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The empowerment of Arab women through higher education is a monographic issue of Al Raida, the magazine of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World. The speeches, articles and reviews that comprise this issue aim to discuss, analyze, provide personal accounts and pose questions relating to the joint themes of empowerment, women, higher education and the Arab world. The speeches stem from a forum entitled, “The Role of Higher Education in the Empowerment and Achievements of Arab Women” organized by the Lebanese American University Alumni in Dubai in December 2005. Jennifer Skulte-Ouaiss, guest editor of this issue, states in the editorial that the tension between the desire for self-empowerment and societal development on the one hand and the desire to retain traditions that make the Arab world unique on the other hand, comes up again and again throughout the speeches and articles, though how this tension balances out varies depending on the country of focus. What runs throughout, however, is how inescapably intertwined are the societal, economic, and political benefits of higher education with women’s aspirations for themselves, their families and their societies. Traditional gender roles and other conservative norms have too often kept highly educated women in the Arab world from realizing their aspirations. Her editorial concludes as follows: “Can we really even begin to ask whether higher education empowers women —especially in the Middle East? It seems, rather, that we should start by addressing power —what it is, what forms it takes, who has it, and how it can be obtained — and only then move to look anew at higher education in the Arab world and ask how it is —or is not —empowering young women and men alike |
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