Equal Opportunities for All: Promoting the Human Rights of Women in the MENA Region

Gender affects access to power, rights, social involvement, and political representation, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Women in the MENA region face disparities in access to education, positions of power, and are at a higher risk of being a victim of gender-based violence compared to other regions of the world. Due to cultural and religious beliefs as well as a lack of codified gender laws in the MENA region, women are at a disadvantage when it comes to finding equality in all aspects of society. 

Educational Equity 

Women in the MENA region are often faced with limited academic access, where emphasis on their caregiving work is maximized and education is valued more highly for men. Although access to education has drastically improved over past decades, women across the region are still twice as likely to be illiterate compared to men and make up roughly two-thirds of the region's illiterate population. In Yemen, for example, the illiteracy rate among women is 54 percent, and only 17 percent among men. Some countries in the MENA region are advocating for women’s education, even codifying it as a constitutional right—65 percent have 12 years of no-cost primary and secondary education guaranteed in legal frameworks.  Still, very few guarantee the right to education regardless of sex or age. Contradictions in laws also allow for discrimination against women, such as in Kuwait and Yemen where references to Islamic Sharia and traditions are used to justify restricting the rights of women in education and throughout society. 

Positions of Power and Decision-Making 

Women in the MENA region are remarkably underrepresented in government. In 2023, only 10.4 percent of parliament seats in the region were held by women—the lowest percentage in the world. In Saudi Arabia and Iran, women lack access to political participation, including the right to vote or run for office. Despite notable contributions to the Arab Spring in the 2010s, women remained excluded from the political structures of governments, and issues surrounding gender equality were excluded from constitutional drafts. One of the most effective laws in the MENA region supporting women’s representation in government has come through gendered quotas. These ensure a certain percentage or number of women are represented in government. However, these laws only exist in 10 of the 18 states in the region, and without meaningfully enacting these gendered quota laws, there will continue to be a lack of female representation in government. 

Gender-based Violence 

Women’s voices are missing from political structures, as well as national dialogues about women’s issues. In the MENA region, women struggle to have their voices heard about gender-based violence. In countries like Yemen, women face disadvantages in divorce and custody proceedings, and require a male’s permission to marry. Yemen also follows a penal code that is lenient when it comes to sentencing for “honor crimes”—assaults or killings of women by family members for alleged immoral behavior. Most countries in the Arab region have laws or have only recently removed laws that pardon rapists and perpetrators from punishment if they marry their victims, with countries like Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Libya, and Algeria maintaining those laws to this day. Laws like this deny justice to survivors, allow women to be treated as possessions, and take away the survivor’s control of her choices and ultimately risk continued abuse. 

The Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice 

Since the Taliban takeover of Kabul, Afghanistan, the de facto government has incrementally subjected Afghan women and girls to more than 70 directives and decrees, effectively stripping them of their fundamental human rights. The most recent of these directives, entitled “The Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice,” was announced on August 21, 2024, and contains over 100 pages detailing extensive restrictions on the Afghan population. The law includes members of society, enforcers, who are tasked with the responsibility of enforcing that other members of society do not disobey these new laws. Despite the Taliban’s morality police having the power to enforce punishments on all Afghan citizens, women are disproportionately beaten, tortured, and imprisoned at a much higher rate than men. 

Article 13 states that it is mandatory for women to veil their entire bodies to avoid temptation as well as tempt others. Article 19 bans the playing of music in transportation settings as well as banning women from traveling alone. Additionally, Article 17 bans the publication of images of living beings, essentially dehumanizing the entire Afghan population. One of the harshest laws against women explains that women’s voices are too intimate for public spaces, therefore banning a woman's voice from being heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public. In response, Afghan women across the globe are posting videos of themselves singing on social media to protest the growing severity of laws enforced since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

Promoting women’s equality in every part of the world, but specifically in the MENA region, is a crucial step in creating a more inclusive and equitable global society. Access to a safe education plays a vital role in providing women in the MENA region with the skills and knowledge to not only have access to jobs and financial opportunities but also have the potential to shift cultural norms and beliefs. Governments, lawmakers, and individuals must work together to dismantle barriers, promote fair practices, and provide the necessary support and resources for women in the MENA region to have a platform to safely advocate for their human rights.

This blog reflects the author's opinions and does not necessarily represent the views of the Human Rights Program or the University of Minnesota.