Where Does Gender Inequality Takes a Shelter in The MENA Region

Where does Gender Inequality take a Shelter in the MENA region?

We don’t need official researches and numbers addressing the world that gender inequality is an outlived issue in the MENA region, people are well aware of it, people are basically living it, whether they like to admit it or not, it’s no lie either that the burden mostly fall on WOMEN, as no records whatsoever has been filled regarding gender inequality targeting men.

Yet the degree differs from country to country and from time to time, the greater it is the greater the damage; why? Because, Communities in specific, and countries in general have a very distinctive culturesyet noticeably similar in certain matters, this is centrally because people are the ones who construct those communities, and human nature tends to share mutual interests.

Unconscious bias is mostly what creates social gender norms, this leads for the issue to evolve and pile up creating a massive impact on gender inequality on all sort of levels the society can face. the result is always the same, which is sexual injustice leading to lack of women welfare, the more unprivileged the society is the greater the impact of the result, the more dead ends women will come through, although almost every country located in the middle east and north Africa region suffers tremendously from gender based issues, nevertheless those issues can be viewed in  a scale like form; HOW?…  the problem can take off from “who gets paid more, women or men” traveling to “is it okay for women to drive?” and then dropping into “if you gave birth to a girl she deserves to be buried alive” .

As a woman who’s not only advocating for women rights, but also a victim myself, the previous “HOW” triggers even a bigger how, which is: how can we resolve such injustice, and advance gender equality in MENA region? After setting the scale of differentiation and analyze it closely, it will allow us to emphasize root’s extensions of the problem, that would be FIRST.

SECOND, after conducting studies on the situation you’re dealing with, and analyze what’s on ground; advocating women rights and gender equality must always start with spreading awareness, therefore it’s really important for both men and women to be fully aware of the situation surrounding them, and have their eyes open.

THIRD, empowering young women, it’s really essential for a girl to fully understand her rights at a very young age, because let’s face it for a second, improvements, mitigations, and even solutions almost always come from within, furthermore encouraging young women to fight the battle will play a big asset in resolving the injustices they live with by time, meaning if we succeed in empowering the young generation, revolutionary enhancements will take a place.

Does this mean implementing 2250 in MENA region is considered one of the very first steps toward improvements? YES, Consider this, after the UNSCR 2250 release in 2015, everyone is preaching on how powerfully potent it is to be more inclusive of youth to use their strength and build up their capacity, and I can’t help but think how extra powerful it is to combine this with the UNSCR 1325. Although addressing the topic of young women empowerment alone cannot succeed on its own, empowerment should take place to include men and boys as well, combining the entire elements of the society, structuring a concrete base will guarantee the accomplishment you thrive for.