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Dr Serra Kirdar is Foundation Life Fellow of St Antony’s college, University of Oxford and the Founder and Director of the Muthabara Foundation. She earned her BA in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford, where she also completed her MSc in Comparative and International Education and her DPhil in 2004: “Gender and Cross — Cultural Experience with Reference to Elite Arab Women.” A founding member of the New Leaders Group for the Institute for International Education, she also serves on the International Advisory Board for the newly established Asian University for Women. She wrote the 2008 UAE Women’s Rights Report for Freedom House and “The Development of Women’s Education in the Arab World”, in Rosarii Griffin, ed., Education in the Muslim World: Different Perspectives, and “The Impact of Educational Empowerment on Women in the Arab World,” in Colin Brock & Lila Zia Levers (Ed), Aspects of Education in the Middle East and North Africa.
Women’s education in the Arab world has increased substantially in the last several decades, both in absolute terms and relative to men. However, when looking at the Arab world, understanding that there are vast differences culturally, politically, and socially among the countries is essential. This essay looks at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, where women share a similar cultural and socio-economic context.
