Book Presentation
Viola Raheb in conversation with Hind Kabawat, Randa Siniora and
Heidemarie Winkel
WOMEN'S POLITICAL BIOGRAPHIES IN THE MENAT
REGION
At the end of the conference at the Bruno Kreisky Forum in
November 2023 on „Women’s lives and agency in the MENAT Region-
between political activism and realism“, women from different
countries and backgrounds were invited to shed light on their
contexts, socio-economic and political developments, violence –
especially gender-based violence – in times of war and its impact
on women’s lives, engagement and agency. With the rise of
populism and reactionary movements, women’s rights seem to need
to be renegotiated. As a result of polarization and ambivalence,
listening to and understanding women from the MENAT region is
becoming less important.
In many Western countries, a hegemonic perception of the lives
and work of women in the MENAT region prevails and a knowledge
deficit compared to other regions of the world, e.g. Latin
America, still exists. The book aims to give female political
actors from the region a face and a name by using biographical
essays as a method of knowledge production and awareness-raising,
while promoting synergies and advocating the need for networking
and cooperation.
„Eleven biographies from seven different countries from diverse
generations, backgrounds, and areas of engagement are presented
in this book. In their biographies, the contributors address
political developments over the last decades in their countries
and the region. Historical political phases, be it the end of the
colonial rule and the phase of independence in Tunisia, the
Baath-rule era and the war in Syria, or the Palestinian Nakba of
1948 and the continuing wars and displacement of Palestinians,
become embodied in the lives of the women narrators and how these
phases shaped and still shape their lives and work.” Viola Raheb,
Co-Editor
Welcome:
Getraud Auer Borea d’Olmo, General Secretary of
the BKF
Introductory remarks:
Ursula Plassnik, former Federal Minister for
European and International Affairs, Ambassador ret.
Hind Kabawat, former deputy head of the Syrian
Negotiation Commission’s Geneva Office and a former member of the
High Negotiations Committee (HNC); President of TASTAKEL women’s
organization for women’s empowerment and peacebuilding
Randa Siniora, General director of the Women´s
Center for Legal Aid and Counselling and Palestinian human rights
activist
Heidemarie Winkel, professor of sociology at
Universität Bielefeld and senior research associate at the
VHI/St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge University (UK)
Viola Raheb, scholar of religious studies
lecturer, writer and Senior Fellow at BKF
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