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© USIP 2013 • All rights reserved.

“Across countries, lack of 

security for women leaders 

and their families is an overriding 

concern. Women also fear a 

major rollback of their rights, 

have been largely excluded from 

reconciliation and peacebuilding 

efforts, and still see significant 

walls between government and 

civil society. Many men and 

women in these four countries 

remain unaware of the rights 

women already have. Moreover, 

enforcement of laws that protect 

the rights of women is weak.”

September 9, 2013

Common Strategies for Women 

in Transition Countries 

Steven E. Steiner

E-mail: ssteiner@usip.org 

peaceBrieF156

Summary

•	 Ongoing dialogues and forums on nationsin transition reinforce the commonality of challenges

related to women’srights and rolesin society, especially leadership in government.

•	 Women leadersin Afghanistan, Iraq and the Arab Spring countriesface major challenges,

including heightened insecurity and the risk of women’srights being rolled back significantly.

•	 Stepsto addressthese challenges are to build coalitions acrossinternal divides, engage

male religious leaders and other men to support women’s rights, reach out to youth,

develop gender-based budgeting, and underscore the importance of women’s economic

empowerment.

•	 Keysto progressin these areasinclude obtaining grassrootssupport and taking a long-term

strategic focusin international programs.

The Situation in 2013

InDecember 2012, an expert dialogue on women in transition countries broughttogether 14 women

leadersfrom Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, andTunisia to work togetherto identify issuesspecific to each

country and to determine common challenges.

Afghan participants emphasized that the international community needsto see Afghan women

asleaders, not victims. They also noted that after Taliban rule, many institutions—including schools,

hospitals, and parliament—had to be built again from the ground up. Illiteracy and poverty have

taken a particular toll on women, nearly 90 percent and more than 50 percent respectively.Violence

against women is also on the upswing, with some of the worst atrocities committed by the Afghan

police. It has been particularly difficult to bring women into the police force because sexual harassment from male membersis prevalent from the training stage onward.

Iraqi participants noted that despite some progresssince 2003—such as an increase from seven

to more than 70 female judges and prosecutors—women’srights have stagnated. Pushback from

men and a large number of women has been considerable.Women do serve in the parliament, but

primarily because of the 25 percent quotas. Few have risen to leadership positionsin any of Iraq’s

political parties, which play a dominant role in national governance. Moreover, women in parliament

have yet to form an effective women’s caucus.
© USIP 2013 • All rights reserved.

Women in Transition Countries Search for Common Strategies 

page 2 • PB 156 • September 9, 2013

Libyan participants emphasized that though women were in the forefront of the revolution,

they have since been pushed to the background in virtually all areas and excluded from leadership.

Personalsecurity remains an overriding concern. On the more positive side, Libya for the first time

now has political parties, which have engaged women from the start. As a result, 17.5 percent of

seatsin the new parliament are now held by women.

Tunisian participantsstressed the political and socioeconomic empowerment of women astheir

highest priorities. Holding only two of 45 ministries, women are vastly underrepresented in the

executive branch of the national government. Tunisia’s electoral commission adopted a gender

parity law in April 2011, requiring that 50 percent of national assembly candidates are women.

Women make up 27 percent of the national assembly, but are having great difficulty advancing

to the leadership level. They now focuslargely on drafting the constitution. Women in politics

generally are also having difficulty reaching out to the media. And there are concerns about the

lack of independence of the Tunisian justice system and the effect this could have on women. 

Across countries, lack ofsecurity for women leaders and their familiesis an overriding concern. 

Women also fear a major rollback of their rights, have been largely excluded from reconciliation

and peacebuilding efforts, and stillsee significant walls between government and civilsociety.

Many men and women in these four countriesremain unaware of the rights women already have.

Moreover, enforcement of lawsthat protect the rights of women is weak.

All participantsstressed the need to bring men into activist efforts. Men, they explained, need

to be assured that women leaders are not fighting to usurp men’s place in society, but instead

simply seeking equal rights and opportunity to contribute to their transitionalsocieties. Similarly,

men need to be persuaded that it is not in their interest to exclude women from political and

social leadership. Messaging is critical: for example, national GDP goes up as women become

more empowered, and educating women contributesto the success ofsociety at large. At the

same time,such messages need to affirm the importance of women’s economic empowerment

and its connection with women’s political empowerment. Another consensus was on the failure to

engage youth as a shortcoming, that young people had been in the front lines of the revolutions

but were largely excluded afterward, and that better effortsto reach out and meaningfully engage

youth are imperatives.

Common Strategies 

Participantsin the Antalya expert dialogue covered several thematic areasin examining strategies

for moving women into leadership positionsin their countries.

They turned first to the need for building strong coalitionsto advance the rights of women. An

Iraqi participantsaid effective coalitions are one of the best tools but building them isthe most

difficult part of her work, especially in trying to bridge the divide between religious and secular

women leaders. Religious and secular women are not likely to agree on issuessuch as personal

statuslaws, but if women are to advance, coalitions acrosssectarian and secular-religious divides

are vital. Otherwise, women acrossthe spectrum willsuffer from the resulting discriminatory laws.

An Afghan participant observed that broad coalitions depend on identifying key common

issues,such as girls’accessto education. An Iraqi colleague noted, by way of example, the struggle

in Iraq for a 25 percent representation quota for women in provincial legislatures—a campaign

thatsaw some successthanksto joint efforts by women NGO leaders and women elected to the

Council of Representatives(national parliament)—and a draft law on domestic violence. 
© USIP 2013 • All rights reserved.

Women in Transition Countries Search for Common Strategies 

page 3 • PB 156 • September 9, 2013

Libyan and Tunisian participants agreed that persuading women from all walks of life to work

together is essential to creating safe spaces,such as a dedicated center for women’s empowerment

training. Such venues can then be used over time for a variety of efforts, whether coalition building

or training women at the grassrootslevel to reach out to others without involvement of the international community.

Nonetheless, as participants noted, there is no clear path for advancing women’srights. The

forms of discrimination against women in each of these countries can differ. It is good to focus on

building coalitions and networks, but essential to identify both the strengths and the weaknesses

in such efforts.

Another consensus was on the importance of engaging men to support the rights of women.

One Afghan expert described specific NGO initiatives designed to establish a dialogue with male

religiousleaders and to seek theirsupport for women’srights within the country. As a result of

these programs, more citizens have become aware of women’srightsin Islam and several highly

respected and influentialsenior religiousleaders and scholars have begun for the first time to

advocate the protection of women’srights. In some cases, Afghan media—particularly radio call-in

shows but also television—were successfully used to get the word out.

Such efforts were far from easy and in many casestook some time. At one point, when a male

religiousleader at a dialogue in Afghanistan spoke out, a female participant asked why religious

leaders had not advocated earlier for women’s rights. “Society,”he responded,“was not ready for it.”

This Afghan expert at the Antalya dialogue stated that dealing with the Taliban is also a major

challenge. In the program for which she wasresponsible, this has been surmounted in some areas

by casting the program literature in an Islamic framework and in terminology familiar to Taliban

members, and offset in other areas by support from local religiousleadership for women’srights. 

Even after five years of various programs, however, engaging Afghan men on women’srights

remains problematic. Bolstering awareness and confidence among Afghan women also remains

difficult, as does gaining accessto the many Afghan women who remain homebound or otherwise

limited in mobility. Both require creating a supportive environment that encourages women to ask

for their rights.

An Iraqi expert added that reaching out to men sometimes needsto startsimply, with friends,

colleagues, and former classmates. Her organization often began training programs with an overall

human rights approach and had men and women take the same training, which turned out to be a

strong point as both women and men began to put gender issues on the table.

Participants agreed on the importance of reaching out to young people, across all divides, to

support women’srights. This was a particular challenge in Tunisia, where more established women

leaders did not trust the younger generation and were reluctant to include them in their organizations, which in turn led some of the younger generation to feel disenchanted with the existing

women’s movement.

To overcome these divides, a Tunisian women’s NGO established a program to engage young

women between 18 and 32. Trainers were careful not to address broader themes—such as democracy and human rights principles—rather than women’srights. The mostsuccessful dialogues 

were organized outside of regular work and study hours, making these sessions highly interactive,

and asking youth to draw on their personal experiences. Follow-up training and coaching were

essential to keep young women engaged and to encourage them to apply what they had learned.

A Libyan participant explained how her organization had brought youth activiststogether with
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Women in Transition Countries Search for Common Strategies

page 4 • PB 156 • September 9, 2013

older women leaders, political party representatives, and media representativesin three-day focus

groupsto write policy briefs offering recommendationsfor the committee charged with redrafting

the Libyan constitution. The organization also protested against the existing Libyan electoral law

and identified gender-sensitive legal experts, both female and male, to work on redrafting the law.

One result isthatseveral Libyan ministries now have gender-sensitive legal experts on staff.

Building on legal advocacy successes,some Iraqi women’s organizations are now turning their

attention to developing gender-based budgeting initiatives. Although Iraq is a relatively affluent

country, few government resources have been allocated to the needs of women. Gender-based

budgeting remains a goal that might take a few yearsto realize, but the issue at least can now be

raised by female members of the Council of Representatives.

AnAfghan expert noted that gender mainstreaming in her country occurs only in the Ministry of

Women’sAffairs.Although doing so in all ministriesis called forin the government-approvedNational

Action Plan fortheWomen ofAfghanistan, itis not being implemented in all ministries. Furthermore,

where it has been implemented,the gender unitsometimes has appeared to be in competition with

the rest ofthe ministry.

Discussants agreed that furthering women’s economic empowerment is vital, both in its own

right and as a step toward social and political success. One Afghan participant called for greater

efforts to bring the private sector into peacebuilding. At present, Afghan businesswomen are

largely at the small and mid-size enterprise level. Their training in the post-Taliban period began

mostly with developing skills. Funding has come largely from the United States Agency for

International Development, as have successful microfinance projects. Afghanistan as a whole

benefits because these businesswomen have largely kept their profits in the country. Furthermore, women in business seem far less prone to corruption than their male counterparts. Donors

must nonetheless be cautious that trainings to empower women may create tensions among

men in the community. If these tensions are not adequately managed, these efforts may lead to

increased violence, including that against women.

Moving Forward

Follow-up action ideasincluded dialogue participants drafting a series of policy briefs, building

and maintaining networks, and sharing resources. 

Participants were unanimousin asking that women from other countries be brought into future

dialogues. All agreed on the need to engage Egyptian women leaders, and there were suggestions

to bring in women activistsfrom Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and Algeria. Libyan participants

expressed particular interest in working with women from Afghanistan and Yemen, due to the

common need to rebuild national institutionsin the three countries.

In the meantime,USIP will continue convening related forumsto focus not only on empowering

women but also on the need to engage men to supportthe rights of women in conflict and postconflict countries.

About This Brief

Over the past two years, the Center 

for Gender and Peacebuilding at 

the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) 

has brought together a community 

of practice to aggregate lessons 

learned from conflict and post

conflict programs supporting 

women in countries undergoing 

transition. This report summarizes 

the key challenges and ways forward identified at the most recent 

dialogue, held in December 2012 in 

Antalya, Turkey, bringing together 

women leaders from Afghanistan, 

Iraq, Libya and Tunisia.