On November 29, 2011 the International Women’s Health Coalition held a Leadership Council luncheon where Isobel Coleman addressed the question: "Are the Mideast Revolutions Bad for Women’s Rights?" She explored the progress and challenges of the struggle for women’s rights in the Middle East, especially during and after the revolutions of 2011’s Arab Spring.

Dr. Coleman is a Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy; Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; and Director of the Women and Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations.  She is the author of Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East.

Here are a few of the tweets we posted during Dr. Coleman's talk:

"Broad demographic trends for women, like higher education levels and delayed age of marriage, are transforming women’s role in society."

"Change for women in Middle East is happening, though in the short term it's one step forward, one step back. Or sometimes two steps forward and one step back.”

"Debate today is not secularism vs Islamism in politics. Islamists are in power. Question becomes: how to work within this frame?"

"Investing in civil society and giving women a platform to speak is really key."

Please click here to learn more about the Leadership Council.

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