In January 2014 Saferworld organised a UK policy tour for a group of women’s rights activists from Egypt, Libya and Yemen as part of a regional project on women's safety, security and participation. Here the women talk about how their messages were received and their impressions of UK policy on gender, peace and security.
What did you feel were the main messages people in the UK were interested in?
Rida Al-Tubuly (Founder of Together We Build Movement, Libya): I was trying to raise the point that in Libya it is incredibly important to support women in political processes to ensure we have a voice. This is especially true given that the committee writing the constitution is starting its work. If we don’t have women’s rights written into the constitution there is really no use in working on other projects or speaking about women, peace and security. This is a key place where women could lose the majority of their rights. I was also trying to raise the point that empowering women politically, supporting participation, is complimentary to women, peace and security. You cannot separate the two issues.
Marwa Baabbad (Saferworld, Yemen): With regard to Yemen for me there were two main issues that had a really good response. The first was around women’s role in the transitional period, especially following the recent success of the women's quota in the National Dialogue and how we can continue to support a similarly active role for women in the constitution writing and then into the implementation process. The second point of interest was around the Ministry of Interior reform process and how we can push the gender, peace and security agenda within it and ensure it is included. This had a really good response.
Basma Gaber (technical adviser for GIZ, Egypt): For me one of the key messages that I wanted to get through was that although there are huge violations in Egypt in terms of women’s rights, sexual violations and others, for me it seems that the economic situation and how women’s economic security affects them in much deeper ways is not on the agenda as much. But this issue is very important and international policymakers need to keep this in mind. The second thing I talked to people about a lot is that it isn’t an end goal to have a constitution that includes articles related to women. We have a good opportunity right now to actually start translating these articles within the constitution into concrete laws that are pro-women. These laws then need to be implemented.
Intisar Al Adhi (Founder of All Girls Foundation for Development, Yemen): The UK government was particularly interested in our message that we need to keep Yemen peaceful and secure for everyone. We need to empower women in different areas – politically, economically and through education.
What has been your impression of UK policy on gender, peace and security in your countries?
Basma Gaber: It’s not 100% clear to me what the UK’s policy towards Egypt is at the moment. However, as I mentioned there was a great deal of interest to find out what the problems are and what can be done and what the real challenges are. This gives me the impression that there may be plans to have a concrete policy in the future which would be very good.
Rida Al-Tubuly: The UK government was really interested in hearing recommendations based on the changing situation in Libya. The situation changes year to year, even day to day, so they have to constantly review their approach. They have taken into consideration what we raised during the discussion and hopefully they can work on this.
Intisar Al-Adhi: I believe the UK government plays an effective and positive role in Yemen. This really makes me interested in sending my message to them so they can respond to my recommendations.
What have you felt has been the best/most successful element of your week-long policy tour?
Intisar Al-Adhi: I like the fact we met people who are interested in Yemen. The Chatham House meeting really showed that people are interested in the issues in Yemen. People at the DFiD meeting were also incredibly interested in hearing about the issues surrounding women in our country.
Basma Gaber: For me the best thing has been the level of interest. UK NGOs and the UK government have seemed very interested in the situation in Egypt and keen to find out more about the situation from local voices.
Rida Al-Tubuly: I joined the tour to get across key messages and specifically reflect the situation in Libya. I felt that I did that, particularly in parliament, at the National Action Plan workshop, and Chatham House meeting. I spoke about the challenges we face and my recommendations were noted, so in general I’m really happy with that.
Marwa Baabbad: I specifically valued meeting the DFiD Yemen contacts. We had the chance to deliver our messages to them and to the wider group.
The MENA policy tour was an occasion to present the findings and recommendations of the report "It's dangerous to be the first: Security barriers to women's public participation in Egypt, Libya and Yemen" to UK policymakers. The tour consisted of an event in Parliament organised through the All-Parliamentary Group on Gender, Peace and Security and GAPS, a meeting with Shadow Ministers, a roundtable event at Chatham House, and different country-specific meetings with DFID and FCO officials – in particular a meeting between the Egyptian activists and the Special Advisor to William Hague, a National Action Plan Workshop, and a cross-Whitehall meeting.
