WILPF is thrilled to announce the launch of the MENA Hub – a new online platform that is continuously updated to gather accessible and contextualised feminist resources rooted in the unique dynamics and challenges of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
All content on the MENA Hub – which includes feminist guides, tools, videos, infographics, webinars, and much more – is available in both English and Arabic, ensuring it’s widely accessible to anyone from across the MENA region and beyond. The resources have been developed by WILPF’s MENA Team and different programmes, our partners in the MENA region, or through collaborative efforts with feminist activists and experts in the region and diaspora.
Through this dynamic platform, we hope to provide feminist activists, partners, and the wider public with some of the resources they can make use of to learn more about the feminist movements in the region, enrich or kick off their feminist knowledge, connect with one another, and advance feminist peace in MENA.
Strengthening feminist activism in the MENA region
The MENA Hub was developed in direct response to feedback from WILPF partners throughout MENA, who expressed a need for a platform of feminist knowledge in Arabic that is rooted in the unique contexts and cross-cutting challenges of the region.
In addition to addressing the lack of feminist information available in Arabic, the MENA Hub also has a goal to break down barriers to learning and movement-building opportunities for activists who are unable to travel outside their countries for the purposes of training and networking.
“This knowledge production is very important, as it documents the daily and tangible experiences of women as well as the narratives in the region from their perspectives, which is usually dropped from archives and history. The importance of this production also comes from being contextual, local, and in the Arabic language, as women’s voices are absent, absent, or very few in various fields. Most of the available sources do not take into account the sensitivity of different contexts or speak on behalf of women.”
A Syrian partner organisation
In contrast to Western-centric knowledge production, the information shared on the Hub centres and promotes the expertise and lived experiences of women in the MENA region who are working to build the feminist movement through grassroots approaches – reclaiming their role as sources of knowledge.
Ultimately, the MENA Hub strives to strengthen feminist organisations and activism in the region, help address the need for more collective and coordinated feminist action, and empower more people to become familiar with feminist practices and ideas emerging from the Middle East and North Africa.
Check out the MENA Hub today!
Wherever you are in the world, you’re invited to visit the MENA Hub and learn more about feminist knowledge and activism in the MENA region.
- The homepage includes links to a wide variety of resources and tools, which you can filter through by theme, format, country, and year.
- On the “Take Action” page, you can easily find information about current campaigns and calls to action.
- Through the events page, you can keep track of all our upcoming events, and find an archive of past ones.
Some key themes currently highlighted in the Hub include feminist political economy, the Women, Peace and Security agenda, militarisation, transitional justice, gender-based violence, and more.
If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend listening to the Political Is Personal podcast, where feminist activists in the MENA region discuss personal, social, and political issues within the framework of achieving sustainable feminist peace. |
You might also want to check the Workplace Safeguarding in the MENA Context Toolkit – a multimedia page that offers feminist tools to help address abusive practices in the workplace, within the MENA context. Check it out in English and Arabic! |
For more information about the MENA Hub and WILPF’s work in the MENA region, visit the following resources:
You can also contact us at mena@wilpf.org.