Women's Rights in the Muslim World and the Age of Obama

Abstract

The Obama Administration is positioned to make a major impact on the status of women in other countries, including those in the Muslim World. Four of the most pressing issues facing these women are violence, lack of access to education, lack of economic empowerment, and lack of involvement in the political process. Authors Adrien Wing and Peter Nadimi address these issues directly and advocate for the Obama Administration to assist Muslim women through the promotion of international law and U.S. foreign policy. This Article begins with a discussion of the role of international law in the Obama Administration’s foreign policy toward the Muslim world. The Article then focuses on the rights of Muslim women in Palestine and Afghanistan. The authors then make a series of recommendations on how the Obama Administration can improve women’s rights in the Muslim World. Specifically, the authors advocate foreign policy recommendations that will socially, economically, and politically empower women. The Article recommends increasing access to, and improving the quality of, education for women in Muslim-majority countries. The authors also emphasize the need to empower women economically by integrating them into the workforce and in the political process. The Authors comment that in implementing this agenda, the United States must be very careful not to appear as an imperialist nation attempting to implement Western “feminist” ideals or as favoring women over men.

Keywords: Women's Rights, Human Rights, International Human Rights, Islam, Muslim Word, Comparative Law, Muslim Women's Rights, Gender Equality, Obama Administration, US Foreign Policy, Obama Foreign Policy Recommendations, Effective Advocacy in International law, Women in Afghanistan, Palestinian Women

JEL Classification: K10, K49, K30, K39