Party Politics, Religion, and Women's Leadership ― Lebanon in Comparative Perspective

The 2011 Arab uprisings re-ignited global interest in the role that Islam and Islamist parties play in democratic transitions, especially with regard to women's lawful rights to share in governance and leadership. This book advances a theory of party religiosity to explain women's leadership across parties and countries, drawing on robust qualitative and quantitative findings from cross-national multiple cases and a case-study of Lebanon. The theory travels across 330 parties in 26 different countries - in Asia, Africa, and Europe. It is powerful and generalizable with explanatory and predictive powers.

Fatima Sbaity Kassem is the former Director of the UN-Centre for Women, Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA) in Baghdad, Amman, and Beirut and a freelance consultant on gender and women's issues in Arab countries. She received her PhD from Columbia University, USA and was Regional Coordinator for the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995).