Religion Complicates Gender Issues in Mideast - Building Gender Balanced Business

• In the Middle East there needs to be a move toward secularism to reduce gender inequality, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies argues.

• Nadia Hijab maintains that the root cause of discrimination against women’s economic rights is the religion-based stipulation that a man must be the head of the household and thus financially responsible for the upkeep of the family.

• This thinking affects employment and social security plans in countries throughout the region, as well as citizenship rights.

• Hijib adds that discriminatory rules often end up violating the rights of men and children as well as women.

• There has been some evolution away from conservative religion-based laws, Hijib reports, especially in North Africa, with women leading the way because such laws so often limit their social and economic freedom.

• Because secularism is often considered equivalent to atheism in the Middle East, Hijib suggests that the more politic but equally effective approach, at least at the start, is to push for all citizens in the region to have equal rights.

The Middle East Online article