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Women and Entrepreneurship in the MENA Region aggregates datasets from various national, regional, and global sources to better explain why women entrepreneurship in the MENA region continues to lag behind, despite striking progress in education, particularly tertiary education.

This report introduces The Middle East Women Leaders Index (MEWLI), a first-of-its-kind data tool designed to quantify women’s representation in leadership in the public sector in the MENA region. This index introduces the Pipeline-Participation-Authority Framework (PPA) that seeks to measure gender parity beyond descriptive representation which limits measures of representation to reaching a set proportion of positions.

In its third year under Taliban rule, Afghanistan is facing multiple crises: political, humanitarian, and environmental. The impact of which is disproportionately felt by the country’s women and girls. Moreover, the Taliban continues to extend its severe restrictions on women’s rights, including in education and the workforce, and is escalating its crackdown on women defying hijab and mahram laws, among others. As the crisis extends, the Middle East Program and the Asia Program are committed to providing expert, up-to-date analysis that spotlights the voices of women in Afghanistan and their policy priorities.

In this edition of Wilson Center NOW we are joined by Merissa Khurma, Project Manager for Middle East Special Initiatives. We discuss the latest edition of the Middle East Women’s Initiative blog Enheduanna. The blog provides a platform for a diverse group of women contributors from the Middle East and North Africa to voice their thoughts and express their ideas about the state of women in their respective countries. We also preview the soon-to-launch Middle East Women Leaders Index.