نشرة رقم 14 / مارس / آذار

Dear Friends,

The primary focus of WLP's work has always been on empowering women to take on leadership roles in their families, communities, and societies. Underlying our vision of women's leadership is the belief that women are equal citizens, capable of transforming their societies to realize the promise of rights, development and peace. However, despite women's abilities and potential, their full participation in public life continues to be constrained by discriminatory laws and practices.

On March 8, International Women's Day, a peaceful gathering of women's rights activists in Tehran was violently disbanded by the security forces. Among those beaten was Simin Behbahani, a much-respected Iranian poet in her 70s. This attack demonstrates the degree of opposition to women's peaceful collective organizing. Yet women's willingness to come together in spite of this opposition speaks to their commitment to assert their rights as citizens, maintain solidarity with one another, and pursue a shared vision for change.

On the same day, our Lebanese partner organization Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action (CRTD-A) was mobilizing support for the Campaign for Arab Women's Right to Nationality at a university in Beirut. Despite constitutional commitments to equal citizenship, in the majority of countries in the Middle East and North-Africa and Gulf regions only men can confer their nationality to their spouses and children. The spouses and children of women married to non-national men live as foreigners in their home country. CRTD-A is working with partners in Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Syria to reform nationality law, granting women the right to confer their nationality to their spouses and children, and recognizing women as equal citizens.

Citizenship means more than the right to participate in formal democratic processes, such as voting, or running for office. Citizenship describes the multi-dimensional relationship between an individual and the state. Please join with us as we call for states around the world to help eradicate legal discrepancies that impede women's rights, enabling women to make a full contribution to the future development of their societies. Learn more about how you can support our work for women's citizenship.

Warm regards,
Mahnaz Afkhami
President & CEO

In this Issue

• Articles
• Claiming Equal Citizenship: The Campaign for Arab Women’s Right to Nationality
• WLP and CRTD-A Convene Middle East-Gulf Regional Learning Institute for Women’s Leadership
• Novib Celebrates 50th Birthday with Meeting on Transformational Leadership

• Latest News
• WLP Launches New Website
• WLP Convenes Prototype Arabic eCourse with Partners from Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, and Palestine
• WLP President Attends Women Leaders Intercultural Forum
• New: Persian Edition of Leading to Choices Multimedia Curriculum
• Guide to Equality in the Family in the Maghreb Makes an Impact