We must acknowledge women's agency without allocating gratuitous attention to physical appearances or banal insinuations regarding their somehow 'illicit' deviation from conventional roles.
Despite fighting deeply rooted patriarchal structures, for decades Palestinian women have played an integral role in resistance. Without the prioritization of the emancipation of women, national liberation will not be achieved.
These oil-rich countries cannot sustain long-term growth and prosperity if half the population remains marginalised and excluded from the workforce. The GCC states should begin to invest in and reform public and private sector institutions in favour of female-friendly policies.
To move towards a more accurate account, it is imperative that we dissolve the binaries of tradition and modernity, relativism and universalism that these hegemonic narratives are contingent on, since they undermine the heterogeneity of the Egyptian woman and bind it to the political ploy du jour.
