Featuring:

Angel Foster
Associate and director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, Ibis Reproductive Health

The conference series provided an in-depth look at the intersection of reproductive health and gender issues in the Islamic world, addressing the range of religious adherence to Islam and the impact of such diverse views on reproductive health policy and programming.

Dr. Foster discussed community-based efforts in Jordan and Tunisia to address honor killings, dating violence, and domestic violence. In addition, she discussed the media attention surrounding honor killings, and whether this attention helps or harms programmatic efforts to address more common types of gender-based violence.

Dr. Foster received her PhD in Middle Eastern studies from Oxford University, attending as a Rhodes Scholar. She has conducted research on women's health in Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, and Egypt and in collaboration with colleagues at the American University of Beirut designed and implemented the first peer health education program at a university in the Arab world. Dr. Foster has also conducted qualitative and quantitative research on gender-based violence in Tunisia and Jordan and will soon expand that work to Lebanon, Morocco, and Kuwait.

This series was sponsored by The Middle East Program and Environmental Change and Security Project at The Woodrow Wilson International Center, and is supported by USAID's Office of Population and Reproductive Health and the Interagency Gender Working Group.