Arab adolescent girls: reality and prospects
Regional, Culture, 10/28/2003

On the sideline of the second annual meeting of the Arab Network for Gender and Development "ANGED," held in Tunisia on October 20 through 22nd, the second Arab Women development report " Arab Adolescent Girls: reality and prospects was published focusing on Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen.

In a statement to Arabic News (ArabicNews.com), CAWTAR's executive directive Soukeina Buraoui said that the first issue of the Arab Women Development report on the topic "Globalization and Gender; economic participation of Arab women" was published at the end of 2001. She said that dealing with this topic was, in itself, considered a challenge. Despite the fact that the debate over the complex effects of Globalization on the Arab region has garnered much attention, available indicators show that the gender issue continues to be largely neglected. She added that CAWTAR's first report contributed to filling the gaps in the quantitative data and qualitative indicators related to Arab women's economic participation in the context of globalization.

On the significance of choosing this issue, Bouraoui added that CAWTAR faced another challenge in choosing "Arab Adolescent Girls: reality and Prospects" as a subject for its second report. The importance of this choice lies, to a great degree, in the adoption of a new and complex approach derived from the most important approaches used in the social sciences, on the one hand, and its steering away from the classical view of adolescence limited to the psycho- physiological aspect, on the other.

The completed report documents were discussed in four workshops, two of them devoted to the national report. Bouraoui explained that the report includes the following four parts: Part 1 presents a general framework, including a description of the report's theoretical framework, its objectives, and adopted methodology. Part II deals with the field research and includes qualitative studies based on analyses of interviews conducted in seven Arab states namely: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen. The results of these analyses are presented in six chapters.

Part III involves a general analytical description of the adolescents' conditions through statistical data and indicators from 22 Arab stataes and Part IV is devoted to conclusions and recommendations.

Adib Nehmeh, the report coordinator, took the responsibility of organizing all of the materials into a well- knit and coherent document. Professors Pierre Noel Deneuil. Noureddine Harrami, Moncef Hajji; Salaheddine Ben Dredj, Siham Najjar, Hedia Belhaj Ghoueil, Mourad Ghachem; Hafedh Chekir; Kamel Ben Abdullah and Khaled Louhichi provided constructive suggestions and guidelines which contributed to reinforcing the context of the report. Together they spontaneously formed an advisory committee assuming their responsibilities in the best way possible.

In a statement to ArabicNews.com, the report coordinator Adib Nehmheh said that the main aim of this report, particularly the field study included in it, is to look into the future of the Arab women and draw the attention of decision- makers and those working to extend women's participation in the development process, to the possibility of positively affecting this future, particularly the possibility of raising the level of women's participation in decision making, noting that this is to be achieved by identifying impeding factors and dealing with them through effective policies and interventions in the early stages of their formation.

He said that the qualitative study is based on interviews with female and male adolescents, in which different aspects of their lives were presented and analyzed. The interviewed were analyzed according to the following six themes: Identity and self image; puberty, reproduction health and love; family relations; school and work; adolescent culture and behavior and attitudes and values.

A special publication entitled " Rainbow: Testimonials of Arab Adolescents " has also been prepared. It contains a presentation of selected biographies from the seven states as well as a summary of all the interviews concluded in the context of the national field studies.

Embarking on female and male adolescents as a basic data, Project Manager Nehmeh said that the number of female and male adolescents in the 15-19 age group in the Arab states rose from 23 million in 1990 to 31 million in 2000. This number is expected to approximate 35 million in 2010 and 41 million in 2020. Concerning the proportion of female and male adolescents in the total population of the Arab states, it has increased from 10.3% in 1990 to 11% in 2000. However, this percentage is expected to decrease to 9.9% in 2010 and to 9.7% in 2020. Female and male adolescents are unequally distributed among Arab states, depending on the size of the population in each if these states. Egyptian adolescents represent one fourth of the total Arab adolescent population, while both Algeria and Sudan count 11% of all Arab adolescents respectively, Morocco accounts 10% and Iraq 8%. That is to say that, approximately two thirds of the female and male adolescents live in five Arab states all of which suffer from difficult economic conditions, and three of which suffer from wars or internal conflicts.

Giving wider coverage of the project, Nehmeh said that the report identifies the following points: There are general dynamics that work towards bringing female and male adolescents attitudes and behaviors closer together. The report identified four essential dynamics, namely: consumption- oriented globalization, the move to religious fundamentalism and radicalism, modernity and the reproduction of traditional society.

It indicated that there are dynamics that work towards division and increased specificity, the most important of which being the lack of an overall culture; consumption-oriented trends; individualism and intolerance. Social, economic and cultural disparities between countries, and within the same country increase the effects of family and individual experiences on the building of the individual's personality and the personality of the group in a manner that differs from the more typical, general model.

He explained that the mentioned above typical models remain closer to the ideal theoretical models. In fact, he indicated "we seldom find female and male adolescents who consistently fit a model that combines specific convictions, intellectual values, attitudes, opinions, behavior and practice.

Nehmeh said that all of this leads to an important diversity and multiplicity, as well as to a typical thinking and behavioral models. These models vary according to the different areas and dimensions that characterize the reality of adolescence. These models vary in number also according to the number of national, family and individual experiences and characteristics, which means that typical models must be considered as theoretical frameworks that can be, but cannot necessarily, produce similar results to potential outcomes in reality.

He concluded by saying that in short, the study indicates that there are as many disparities between Arab states regarding the subject of adolescence, as there are similarities that transcend national borders, and to a lesser extent, as those that transcend the borders of the Arab region to reach the rest if the world.

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