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Women and political resistance in Yemen
June 13, 20177:00 p.m.
MADRID
Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62).
7:00 p.m.
Free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.
In English and Spanish, with simultaneous translation.
Casa Árabe has brought together two experts to analyze the ties linking
gender, culture, Islam, power and social change in Yemen.
Taking part in the conference are Afrah Nasser, a Yemeni journalist and blogger, and Ewa Strzelecka, a post-doctoral researcher at the Universidade Nova in Lisbon. The event will be moderated by Leyla Hamad, a researcher for the Political and Electoral Observatory of the Arab and Muslim World (OPEMAM).
The high rate of gender inequality in Yemen means that women have very few rights in terms of education, marriage and medical care, as well as other basic human rights. Moreover, the combination of statutory law, Sharia, traditional tribal practices and customary law leave women vulnerable to violence and discrimination. The current war in Yemen has sharpened these deep inequalities, all of which is made even worse by the humanitarian crisis. Nevertheless, since the popular uprising in 2011, a political culture of feminist resistance has been forming, which must be analyzed and highlighted, with the example of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to activist Tawakkol Karman. Casa Árabe has brought together two experts to analyze the ties linking gender, culture, Islam, power and social change in Yemen.
Ewa Strzelecka is a post-doctoral researcher at the Universidade Nova in Lisbon, Portugal, and a member of the research group “AfricaInEs: Development and Studies Applied to Development” at the University of Granada. For her doctoral thesis, she completed field work in Yemen, where she was able to document the Arab uprisings. The result is the book “Mujeres en la Primavera Árabe: construcción de una cultura política de resistencia feminista en Yemen” (“Women in the Arab Spring: Construction of a political culture of feminist resistance in Yemen, CSIC, 2017). She earned a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Granada, a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies form the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (2003), a Master’s degree in Gender and Development from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2007) and another in Migration Studies from the University of Granada (2008).
Afrah Nasser is an independent writer and award-winning blogger whose work focuses on human rights violations, women’s rights and the politics of Yemen. She has worked as a reporter for the newspaper Yemen Observer and began her blog on the uprisings in Yemen (http://afrahnasser.blogspot.com.es) in 2011. That same year, hers was selected by CNN.com as one of the “must-read” blogs on the Middle East, and she was highlighted among the 100 most influential Arabs by the magazine Business Arabian. In 2011, she became a political refugee in Sweden, the country where she completed her graduate studies in Communication at the University of Göteborg, where she is one of the co-founders of the NGO The Yemeni Salon.
The high rate of gender inequality in Yemen means that women have very few rights in terms of education, marriage and medical care, as well as other basic human rights. Moreover, the combination of statutory law, Sharia, traditional tribal practices and customary law leave women vulnerable to violence and discrimination. The current war in Yemen has sharpened these deep inequalities, all of which is made even worse by the humanitarian crisis. Nevertheless, since the popular uprising in 2011, a political culture of feminist resistance has been forming, which must be analyzed and highlighted, with the example of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to activist Tawakkol Karman. Casa Árabe has brought together two experts to analyze the ties linking gender, culture, Islam, power and social change in Yemen.
Ewa Strzelecka is a post-doctoral researcher at the Universidade Nova in Lisbon, Portugal, and a member of the research group “AfricaInEs: Development and Studies Applied to Development” at the University of Granada. For her doctoral thesis, she completed field work in Yemen, where she was able to document the Arab uprisings. The result is the book “Mujeres en la Primavera Árabe: construcción de una cultura política de resistencia feminista en Yemen” (“Women in the Arab Spring: Construction of a political culture of feminist resistance in Yemen, CSIC, 2017). She earned a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Granada, a bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies form the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (2003), a Master’s degree in Gender and Development from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (2007) and another in Migration Studies from the University of Granada (2008).
Afrah Nasser is an independent writer and award-winning blogger whose work focuses on human rights violations, women’s rights and the politics of Yemen. She has worked as a reporter for the newspaper Yemen Observer and began her blog on the uprisings in Yemen (http://afrahnasser.blogspot.com.es) in 2011. That same year, hers was selected by CNN.com as one of the “must-read” blogs on the Middle East, and she was highlighted among the 100 most influential Arabs by the magazine Business Arabian. In 2011, she became a political refugee in Sweden, the country where she completed her graduate studies in Communication at the University of Göteborg, where she is one of the co-founders of the NGO The Yemeni Salon.
CSIC