Full transcript
0:01Starting in 2010, women stood on the
0:03front lines of the Arab Spring
0:04uprisings. In Egypt alone, they made up
0:0720 to 50% [music]
0:09of protest crowds. Elsewhere, they
0:11helped topple leaders
0:13>> [music]
0:13>> and challenged a system that had
0:15sidelined them for decades.
0:17But what are things [music] like for
0:18women 15 years after the Arab Spring?
0:22The Middle East and North Africa report
0:24the world's widest [music] gender gap in
0:26political power. Women hold less than
0:2812% of political [music] positions. That
0:31means fewer opportunities to shape
0:33policy and less [music] access to
0:34leadership roles. In mid-2011, after
0:37protests there had begun, [music] Egypt
0:39abolished gender parity in parliament.
0:41That led the number of women lawmakers
0:43to drop from 12 to just 2%. Later
0:46reforms pushed the [music] numbers up
0:48again, but representation still isn't
0:50equal. And they hold few positions
0:52[music] in the cabinet or specialized
0:54committees. In Tunisia, before the 2011
0:57uprisings, women once made up nearly 28%
1:00of the parliament, but gender quotas
1:02were abolished in 2022. The rule change
1:05made it harder for Tunisian women to run
1:07and win seats. And by 2024, women's
1:10representation had already fallen to
1:1216%. [music] After Arab Spring protests
1:15in Yemen, a 30% quota for women's
1:18representation [music] in parliament was
1:20agreed. But it was never even
1:22implemented. In the years after the Arab
1:24Spring, women's literacy outcomes have
1:26improved. Seven in 10 [music] Egyptian
1:29women and eight in 10 Tunisian women are
1:31literate. Yet these gains have rarely
1:33turned into [music] economic
1:35opportunities. In Egypt and Tunisia, few
1:37women are active in the labor force.
1:40Those who are tend to work in
1:41lower-paying sectors [music] such as
1:43teaching, nursing, or agriculture. And
1:46they face a persistent wage gap with
1:48men. Economic barriers are only part of
1:50the story. Violence and harassment
1:52restrict women's public and political
1:54lives. In 2008, [music]
1:56more than 20% of women said they'd been
1:58subject to violence at home. A decade
2:01after the [music] uprisings, in 2021,
2:04almost a third of women in Egypt
2:06reported they had experienced domestic
2:08[music] violence. In Tunisia, about half
2:11of women in a survey reported
2:13experiencing domestic violence in 2008.
2:16By 2025, domestic violence now accounts
2:19for more than 80% of [music] reported
2:21cases. 15 years ago, the Arab Spring
2:24proved that women can ignite change. But
2:26since then, [music] the outcomes for
2:28women in the region have made it clear
2:30there's more work to be done.
2:36>> [music]