Countering Violent Extremism: What Do Women's Rights Have to Do With It?

Professor Abu-Lughod focuses on issues of women’s rights and gender in the Middle East, along with issues of power, culture, and representation. She is the author of six books, and numerous articles, including her critically acclaimed article-turned-book, Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? (2013). In this talk, she examines how "gender experts” (or Securo-feminists) are inserting themselves into U.S. national security debates, how they unwittingly risk doing harm, and how we might usefully frame equal rights as a central piece of global security. Rm. 6115.