRIGHT, has made an important difference in the outcomes of the process related to the new aid architecture (Accra High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and Doha International Conference for the Follow-up of the Monterrey Consensus). For more information

The Gendered Impacts of Liberalization: Towards "Embedded Liberalism"?
In the last two decades public policies have reflected a drive for accelerated global economic integration ("globalization), associated with greater economic liberalization. The outcomes have been largely disappointing, even in the estimate of their designers. Rural livelihoods have become more insecure, and the expected growth has rarely materialized. For more information

GENDER RESOURCES
Bahrain – Women Gateway Web Portal
Women Gateway was established in 2002 as a joint venture project between the Bahrain Business Women’s Society and Al-Nadeem Information Technology. In 2003 it was re-launched as a bilingual portal designed to aid business women by providing them with information, business and trade opportunities with focus being on women’s issues and women empowerment in the region.

Women in Law Program Web Site Launch
Women in Law Program (WILpower) at the Academy for Educational Development (AED), funded by the U.S. Department of State Middle East Partnership Initiative launched its web site for women in the law in December, 2009. The WILpower program is reaching out to a broad network of young Arab female legal practitioners and law students in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

PROJECT PROFILES
Women’s Art Collaboration Project 6+ | Daughters of Palestine
“Daughters of Palestine” is an ongoing project initiated by 6+ in collaboration with the Al Feneiq Cultural Center in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Palestine. For more information