Imagining Gender Peace and Security in the MENA Region

This volume explores how the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda is imagined, interpreted and implemented across the Middle East and North Africa.The region is marked by many of the conditions the WPS Agenda seeks to address, including historical grievances, discriminatory legal systems, economic and gender inequalities, protracted conflict and displacement, high levels of militarization, and the enduring Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. These conditions contribute to sexual and gender-based violence and create significant barriers to women’s effective and meaningful participation in conflict prevention, peacebuilding and conflict resolution.Bringing together perspectives from across the region, the volume examines how women’s and feminist groups engage with questions of peace and security, what they have gained from the WPS Agenda, and where local activism converges with or challenges its assumptions and priorities. It also considers how women in the region understand and pursue peace and security beyond the boundaries of the WPS framework, asking what becomes visible when their political concerns are not confined to issues conventionally defined as women’s issues.