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A Detailed Look: Middle East and North Africa

The Middle East and North Africa is the second lowest ranking region for SIGI 2012, ranked above Sub-Saharan Africa. Morocco is the highest ranked country in the region at 17 (out of 86), followed by Tunisia at 22. Yemen is the lowest ranked countries at 83 out of 86. The Middle East and North Africa is the lowest ranked region for the Restricted Civil Liberties sub-index and also performs poorly on the Discriminatory Family Code, Restricted Civil Liberties and Son Bias sub-indices.

In many countries in the region, women’s rights within the family are restricted due to the application of religious law. This includes rights in relation to consent to marriage, choice of marriage partner (women cannot marry outside the faith), equality within marriage (with the husband named head of household), inheritance rights, rights to divorce and custody rights in the event of divorce. Exceptions include Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, where reforms to Family Codes have provided equal rights for women in the family. While several countries still provide that women are unable to give their nationality to foreign husbands or children from these unions, there are a growing number of countries introducing reforms in this area, for example, Iraq, Yemen and Egypt. Early marriage appears to be declining in the region, for example in Yemen, the percentage of girls aged 15-19 who are married decreased from 27% to 17% between the 2009 and 2012 according to the SIGI. Women’s rights to land ownership and credit are protected by law in every country, but in reality, women face pressure to cede management of land, property and other assets to their husbands or male relatives due to persistent social norms.

Domestic and sexual violence are thought to be widespread, but both remain taboo issues. Attitudes that normalise violence against women are common: in Iraq, Algeria and Morocco over 50 % of women agree that domestic violence is justified in certain circumstances. Women are often reluctant to report abuse for fear of bringing shame on themselves and their families. In the case of sexual violence, there is also the fear of facing prosecution themselves under laws criminalising sex outside of marriage in some countries. Only Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait and Tunisia have some form of specific legislation in place protecting women from domestic violence. Analysis of sex-ratio data indicates that missing women is a concern in the region, however there has been improvement in this area between the 2009 and 2012 editions of the SIGI. Data on the share of males as the last child indicates that son bias in fertility preferences is also prevalent in some countries.

Women’s freedom of access to public space is restricted in a number of countries, although these restrictions are gradually being removed. In Yemen for example, women cannot leave the house without permission of her husband or male guardian and a woman is unable to obtain a personal identity card or passport without the consent of her guardian. There have been positive developments with respect to women’s political participation – Morocco and Jordan now have quotas for women’s political participation at both national and sub-national levels. One notable development is in Saudi Arabia where as of 2011, women were granted the right to participate and vote in local elections.