My Interest In Gender Study

“To spend all your life savings on educating a woman is foolish. A woman has no place but her husband’s home!” These were the exact words my uncle had said to my father eight years ago when he found out that I was moving to London to do my masters. Despite the fact that my uncle was once a parliamentarian, his reaction was not shocking nor surprising to me. Arab women’s lives have been shaped and restricted for decades by men’s traditional beliefs about gender roles. These traditional beliefs made choosing career over personal life a difficult decision to take for many women in the Arab World, and in the small town I come from, it is too often a stark choice. As a result of witnessing firsthand the impact of these arbitrary gender roles, I

After finishing high school, I received a scholarship to study English Language and Literature at the University of Jordan (UJ) where I have had the opportunity to integrate my passion for gender studies with my love of literature. During my time at UJ, I had the pleasure of taking a class with the late Prof. Rula Qouwas, the founder of the Women’s Studies Center at the university and a finalist for the State Department’s International Women of Courage Award in 2013. Her class was a significant and lasting introduction to the field and her contribution to women advancement in Jordan was sui generis. The removal of professor Qouwas from her post as Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages for encouraging her female students to raise their voices against sexual harassment in universities marked a watershed moment for me. Consequently, I acquired an interest in cultural norms and social structures, particularly the historical legacies and societal patterns that are believed to be the evil that has bred gender inequalities in the Arab world. This has resulted in my doing an MA in Contemporary Literature and Culture at Brunel University in London where I first discovered my love for

While I remain wary about delving prematurely into one specific area of focus, I am eager to explore women and gender in the scope of international relations and the role the UN and non-governmental organizations play in empowering women. Many see in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) several opportunities to drive the desired universal transformative change after the Eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) proved to be limited, donor-centric and inapplicable to some countries. Yet, a close examination of the SDGs might reveal the limitations of the Agenda’s framework in not only capturing some of the underlying issues but also in adopting a gender-focused approach in crafting the goals. This would consequently prove that the goals and targets dedicated to women are merely ‘tick-box obligations’ rather than an integral part of the Agenda. Concordia’s cross-disciplinary approach to politics will provide me with the opportunity to investigate the extent to which central aspects of gender inequality, such as gender inequality in the labor market, unequal opportunities in education, and women’s unequal participation in decision making, are being promoted within the post-2015 Agenda. I am particularly excited to meet and hopefully work under the supervision of Dr. Bloodgood and/or Dr. Belge