30 March 2015, London School of Economics
Despite the active involvement of foreign governments and international agencies in statebuilding in the Middle East, the need to analyse and assess their impact on gender relations in this region remains inadequately addressed. International statebuilding is justified on the grounds of generating or maintaining peace, political stability and democracy, yet its outcomes have not always been along those lines. Inadequate or ineffective inclusion of the wider society, especially women, in such processes has proven to be detrimental to achieving long-term peace and successful institutional reform, as the cases of Afghanistan, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Guatemala and Iraq indicate. Despite the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 to address the need to involve women in such processes, questions around its effective implementation still arise.
This conference aims to look at the impact of the relationship between international, national and local actors on the level of incorporation of gender in the processes of statebuilding in the Middle East. This call invites paper proposals on the following themes focusing on Iraqi Kurdistan and Iraq, as well as the rest of the Middle East and North Africa region:
1. Factors that inhibit and/or facilitate the incorporation of gender into international statebuilding:
- Both successful and unsuccessful methods implemented by international actors in incorporating gender;
- Domestic factors (social, legal, institutional, political, etc.) that enable and/or impede the incorporation of gender;
- International normative, political and economic factors that prevent effective involvement of a gendered perspective;
- The gap between the rhetoric of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and its implementation.
2. The impact of international statebuilding on women and gender relations in conflict-affected societies in relation to:
- Mitigating the discrepancies between the priorities of powerful political actors and immediate needs of women;
- The relationship between gender and security;
- Women’s participation in public and political life and gender equality;
- Social and political repercussions of internal and international population displacements on women of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
3. Interactions between international, national and local actors in incorporating gender into political, social, economic and institutional transformation:
- Connections and divisions between local and international actors (INGOs, local NGOs, policy-makers, UN organisations);
- Implications of certain media discourses for gender relations, women’s status and peace prospects;
- The role of women in political reconciliation as well as post-conflict peacebuilding and reformation and how this intersects with ethnicity, class, religion.
To apply
Proposals for 20-minute papers should comprise of a paper title, an abstract (250 words), a short biographical statement, contact details and affiliation. Please use the paper proposal form provided.
Applications for papers should be sent by email by 16 January 2015 to mec.events@lse.ac.uk.
Travel Grant
A small travel grant is available to help support speakers cover their travel and accommodation expenses. To apply for funding, please fill in the appropriate section in the paper proposal form. Speakers based in the UK and Europe can apply for up to 150 GBP, those based outside Europe can apply for up to 300 GBP. Expenses will be reimbursed after the conference and only on show of receipt.
More information
For more information, please contact Zeynep Kaya at z.n.kaya@lse.ac.uk or Ribale Sleiman-Haidar at r.sleiman-haidar@lse.ac.uk.
Kurdish Studies Network 