By: Nazila Ghanea

Abstract: Human rights in the Middle East are rarely out of the media. A fairly substantial amount of this attention is focused on the human rights of women in the Middle East. Despite efforts towards a change of culture regarding the status of women, it is clear that changes in laws are insufficient when these largely remain unreachable, unenforced, and reversible. How can the wider cultural reality be gradually directed towards a cultural push towards women’s equality? This chapter is concerned with the need to build up an ever-widening support base for the rights of women within the region, which can serve as a resilient and sustainable scaffolding that resonates with domestic culture, is authentic and alive. It recognizes the need for an ever-increasing pool of local, voices that read the local reality and then appeal through spiritual and cultural resources that have a resonance at the local level.