The ‘right to have rights’: active citizenship and gendered social entitlements in Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is now the subject of global attention with the escalation of social unrest and the toppling of dictators. The present article summarises the key findings of regional research on active citizenship, gender and social entitlements in Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine, zooming in on the role of the state and non-government organisations in channelling basic services to women and men. The present article argues that women are often remote from the state, and have their rights mediated and decided by social institutions (including families and communities) that do not necessarily recognise women's ‘right to have rights’. The result is the failure of public institutions to deliver and secure women's entitlements. Whether this situation will change after the current revolutions in MENA remains debatable.

Keywords:

• gender
• citizenship
• entitlements
• MENA
• active citizenship

Acknowledgements

CRTD.A is a Partner of the Women's Learning partnership, www.learningpartnership.org CRTD.A would like to acknowledge Pamela Scholey, Emma Naughton, RawwidaBaksh and Eileen Alma of IDRC for their personal and organisational support to this research.

Notes

1. For the purpose of the present article, we will refer to CSOs and NGOs collectively as NGOs, meaning all organisations that are non-governmental.

2. Mashreq: literally, ‘where the sun shines’ (referring to the Middle East), as opposed to the Maghreb: literally, ‘where the sun sets’ (referring to North Africa).

3. The action research was funded by International Development Research Centre, Canada.

4. ‘Civic-minded’ refers to the understanding that individuals are citizens entitled to rights regardless of their identity, and that the state is obligated to provide these rights to all citizens.

5. The ‘confessional political system’ was put in place by the end of the French mandate and which resulted in the division of political power according to quotas bestowed to religious confessions. The system expands to include electoral laws as well as appointments in the public sector. See, for more details, Makdisi (2006) and Harb (2006).

6. On 8 March 2011, a few weeks after the departure of former Egyptian President Husni Mubarak by popular demand, Egyptian women demonstrated in Tahrir Square to celebrate both the International Women's Day as well as the success of the Revolution. They were brutally attacked and intimidated with opponents ordering them to ‘return home where they belong’ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/08/rival-protesters-clash-women-tahrir).