Abstract:
This paper aims to examine the feasibility of the gender political mainstreaming
programs in the Arab Gulf States. It sheds light on the current literary debate regarding
mainstreaming and the strategies that aim to provide support to advance women rights in
traditional Arab societies. It investigates the prospect of Arab Gulf women achieving
political mainstreaming. It adopts a survey research methodology through semi structured
interviews with twenty nine young leaders from four Arab Gulf States
namely: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman. The data gathered on the status of
women in the Gulf reveals primary cultural and religious challenges confronting gender
political mainstreaming. These challenges are analyzed on both country and regional
levels; areas of differences and similarities have been noted. It also studies the
challenges regarding the mainstreaming approaches and the impact of such challenges
on job and decision making opportunities. The paper examines the feasibility of
particular policy reforms and pilot projects as to jumpstart an overall strategy and policy
vision of gender political mainstreaming in the Gulf Finally, it provides
recommendations for mainstreaming approaches and policy reforms taking into
consideration traditional and cultural peculiarities.
