«Sexuality, Imperialism and Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa» While using Middle Eastern and North African history from the 18th century to the present as a case study, this paper examines whether universal human rights are the continuum of the colonial civilizing mission, as assert some scholars, among which Joseph Massad, Talal Assad and Abdullahi An-Naïm. Western imperialism was based on the premises of Western superiority on one hand, and the duty to civilize the rest of the world on the other. If women’s status, defined through sexuality, appears as an indicator of this superiority, in turn, the infliction of pain and suffering appears as a necessary evil to civilize. Through intertwined historical accounts of regional politics with the foundation, birth and development of international law of human rights, this paper explores the relationship between sexuality, colonial experiences, and human rights discourses, on focusing mainly on the issues of sexuality on one hand, and pain and suffering on the other. The paper is divided into three parts. Part One, International Law and Regional Colonization, goes back to the origins of the entanglement of the sexuality issue with the colonial question in the MENA. It examines the historical context that gave birth to International Law, the authors of this law, and its principles in terms of sexual and racial hierarchization. Examples drawn from the MENA colonization balance the theoretical content in each section. Part II, United Nations and Regional Decolonization, is concerned with the United Nations as the main international institution, which is formally responsible for human rights worldwide. Tracing back the foundation of this organization to the expansion of European capitalism, this part examines whether the UN structure has transcended the colonial sexual and racial hierarchization, through the analysis of the MENA decolonization program within the UN. Part III, International Law of Human Rights (ILHR) and the Equality of Sovereign States, is concerned with human rights discourses. Seminal human rights narratives will be juxtaposed to primary sources in ILHR on one hand, and to some practices of this law in the MENA on the other. The conclusion debates whether the ILHR has escaped the sexual and racial hierarchization.

By observing transnational gender studies and its institutional manifestations, I am asking if it becomes possible to trace the fluid phenomenon of “feminism” as it is performed through diverse imperial domains. I am especially interested in how Muslim feminists manage their processes of decolonization at the same time they may be embracing a concept generally associated with the Global North, i.e., various feminisms. I am limiting the research universe to Muslim-dominant institutions and proposing that “feminism” is performed differently when decolonization is a companion performance. Furthermore, as a third proposition, I argue that the ways in which various Global South and Global North scholars view war, genocide, and generalized violence may be so different as to alter modes of performance of the feminisms. On a theoretical level I use sources that combine archive, repertoire, and decolonization: e.g., Marta Savigliano in Tango and the Political Economy of Passion offers some unusual versions of the performance of decolonization when she pronounces that tango is a practice already ready for struggle; Chandra Mohanty in Feminism without Borders. She sees decolonization as decolonizing knowledge and practicing anti-capitalist critiques; in Diana Taylor’s, The Archive and the Repertoire, she argues that even though archive and the repertoire exist in a constant state of interaction, the tendency has been to banish the repertoire to the past because the repertoire is the ephemeral: performances, gestures, orality, movement, dance, singing; the repertoire requires presence: people participate in the production and reproduction of knowledge by ‘being there,’ being a part of the transmission. On a concrete level and as an example of a “case study,” I analyze how “feminism” is performed and the repertoire validated at Ahfad University for Women (Sudan) where women have struggled against at least three colonialisms or forms of hegemony. I contrast these performances and use of archive/repertoire with an example of a Global North gender studies program.

This paper is an overview of the findings of a six-month investigation of the current migration patterns of young, single, educated women in the West Bank. These women are a population that has been severely restricted in terms of economic potential and have thus taken the (previously) unusual step of individual (rather than household-scale) migration, seeking jobs in the burgeoning metropolis of Ramallah. Here, they are both marginalized and empowered by their migration choices. These women have much in common with other women migrants worldwide, yet their situation differs due to the micro-scale of the internal migration and the unique political situation that makes migration the best economic option despite social constraints that often discourage it. The paper’s aim is to illustrate the role, position, concerns, and gains of these women in Palestinian society, economically and socially, and to extrapolate the potential role that they may occupy in the Palestine of the future. The case study of Palestinian women migrants, in a tense political setting, offers much to existing migration studies, illustrating much about migration flows occurring at differing spatial scales, and how the migration choice can become a route to women’s empowerment and mobility. Methods include qualitative interviewing in both English and Arabic, of three groups; the women migrants themselves, their families and friends, as well as other key informants or specialists, including individual researchers, non-governmental organizations, governmental representatives, and women’s groups. This project, based in geographic and migration theory, in the context of Middle Eastern women's studies, is also contextualized by in-depth participant observation as well as summary statistics.

With the growth of civil society in the Middle East, scholarly attention has focused on the increased integration between transnational networks, local and national non-governmental organizations, and social movements. The association between this integration and localized civil conflict needs further investigation. A key factor in the growth of transnational and more localized networks has been the rise of global mass communications since the early 1990s. Traditionally, the Middle East was characterized by state-owned or controlled mass media. The rise of new regional, global and alternative forms of media transformed this prevalence. Increased mobility of populations also generated exposure to new content and fostered awareness of new ways of organizing politically. Both the media and mobility, as well as other forces, have influenced the rapid growth of civic and social movement groups and their ties to similar groups in the region and globally. By the end of the 1990s, the number and size of NGOs and INGOs had exploded, creating greater integration into regional and transnational networks. According to Keck and Sikkink’s (1999) “boomerang” thesis, the growth of NGOs and INGOs created new opportunities for localized groups to appeal to an international audience to pressure Middle East states for reforms. By appealing to more powerful INGO and intergovernmental organization (IGO) allies, local women’s groups, minority and human rights campaigners and democracy activists attempt to enlist these groups as allies and draw on them for resources and ideas. In this paper, we analyze the size and interconnectivity of women’s rights advocacy networks in Egypt. Using the campaign to end street harassment in Egypt as a case study, we examine the connections between local NGOs, quasi-state national institutions and international NGOs to assess: 1) the effectiveness of networking in the campaign and, 2) more broadly, the association between civil conflict and integration of local and national women’s rights organizations into transnational networks. We utilized data from several sources: field work from November 2006 through July 2008 with the local women’s rights organization that has taken the lead in this campaign, the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR); the Yearbook of International Organizations; newswire reports covering women’s rights groups from the 1990s to the present; women’s rights NGO literature; and the World Handbook of Political Indicators IV. This research will provide insights into how transnational processes are associated with civil conflict in the Middle East.