International Forum in Fez: The Escalation of Violence Against Women in the Middle East and North Africa

The International Forum: The Escalation of Violence Against Women in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) Region organised by the ISIS Centre for Women and Development and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Rabat Office, takes place in Fez at the Palais des Congrès - 29-31 May, 2015

This important forum will have instantaneous translation available  

While the post-Arab Spring turmoil is affecting men, women, and children, specific types of violence systematically target women and girls. The post-Arab Spring‘s initial backlash on women’s rights is not only gathering momentum everyday, but it is developing into unprecedented new types of violence against women with the mounting tide of Jihadism. 

The new forms of violence range from the imposition of the niqab (total veiling), the ban of women from public unless they are accompanied by a male member of the family, a return of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) for women between the ages of 11 and 46, stoning to death of (supposedly) adulterous women, assassination of female activists, Jihad al-Nikah (brainwashed women offering sex in support of the Jihadists), and enslavement (buying/selling of women and girls). 

These new forms of violence are indirectly sanctioning the already familiar types such as moralisation incriminating women for any social crisis, domestic battering, increased sexual harassment, forced marriage, and (gang) rape.

The seventh edition of the Mediterranean Women Forum aims at documenting and unveiling these new types of violence, linking them to the familiar types, understanding their social, economic and political ramifications, digging out their surface and deeper underpinnings especially in relation to Jihadism, and proposing strategies to alleviate and gradually stop them. The forum targets seven major axes:

1. The significance of the escalation of violence against women 
2. The escalation of violence against women in the Middle East 
3. The escalation of violence against women in North Africa
4. Patriarchy and violence against women
5. The impact of masculinity
6. Some strategies for fighting violence against women
-Reform of school curricula
-Reform of textbooks
7. International networking in the face of a transnational violence 

The Programme
Friday, 29 May
9:00am 10:00am  Opening / Speeches Reception
1st Session:What Does the New Escalation of Violence Against Women Mean?
Moderator: Moha ENNAJI, President, INLAC, International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Fez
11 am  What Does the Escalation of Violence Against Women Hide? (in French)
Ahmed Smaoui, ex Minister of Social Affairs, Tunisia
11:15 am Where does the Escalation of Violence Against Women Lead?
Kahina Bouagache, Women Lawyers’ Group, Coordinator of North Africa
11.30am The Masculinisation of Values and Traditions in the Gulf Societies (in Arabic)
Sharifa Al-Yahyai, ex Minister of Social Development, Oman (French)
11:45am Moroccan Women and Religious Extremism
Loubna Amhair, Moroccan member of parliament
12.00  Moroccan Legislation and Violence Against Women (in Arabic)
Amina MAELAINAINE, Member of the Moroccan Parliament Discussion
12:15 - Discussion

2nd Session: The Escalation of Violence Against Women: The Case of the Middle East (I)

15:00 Styles of Political Violence Against Egyptian Women in the Aftermath of the «Arab Spring» (in Arabic)
Hoda AWAD, Misr International University, Cairo
15:15  Extremism and Its Impact on Jordanian Women (in Arabic)
Dania AL-HJOJ, Lawyer, Director, The Jordanian National Network of Combating Violence Against Women - Chamaa, Jordan
15:30  Silence and the Escalation of Violence Against Palestinian Women (in Arabic)
Hania BITAR, Director, The Palestinian Youth Association for d Rights Activation, Palestine
15:45  New Types of Violence Against Bahraini Women (in Arabic)
Rabab ALIWI, General Coordinator, BRAVO (Bahrain Rehabilitation and anti violence Organisation), Bahrain
16:00 Discussion
16:30 Coffee-Break

3rd Session:The Escalation of Violence Against Women: The Case of the Middle East (II)
Moderator: Chouki EL HAMEL, Arizona State University, USA

16:45 Disposable Bodies, Refugees, and National Honour : the Continuum of Gender-Based Violence in Post-2011 Lebanon
Ghiwa SAYEGH, Director, Kohl, Journal for Body and Gender Research, Lebanon
17:00  The Root Causes Behind the Increase in Violence Against Women in Turkey
Sylvia TIRYAKI, Director, Global Political Trends Center, Istanbul Kultur University, Turkey
17:15  Women and Escalating Violence in Yemen
Mohamed OBAID, Director, Muslim Resource Centre for Social Integration, Yemen and Canada
17:30  The Jihadists and Violence Against Women
Mohamed MOUBTASSIME, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
17:45 Discussion

20:00 Sufi Music Evening (Bab Makina)

Saturday 30 May
4th Session:The Escalation of Violence Against Women: The Case of North Africa
Moderator: Khadija HASSALA, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University,Fez

9:30  Radical Islam and the Weakening of Women’s Status (in French)
Khédija ARFAOUI, ATFD, Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, Tunisia
9:45  Women and Political Violence in Algeria (in French)
Rachid TLEMCANI, université d’Alger, Algérie
10:00  The Tent and the Harem (in Arabic)
Fatimatou ABELWAHAB, University of Nouakchott, Mauritania
10:15  The Recruiting of Women Jihadists in North Africa
Moha ENNAJI, President, INLAC, International Institute for Languages and Cultures, Fez
10:30 Discussion 
11:00 Coffee-Break

5th Session:Patriarchy and Violence Against Women 
Moderator : Soumia BOUTKHIL, Mohamed I University, Oujda

11:15 Patriarchy and Violence Against Women in Morocco
Chouki EL HAMEL, University of Arizona State, USA
11:30  Poverty, Inequalities and Gender-Based violence :A Case Study of the Drop-Out Girls in the Region of Fez-Boulmane
Souad SLAOUI, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
11:45 Hassani Social Tradition: Denouncing Violence Against Women
Slimane DOUIH, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
12:00  Discussion

6th Session:More Aspects of Violence Against Women
Moderator: Kahina BOUAGGACHE,Women Lawyers’ Group, Coordinator of North Africa

15:00 The Phenomenon of Conjugal Violence (in Arabic ) 
Aicha NASSIRI, President, Women Judges Union, Rabat
15:15 The “Comfort Women” in Japan
Ki-young SHIN, Ochanomizu University, Japan
15:30 The Emergence of Amazigh NGOs, Their Objectives and Their Actions (in French )
Meryam MNATI, Coordinator, Amazigh Women of Tamazgha Forum and Coordinator of the Women Commission, Amazigh Observatory of Rights and Freedoms
15:45 “Touche pas à mes enfants“ Organization to Combat sues of Pedophilia and Child Servitude in Morocco
Ginger Feather, University of Kansas, USA
16:00 Discussion 
16:30 Coffee-Break

7th Session:The Impact of Masculinities
Moderator: Soumaya BELHABIB, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra

16:45  Men Against Women? Moroccan Masculinities and the Neoliberal Authoritarian State
Katja LLIOT, Al Akhawyn University, Ifrane
17:00 Waltzing Accross Norms: The Cultural Transition of Political Masculinity
Najib MOKHTARI, International University of Rabat
17:15  Masculinities and Violence in the Mena Region
Mohamed YACHOULTI, Moulay Ismail University, Meknes
17:30  The Socio-Psychological Aspect of the Violence Against Women (in Arabic)
Ghali AHARCHAOU, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez
17:45 Discussion
18:15 Documentary Film: The Problem of Honour Crimes
Director and Presenter: Jumana Mustapha QUNEIS, Department of Media, Birzeit University, Palestine Moderator : Faiza SHEREEN, California State University at Cal Poly Pomona, USA

Sunday, 31 May
8th Session: How to Fight the Escalation of Violence Against Women?
Moderator: Khédija ARFAOUI, ATFD, Tunisian Association of Democratic Women, Tunisia

9:15 Education Reform Through Religious Reform: Post-Islamist Approach to Women’s Issues
Soroush DABBAGH, University of Toronto, Canada
9:30 Concepts and Perceptions of Symbolic Violence in Higher Education
Souryana YASSINE, Mouloud Mammeri University, Tizi Ouzou, Algeria
9:45 Combating Violence Against Women in Kenya
Achola PALA, ex Director, UNIFEM for Africa, Kenya
10:00 The Real and the Virtual: Violence Against Women and the New Media
Faiza SHEREEN, California State University at Cal Poly Pomona, USA
10:15 Discussion
10:45  Coffee-Break

9th Session: International Networking Against A Transnational Violence Against Women
Moderator: Jane BAYES, California State University, Northridge, Los Angeles, USA

11:00 Global Campaigns Against Gender-Based Violence as Transcultural Learning Experiences? Reflections on the Ambivalences of Activists Networks
Uklrike LINGEN-ALI and Lydia POTTS, Oldenburg University, Germany
11:15 Female Sex Trafficking: Globalised Violence Against Women
Vidyamale SAMARASINGHE, American University, Washington DC
11:30  The Last Frontier: Protecting Women Human Rights Defenders in MENA Region
Sussan TAHMASEBI, Director, Regional Program MENA/Asia, International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN), Iran and Washington, USA
11:45  Women and International Networking in the Face of Violence (in French)
Simone SUSSKIND, Free University, Belgium, Brussels
12:00 Discussion
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12:30 h Recommendations and Closure Moderator Fatima SADIQI
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12:45 End of the Forum

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