Women's activism in the Levant | 14 January 2021

In this roundtable event, Islah Jad, Sara Ababneh and Nicola Pratt discuss women’s activism in the Levant, with a focus on Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon. Based on their respective research in this area, they explore how women’s activism has emerged and changed over time, its relationship to nationalism and state-building, to feminism, international hegemonic discourses on women's rights and development, as well as to other socio-political forces, its goals and its achievements. The panel will consider similarities and differences between different country contexts as well as theoretical, conceptual and methodological issues involved in researching women’s activism in the region. About the speakers: Islah Jad is an Associate Professor at Birzeit University, one of the founders of the Institute of Women’s Studies, the PhD program in social sciences, and the Women’s Affairs National Coalition. Her research focuses on Palestinian women’s movements, gender and development in the Arab World and women’s political participation. Her book, Palestinian Women’s Activism (Syracuse University Press, 2018) was shortlisted for the 2019 Palestine Book Award. Nicola Pratt is Reader of the International Politics of the Middle East, University of Warwick, UK. She teaches and researches on the international politics of the Middle East, with a particular interest in feminist and decolonial approaches as well as ‘politics from below.’ She is author of Embodying Geopolitics: Generations of Women’s Activism in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon (University of California Press, 2020). Sara Ababneh is Assistant Professor and the head of the Social and Political Studies Unit at the Center for Strategic Studies, the University of Jordan. Her research focuses on gender, class and struggles for social and economic justice. Her most recent article is entitled, ‘The Time to Question, Rethink and Popularize the Notion of “Women’s Issues”: Lessons from Jordan’s Popular and Labor Movements from 2006 to Now’ (Journal of International Women’s Studies, issue 1, 2020).