Egypt, Libya, and Yemen are in the midst of unpredictable political transitions following the 2011 uprisings. This report examines the ways in which security concerns associated with this volatile environment impact women’s political participation, as well as the ways in which women’s participation in turn affects their security.
Based on consultations with over 400 women and men conducted in late 2012 and early 2013, it presents a situation of considerable flux where widespread politicisation and greater opportunities for women’s activism are accompanied by increased risk and a backlash against women’s rights.
Key findings:
- Women feel insecure due to crime, weapons, and violent local power struggles and particularly politically active women experience concerted campaigns of threats and slander. At the same time, social understandings of their appropriate role are becoming more diverse and women are being targeted in part because they are more present, more demanding, and are seeking to access new fields of decision-making, including on security issues.
- Grassroots initiatives have sprung-up to directly protect women against harassment and violence. There are now more women’s groups working specifically on women’s security issues, and women’s groups more broadly have picked up on the growing importance of safety and security concerns as barriers to participation in public life.
- Women’s reservations about current security provision and abuses of power by security forces come out strongly in the report. Consulted women distrust state security providers and have little faith in their ability to address their security concerns. Women took a strong stance on the need for fundamental changes to the way security forces in all three countries operate. Beyond deep-seated deficits in accountability of these forces generally, women face particular barriers to access security services, relating to social norms which discourage women from engaging directly with the police, as well as the negative attitudes and behaviour towards women of security providers themselves.
Recommendations for governments and civil society to make progress on five key areas:
- Creating a more responsive security sector through reform processes that include women’s perspectives and include women’s specific concerns in setting national and local priorities.
- Involving women in security provision, by building on women’s potential contributions in disarmament and linking police and communities, increasing the number of women police officers, and ensuring internal police procedures promote equality.
- Increasing opportunities for women to influence decision-making, by making public space safer for women, being aware of barriers they face, and providing gender-sensitive access to formal and informal institutions.
- Backing women’s networks and international and regional solidarity, by strengthening regional women’s alliances and encouraging them to reach out to grassroots constituencies.
- Reducing the threat from defamation and slander, by limiting the ability of all actors to threaten or incite violence against women or any other group and by helping the media fact-check stories, exercise due diligence, and refrain from libel and defamation.
