Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Recently, women in the Middle East and North Africa, have been standing up and pushing for democratic change and equal rights. What lies ahead for women in these countries as they grapple with forming new, more democratic, governments? Karima Bennoune, Law Professor at Rutgers University and expert on International Women’s and Human Rights says w omen’s participation in the independence movement in Algeria in the 1950s and 1960s had not translated into automatic advances for women’s rights and representation after independence.
Dalia Ziada, Egyptian blogger and original North Africa Director of the American Islamic Congress, participated in the protests that brought down the Mubarak regime. She is pushing now to make sure women are part of the democratic process in Egypt. She says the role of women in the transformational process of government is essential and that men who have power right now are marginilizing women in the race to form a new democratic government.