At the Geneva International Conference Center held in July, the AUC Forum under the leadership of Professor Bahgat Korany, launched a two-volume book, Women in the Concept and Issues of Human Security: Arab and International Perspectives.

The book includes contributions from academics and experts from policy making institutions, on the different aspects of human security as they relate to gender in relation to topics as diverse as social policies, culture, education, health, environment, economics, the impact of globalization on a patriarchal culture and the conflict on the status of women. “The book is a landmark in the field; it represents a useful scientific accumulation of ideas from foreign and Arab contributors and is a nucleus for an Arab school on women and human security,” said Korany, who is the lead author of the United Nations Arab Human Development Report.

According to Korany, women do not only constitute at least half of the 340 million Arab population, they raise and socialize the other half. Despite this, the status of Arab women is still very much under-researched. In Volume I of the book, the first ladies of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia give accounts of situations and conditions facing the women in their countries.

Volume II is analytical, as authors and editors examine Arab women within global, regional and national contexts.

The report was produced under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak, chairperson of the Cairo-based Arab Women’s Organization (AWO) and Family Development Foundation in Abu Dhabi.