Gender research in the Arab region drew conference participants from across the Middle East and North Africa this week. While challenges and restrictions are abundant at women's studies centers, degrees and programs are growing.

Women in the Arab world are still denied equality of opportunity, although their disempowerment is a critical factor crippling the Arab nations' quest to return to the first rank of global leaders in commerce, learning and culture, according to a new United Nations-sponsored report released today.

We welcome this opportunity to address the issue of the World Social Forum as a strategy to build this other world we are aiming for. We want to contribute to this debate with a feminist analysis of the present geopolitics as well as an analysis of the present moment the movements and organizations are in and how the WSF has contributed and could continue to contribute to effect change.

In light of the lack of attention in the Israeli government report submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of iscrimination against Women (U.N. Doc CEDAW/C/ISR/3) on the effect of the current conflict and the occupation on Palestinian women from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), this report addresses the violence against Palestinian women committed by the Israeli authorities in this context and includes the gender-related impact of the violence against Palestinian women and girls. Except for the cases of Mona Obeid, a Palestinian citizen of Israel and of Israeli Peace activist Tali Fahima, this report does not address discrimination, including violence, against Israeli women.

The Libyan government is arbitrarily detaining women and girls indefinitely in “social rehabilitation” facilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Officially portrayed as protective homes for women and girls “vulnerable to engaging in moral misconduct,” these facilities are de facto prisons.

(Dubai, November 14, 2007) – Sri Lankan domestic workers face serious abuses, including violence, harassment and exploitation when they migrate to work in the Middle East, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Human Rights Watch said the governments of Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates should do more to protect women from labor exploitation and violence when they migrate to the Middle East, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

(New York, November 29, 2007) – The Saudi Ministry of Justice should immediately stop publishing statements aimed at damaging the reputation of a young Saudi rape victim who spoke out publicly about her ordeal and her efforts to find justice, Human Rights Watch said today