"In Hollywood, all you see are women in the Middle East with a veil and covering their faces and living in tents. I laugh because that's not how we live, that was maybe 100 years ago," says Alasousi.
Jordan is a relatively stable country in a very bad neighborhood. If that stability can continue, the intelligence, optimism, passion and entrepreneurism I experienced while there will accelerate and, perhaps, things will become slightly less complex. And, maybe, the neighborhood will improve.
Women understand the plight of the underprivileged people -- yet, they are often excluded from participating in key decisions-making roles. The revolutions in the Middle East offer a chance to change this equation. The traditional approach -- tokenism -- is a demonstrated failure.
In the Arab world today, and much of the developing world, hip hop has once again come to represent the empowerment of the disenfranchised.
The problem with the Arab Spring has been so far its focus on political affairs. While important, there will be no Arab revolution without a shift in cultural paradigms, and this is only possible when people like Eltahawy take the lead and provoke.
By failing to cover the courageous efforts of the millions of women leaders who incrementally chip away at patriarchy, Western media exacerbates the underlying problem -- the objectification and infantilization of Arab and Muslim women.
As the world marks International Women's Day this week, it's time to look ahead to the critical role women in the Arab world are playing in framing their futures after last year's Arab Spring.
It's a crazy idea. For many, it is an unthinkable one, this moving from Hollywood to the Middle East. I'm going in the opposite direction, people say....
If women and their bodies are not seen as subjects that are worthy of respect and protection validated by God, then abuse and violence of women can be considered justified. The Hebrew Bible suggests that God at one time ordained them.
U.S. President Barack Obama's choices may be limited but his misreading of Islamist intentions could accelerate the religious extremism that is rapidly fading the Arab Spring's bloom
The subjection of Arab women will be inevitable if Islamist political parties seize power in the countries of change, where coups or uprisings took place this year.
There is an open recognition that the movement for change would not have not progressed if it were not for the enthusiasm, energy, dedication, and personal sacrifice that came from the youth
Haute couture is traditionally associated with Paris and European glamour. But with a worldwide economic downturn and couture falling more and more ou...
Her face has been kissed by Time. Every crease and line around her eyes records a moment in her life, like the delicate rings in a tree trunk. With what little she has, she still gives what she can. She is Um Fawaz, from a village in Jordan.
Too many still equate the soundbites describing women under Taliban rule with the teachings of our faith throughout the Muslim world. But the oppression of women in parts of the Muslim world is not because of Islam, but contrary to it.
So where were the women and girls of Cairo? If we accept the systematic shabby treatment of women in the new configuration of Egypt, then true democracy shall be a long time coming.
CAIRO — The sexual harassment of women in the streets, schools and work places of the Arab world is driving them to cover up and confine themsel...
As armies of men all across this world aim their guns and sharp knives, having declared war on girls and women, the Western feminist movement seems to slip deeper into a strange torpor.
Sheikha Lubna represents the 21st Century woman. She is cutting through veils of discrimination with serious substance, style and a smile.
