Armed conflict has a pronounced impact on women and girls, significantly constraining their access to education, healthcare, and economic empowerment, and even survival.
In this panel, organized by Digital Democracy Now/Virtual Activism at the CSW68, we emphasized the adverse consequences of armed conflict on the lives of women and girls, highlighting the multifaceted ways in which their rights are further curtailed and their lives and livelihoods threatened, and their exposure to sexual violence. The panel aimed to comprehensively address these challenges and explore the curial need for mitigating long-term effects while considering the protection of human rights.
The panel featured Nancy Okail, President and CEO of the Center for International Policy; Rula Jebreal, award-winning journalist, scholar and foreign policy expert; and was moderated by Marlyn Tadros, Executive Director at Digital Democracy Now (formerly Virtual Activism).
This event was organized by Virtual Activism/Digital Democracy Now and co-sponsored by the Center for International Policy.
About the speakers:
Moderator: Marlyn Tadros
Nancy Okail
Dr. Nancy Okail is President and CEO of the Center for International Policy. She is a leading scholar, policy analyst, and advocate with more than 20 years of experience working on issues of human rights, democracy, and security in the Middle East and North Africa region. Previously, Dr. Okail served as Executive Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). In 2020, she was a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law. As Director of Freedom House’s Egypt program, she was one of 43 nongovernmental organization workers sentenced to prison for allegedly using foreign funds to foment unrest in Egypt in 2012. In December 2018, a court ruling exonerated her. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex in the UK.
Rula Jebreal
Rula Jebreal is an award-winning journalist, author, scholar, and foreign policy expert. Born in Haifa, her experience growing up in a Palestinian orphanage motivated her distinguished career in peace and security studies and dedication to immigration rights. She is currently a visiting professor at the University of Miami, where she teaches journalism and communication courses focused on propaganda and genocide. In 2021, Jebreal was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Political Science by the University of Messina in Italy.
Previously, Jebreal served on the G-7 Gender Equality Advisory Council (GEAC) and was a visiting professor at the American University of Rome (AUR). At AUR, she was instrumental in the creation of a scholarship program to support students from conflict-torn countries, including Syria, Afghanistan, Swaziland, Egypt, Palestine, and Ukraine. For this work, Jebreal was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humanities from AUR in 2017. Jebreal’s writing is consistently featured in and covered by major international media outlets.
Tadros, Jebreal and Okail
