The empowerment of women is at the forefront of the debate over the future of the Arab world. Thanks, in part, to the 2002 UN Arab development report, a much-acclaimed document that cited the marginalisation of women as one of three deficits crippling the region’s development, women’s rights have been propelled to a higher stage in the media and on to policymakers’ agenda.

The level of discrimination against women in the Arab world, a legacy of interpretations of Islam as well as tradition, varies from country to country. Women in North Africa and the Levant have historically fared better than in the Gulf.