About Us

During the past decade, the Arab region witnessed many uprisings and revolutions against regimes, and the demands of the civil movements at that time were linked to the establishment of democracy, social justice, and the rights for all citizens. Multiple internal, regional and international factors played a major role in the paving the way for democratic transition in the region, yet this transition was obstructed, resulting in many wars and an increase in societal violence, which has negatively affected the conditions of women, ethnic, religious and gender minorities, and people with disabilities. The rates of violence against women and minorities have increased taking the form of targeting based on gender, also the rates of sexual violence and rape have increased, as well as violence within the family.

Women’s participation in the political sphere and public positions in our region is considered one of the lowest rates for women in the world. Despite the introduction of imperfect forms of positive discrimination by non-democratic regimes, there has been an incomplete participation of women within public field and the political sphere. With the change occurring over the past decade, women, their issues, and their participation were still not priorities for most civil movements. Women thus fought multiple battles to have their rights declared at the level of constitutions and legislations regarding political participation and protection against violence.

Women’s and feminist movements in the region are among the oldest movements in the world. Women waged historical struggles against colonialism and for establishing their rights in post-colonial countries. These movements also did not stop fighting to establish women’s rights and protect them from all forms of discrimination and violence. With the changes in the public sphere over the past decade, many young and feminist generations have emerged who have integrated into the public sphere and led many change movements. They have faced various forms of violence and have been subjected to discrimination, exclusion and targeting. Moreover, many feminist movements and feminists in the region have succeeded in establishing women’s rights in constitutions, such as Egypt and Tunisia, passing laws to combat violence against women, such as Tunisia, participating in peace processes and approving a feminist peace roadmap, such as Yemen, documenting war crimes, and declaring the rights of forcibly disappeared men and women, such as Syria and Libya.

With the Covid-19 epidemic, the escalating severity of climate change, and the exacerbation of economic problems, the world and, of course, the region have changed. Regimes and armed militias took advantage of natural disasters and the epidemic to restrict freedoms, deprive women of their rights, and frame their presence in the public sphere. Parallel to this, the region is witnessing a severe decline in the participation of women and the recognition of their rights, in addition to the targeting of feminist movements and feminists, whether by including them in cases to tarnish their reputation and limit their freedoms of movement and organization, or targeting them on social media, or excluding them from decision-making positions within their unions or movements or parties, not only from public positions.

These considerations imposed new roles on civil society, human rights organizations, and feminist movements in seeking to promote and empower women’s political and societal rights, as women’s participation in decision-making processes at the national levels is still very limited, despite everything that the countries of the region are witnessing. Accordingly, the idea of creating a regional space for political women in the Arab region came in 2015 and it was established as the “Caucus of Women in Politics in the Arab Region (CWPAR),” which has been working in the region over the past years. The Caucus has been recently launched in September 2023 as a full independent organization with its independent bodies and structure, and its new identity.