Author: Imad Naddaf – لقد أمضيتُ زمنا طويلا من حياتي درستُ فيه تاريخ سورية جيداً وخضتُ نقاشات واسعة حول ماضيها وحاضرها ومستقبلها الوطني، وعانيت من آرائي السياسية التي كنت أحملها وقضيت في سجني تدمر وصيدنايا قرابة عشر سنوات إبان الحكم الديكتاتوري السابق ..
Author: Imad Naddaf – I have spent a long period of my life studying Syria’s history in depth and engaging in extensive debates about its national past, present and future, and I have paid a heavy price for the political views I hold, spending nearly ten years in Tadmur and Saydnaya prisons under the former dictatorial rule. On that basis, I consider it a duty to set out my own view, while passing over the well-known historical facts related to the colonial targeting of the region and earlier partition plans, most notably the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
Author: Simone Clarke – Ensuring adequate representation for women in governance realms remains a global challenge. This challenge is especially prevalent in the MENA region, which since the early 2010s has been faced with both the beginning and aftermath of the Arab Spring protests. These protests originated in Tunisia and soon spread to other countries in the region as calls for more equal governance grew in size and scale. The desire for increased opportunities for political participation resulted in some countries, including Tunisia and Morocco, moving toward decentralization. Despite their geographic proximity, these two countries took different approaches to decentralization. The outcomes of these two approaches provides for a compelling comparative analysis.
Author: Laurie-Ève Beauchamp – The Middle East and North African (MENA) region is characterized by low participation of women in decision-making processes. Women face multiple challenges when they seek recognition as active political actors. This article examines the obstacles to women’s political participation in the MENA region and how the mechanisms of decentralized and multilevel governance can better support their political participation.
Author: Dariya Akhova – The effects of federalism on women’s representation is an emerging field of research. The dynamics of women’s political representation and federalism may have garnered little interest in the past, but emerging evidence and scholarship is emerging in this important area. This article will explore the factors that have been cited as most favourable to women’s political representation and attempt to identify their relationship to federal systems.