Feminist peace and security in the Middle East and North Africa

In her essay, Zeynep Kaya observes the tensions within the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in the Middle East and North Africa region. Given that the agenda emerged from UNSCR 1325, the framework and structures cannot help but replicate the ‘hard power’ and agendas of the member states. Kaya identifies that the UN Security Council’s tendency to associate peace with ‘security’ has led WPS to also be framed within security and war frameworks. As a result, the WPS agenda has moved away from an anti-war and rights-based agenda to one for making wars ‘safer’ for women and using military measures to protect women from sexual violence. In many contexts, the international community has too often substituted ‘peacebuilding’ for ‘peacekeeping’.