Norms and Gender Discrimination in the Arab World

The marginalization of women can often be linked to certain embedded informal norms, especially in collectivist communities in developing countries. Understanding the roots and processes of marginalizing women is vital for designing and proposing effective interventions against many forms of gender discrimination in these societies.

In Norms and Gender Discrimination in the Arab World, Abadeer incorporates informal norms such as religion, mores, myths, taboos, codes of conduct, customary laws, and traditions into the structure of formal rules (e.g., polity, judiciary, law, and the enforcement of law), which in turn influence the governance of the transactions. He utilizes both the new institutional economic analysis and the capability approach, which opens up a genuinely interdisciplinary analysis involving economics, political science, religion, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. In addition, Abadeer examines how these norms influence the behaviors of women, men, collectivist units, and society overall, and how those behaviors affect their well-being.