The Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR) took part in the Anti-Gender Rights Backlash: Feminist Perspectives from the Global South conference, hosted by the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, from November 19 to 21, 2025. The event was co-organized by CEU, the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut (AUB), and SCPR, and aimed to foreground Global South feminist perspectives on the rise of anti-gender rights movements across West Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe. The three-day program featured workshops, comparative research discussions, and a public conference that examined the roots, manifestations, and strategies of resistance to backlash within complex political and socio-economic contexts.

On November 19th, the SCPR facilitated an interactive workshop titled “In Search of Common Threads: Interdisciplinary Reflections on Gender Backlash and Resistance in MENA,” led by Rabie Nasser and Dima Al Munajed. The session was held at the Audre Lorde Studio at the Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE), a space affiliated with feminist and women’s rights research in Vienna. It brought together board members and research teams from five country studies within the Upholding Rights at a Time of Global Backlash: Strategies in MENA project. Through group dialogue, participants identified methodological and ethical challenges, examined examples of gender-based violations, and highlighted promising policy responses in their respective countries. The workshop aimed to foster cross-country reflections and shed light on common regional dynamics and divergent uses of gender-related discourse.

Later that afternoon, participants joined a second workshop titled “Feminist Research Methodologies & Ethics,” led by Professor Deepta Chopra. This session delved into feminist epistemologies and the ethical principles guiding research on gender and sexuality, including positionality, reflexivity, and the “Do No Harm” principle. Participants engaged in critical reflection on methodological challenges specific to studying anti-rights movements and shared experiences on navigating ethical dilemmas in high-risk or polarized contexts.

On November 20th, research teams convened for a closed project meeting focused on comparative learning across the five MENA case studies. Presentations included findings from Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia, and Syria, and were followed by discussions around shared challenges and local adaptations to anti-gender backlash. SCPR contributed with a Syria-focused presentation and comparative framing remarks by Rabie Nasser, helping to synthesize key insights across the country cases and shape a collaborative direction for the project.

The final day, Friday November 21, featured the public conference “Anti-Gender Rights Backlash: Feminist Perspectives from the Global South” at the CEU Auditorium. The event foregrounded feminist perspectives from West Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe, examining anti-gender backlash movements, their theoretical underpinnings, and activist strategies for countering them. Within contexts shaped by economic crises, armed conflict, authoritarian governance, and shrinking civic space, participants explored complex and urgent manifestations of backlash that remain underrepresented in global debate.

The conference included a keynote address by Lopa Banerjee, Director of the Civil Society Division at UN-Women, opening and closing remarks from CEU and AUB, and three regional panels. The event was co-organized by CEU’s Department of Gender Studies, the Asfari Institute at the American University of Beirut (AUB), and the Syrian Center for Policy Research (SCPR)

Categories: Event, Human Empowerment, Justice and Social Solidarity, Past Event

Tags: Anti-Gender, Feminist, SCPR, Syria