How are advocates against gender-based violence overcoming traditional Kuwaiti cultural norms, patriarchal structures, and legislative frameworks, to ensure the safety and well-being of women and vulnerable migrant workers?

On Monday, April 15, 2024, the King Center on Global Development invites the Stanford student community to hear from Lubna Al-Kazi and Lisa Blaydes on gender-based violence and advocacy solutions across Arab Gulf states.

A pioneer in Kuwaiti and international gender research and advocacy, Lubna Al-Kazi, Sociology Professor at Kuwait University, will discuss new legislation around gender-based violence in Kuwait. Lisa Blaydes, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, will share data from her King Center-funded survey of Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers in Kuwait, an overwhelmingly female workforce. She will discuss data that could inform effective policies, enforcement mechanisms, and support systems to ensure the safety of women in the Arab Gulf states and the well-being of migrant domestic workers.

About the Speakers

Lubna Al-Kazi is a Sociology Professor at Kuwait University. She is the founder and director of Kuwait University’s Women’s Research and Studies Center. The center leads regional and national women’s leadership trainings in partnership with the United Nations (UN) and the Women and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The center is leading implementation of: the gender component of Kuwait’s National Development Plan; the “New Kuwait” 2035 development plan; as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 5/Gender Equality (SDG5) in Kuwait. 

Lisa Blaydes is Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She is also Faculty Affiliate at the King Center on Global Development and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI). She is the author of Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and State of Repression: Iraq under Saddam Hussein (Princeton University Press, 2018). Her articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Governance, International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, Journal of Theoretical Politics, Middle East Journal, Studies in Comparative International Development, and World Politics.