(a light lunch will be available on a first-come, first-served basis)

This seminar examines the diffusion and assimilation of universal human rights norms and practices across the Middle East and North Africa in order to reveal how human rights are paradoxically gaining increasing traction in the region in spite of ongoing human development challenges and obstacles to gender equality. This phenomenon is explored with reference to emerging human rights normative and legal trends on the ground—in cases from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates to the Islamic Republic of Iran—that represent surprising openings for women’s rights reform across the region.

Mishana Hosseinioun is a DPhil candidate in International Relations at the University of Oxford (University College) researching the International Human Rights System and the Middle East.

The Women’s Rights Research Seminar at Oxford was founded in 2009 with the initial aim of directing interdisciplinary scholarly attention to the legal status of women in Iran. Since then, the research group has broadened its purview to the rights of women in the Middle East, covering topics such as the politics of fertility, women in ethnic minorities, and the treatment of women in states governed and influenced by Islamic law and jurisprudence. WRRS welcomes seminar and paper proposals from any discipline. Enquiries: Binesh Hass (binesh.hass@law.ox.ac.uk).