To Arab women: Golden opportunity to stand-up for your rights

Fatma Osman Ibnouf

Assistant Professor, Development Studies and Research Institute (DSRI), University of Khartoum P.O. Box 321, Khartoum, Postal Code 11115, Khartoum, Sudan.

E-mail: fatma_ibnouf@hotmail.com; Tel: 00249 918104669

Accepted 12 July, 2012

This is a revolutionary time for Arab women to stand strong for their rights. Women have been able to make major contributions to the uprisings in Arab world. Their contributions were highly visible as they received wide media publicity. What has been achieved by women in these revolutions and the changes that women have been contributed to make in these countries, is a great lesson for Arab women, themselves, if bringing down is impossible? Critically, it is the right time for Arab women to create and implement a road map for achieving meaningful change and to take concrete steps towards achieving their human rights. Inspired by the Arab Spring, women have already made extraordinary strides in achieving some rights even in Arab countries other than Arab Spring-affected countries. For instance, for the first time ever Saudi women would be given a right to vote in local elections. However, women must be able to take part in transition processes, especially the writing of the new constitutions. Women need to be more involved and to represent themselves at all levels of decision making and to sensitize those in positions of power to their rights and concerns. Women's interests, needs, and priorities have to be mainstreamed in the national plans and strategies, and thus they might succeed to benefit from the Arab spring to establish a real process of gender mainstreaming as the process of rebuilding the nation in the Arab spring’s aftermath.

Keywords: Arab Women, Arab Spring Revolutions, Women Rights.