Deanery of Scientific Research & Innovation

The Series is an initiative to raise the awareness of gender equity in the MENA cities. Women who contribute effectively in the urban workforce, with a high percentage of mobility, must be respected and made feel safe. In conservative societies such as the MENA, gender equality faces many challenges due to customs and traditions the authors aimed to foster women’s rights to the city and emphasize the notion of cities’ gender friendliness. The authors addressed women’s rights to the city within different subjects & related domains that go beyond the three parameters of the United Nations’ Gender Inequality Index (GII) health, empowerment, and labor market. The discussions looked deep at the causes of the limited performance of MENA cities according to the GII and posed a number of related questions. Are women’s rights respected within the design of the new cities? Are women’s rights taken into consideration while developing/ eradicating informal settlements? Is the female perspective regarded in public spaces? Do women have adequate transportation choices that enable them to actively engage in the labor market? All these issues were discussed among various stakeholders from multidisciplinary backgrounds. This provided timely input in the current quest for inclusive urban development and addressing both the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda.

Prof. Heba Khalil - CUFE and Dr. Nancy Abd El-Moneim - AASTMT (Principle Investigators)

Currently, gender equity is not defined in relevance to cities of the MENA region. The current literature is provided by scholars from the Global North which does not necessarily relate to local issues of the Global South. Hence, this seminar investigated what is gender equity in cities of the MENA region by addressing it from different perspectives. First, it explored the international level regarding what the feminist city is, through questioning why women are underrepresented in the decision-making process on the regional level. Afterward, the seminar dived into the case of Egypt covering many scholarly terrains of urban planning, media, literature, as well as ethnography. Additionally, the views of local women were presented in the form of short narratives then provides the response of the civil society to the needs of women in cities. Then, the efforts of the government to address gender equity issues were reviewed. Furthermore, the current efforts of the private sector to provide work-life balance for urban women were investigated. This seminar concluded with proposing a way forward and how to address gender equity in cities of the MENA region.