Observation One: The current status of women in Yemen--
First, we note that women in Yemen face some of the greatest challenges in the region.
Serpe 11 (Lauren Serpe is a Research Officer at the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). She conducts public opinion surveys and focus groups focused on issues related to democracy in the Middle East and North Africa and other regions of the world. March 8, 2011. www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/opinion/110307/gender-issues-should-be-yemen-reform)
This holds …and… perspective to the political process.
Plan Text:
Phil and I advocate the following plan: The United States Agency for International Development should increase the support to women of Yemen through the allocation of decentralization assistance including democracy training to Yemeni women advocates.
Observation Two: Yemini political development--
Yemini women are seeking decentralization through positions in national and local governments now
IDEA 2005
(International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the Arab NGO Network for Development, “Building Democracy inYemen: Women’s Political Participation, Political Party Life and Democratic Elections”, published 2005, http://www.idea.int/publications/dem_yemen/upload/Yemen_country_report_English.pdf, accessed 10/11/11) AB
Yemeni women have …and… socio-
economic development in general.
Democracy assistance and women’s participation in politics is needed to build coalitions against the entrenched discrimination of the status quo
Sabbagh 2005 (Amal Sabbagh is a former Secretary General of the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW), “The Arab States: Enhancing Women’s Political Participation” Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance,http://static0.idea.int/publications/wip2/upload/Arab_World.pdf)AB
The non-democratic systems or …and…, opportunities and challenges.
Solidifying the political situation of the women’s movement in Yemen creates a permanent shield for Arab women against patriarchal regression.
Sabbagh, 2005 (Amal. Former Secretary General of Jordanian National Commission for Women. International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. “The Arab States: Enhancing Women’s Political Participation.” Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers. http://static0.idea.int/publications/wip2/upload/Arab_World.pdf)
‘The women’s movement...is …and… of a better future.
Yemeni feminists are fundamental to fostering democracy that addresses masculine hegemony
Badran 98 (Gender & History ISSN 0953–5233 Margot Badran, ‘Unifying Women: Feminist Pasts and Presents in Yemen’ Gender & History, Vol.10 No.3 November 1998, pp. 498–518. © Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1998, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Unifying Women: Feminist Pasts and Presents in Yemen MARGOT BADRAN)
Women behaving as feminists (without labels) …and… Yemeni women’s feminism.
All crises must be interrogated through a gendered lens or extinction from environmental problems, economic inequities, and weapons of mass destruction will be inevitable.
Peterson, 99. (V. Spike. Professor of Political Science. University of Arizona. “Global Gender Issues: Revisited.” Westview Press. p.17) {Reformatted M.e. 5.17.11}
Finally, gender-sensitive studies …and… hierarchies at work in the world.
Independently, these investigations of gendered identities are key to investigating manifestations of systemic violence
Peterson 2k
Peterson 2k (V. Spike, Associate Professor of Political Science @ the University of Arizona, SAIS REVIEW, "Rereading Public and Private: The Dichotomy that is Not One." Vol. 20, Iss. 2;
Gender-sensitive accounts …and… the security questions it raises.
Observation Three: Solvency
US democracy assistance targeted towards empowering the people can generate new strategies for advocating women’s rights and advancing development in the region
Hoveyda 5 Ambassador Hoveyda, Middle East project director of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, 2005 [Fereydoun, “Arab Women and the Future of the Middle East”, American Foreign Policy Interests No. 27, http://ipac.kacst.edu.sa/eDoc/2006/157373_1.pdf, p. 18-20]
One panelist expressed the belief …and… parts of the United States would not be helpful.
US democracy assistance to NGOs in Yemen is better than other actors
Burke 10 “Assessing Democracy Assistance: Yemen” Edward Burke, May 2010, Researcher at FRIDE This report is FRIDE’s contribution to a project entitled ‘Assessing Democracy Assistance’ that is being carried out by the World Movement for Democracy. The project aims to gather views on how democracy support can be improved and its impact enhanced. Other case studies and a synthesis report can be found at www.fride.org. www.fride.org/download/IP_WMD_Yemen_ENG_jul10.pdf
Among NGOs, the US is …and… than European donors.
This is not an instance of US interference, but instead an alignment with Yemeni women calling for recognition of their movement and politics
IDEA 2005
(International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance and the Arab NGO Network for Development, “Building Democracy inYemen: Women’s Political Participation, Political Party Life and Democratic Elections”, published 2005, http://www.idea.int/publications/dem_yemen/upload/Yemen_country_report_English.pdf, accessed 10/11/11) AB
Today’s women’s movement…and… by Yemeni women.
Observation Four: Framework and Impact Calculus
Too often, debaters advocate policies without a critical examination of what beliefs these policies are based on. The current inaction towards the impacts highlighted in the 1AC is not an accident, rather it is the deliberate result of a flawed epistemology that de-emphasizes the plight of Yemeni women, and women more generally, in traditional policy debates. The 1AC breaks this cycle through an endorsement of a new epistemology.
Democracy assistance must engage policymakers with concrete suggestions. Simply focusing on abstract critical theory in the context of democracy assistance is unable to offer real world practice and abandons empirical reorientation and emancipatory politics.
Kurki 2011 (Milja, Principal Investigator of ‘Political Economies of Democratisation’, a European Research Council-funded project based at the International Politics Department, Aberystwyth University, “The Limitations of the Critical Edge: Reflections on Critical and Philosophical IR Scholarship Today,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 39, p. 14-16) PM
Secondly, in terms of reorienting …and… still present a challenge worth taking up today.
Anderson 95
(Elizabeth Anderson, “Feminist Epistemology: An Interpretation and a Defense”, Hypatia vol 10. No. 3 Summer 1995, http://grst.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/AndersonFEID.pdf) AB
Thi s survey of some findings …and… of theoretical knowledge
Traditional discussions of democracy are based on a flawed epistemology -- we need to develop a new epistemology that truly acknowledges the role of women.
Waylen 94 (Women and Democratization: Conceptualizing Gender Relations in Transition Politics Author(s): Georgina Waylen Source: World Politics, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Apr., 1994), pp. 327-354 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2950685 . Accessed: 31/05/2011 22:26)
According to David Held, democracy …and… entail any wider changes.
Adopting a feminist curiosity is key to expose the gendered causes of global events
Enloe, 2007 (Cynthia, Research Professor, Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link, Department of International Development, Community, and Environment and Women's Studies, Clark University, p. 17)MKD
To make sense of today's …and… world "works" the way it does.
The international system will remain fundamentally flawed until we take the real lived experiences of women seriously
Enloe, 2007
(Cynthia, Research Professor, Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link, Department of International Development, Community, and Environment and Women's Studies, Clark University, p. 18)MKD
When you try to explain …and… tomorrow's international system.
And the choice of our epistemological framework matters:
Cuomo 96
(Chris, Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies and Director of the Institute for Women's Studies at the University of Georgia, 1996, “War Is Not Just an Event: Reflections on the Significance of Everyday Violence” Published in Hypatia 11.4, pp. 30-46
Although my position is in …and… from exploitation in poor countries.
Second, impact calculus that privileges traditional notions of “war” is a mode of masculine discourse used to cover the ongoing violence faced by women which ultimately makes “war” non-unique
Ray 97
[Amy E., J.D., Law Clerk to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Feb, American University Law Review, LEXIS]cn
Because, as currently constructed, …and… exclude and silence women. 268
Third, impact calculus that privileges so-called “greater” logistical and political considerations than violence against women is an active choice that trivializes women’s oppression and should be rejected
Enloe 04
(Cynthia, professor of International Relations, “The Curious Feminist”, p. 74)
Thus we need to become more …and… "loose," "prudish," or disappointed (it would be the trivializers twentieth century successors who would thing to add "lesbian").
Fourth, evaluating magnitude as the primary means of impact calculus trivializes real risks and destroys effective policymaking – our guaranteed and systemic impacts should come first
Rescher 83
(Nicholas, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, 1983, “Risk: A Philosophical Introduction to the Theory of Risk Evaluation and Management”, p. 50)
The "worst possible …and… gravity of a situation of hazard.
And traditional disad scenarios presuppose a “correct” way of avoiding “real” problems- which silences views outside it particularly women.
Cohn, 1993. (Carol. “War Wimps and Women.” Gendering War Talk. Ed. Cooke and Wallacott. p. 240-1.) {Reformatted M.e. 6.13.11}
In a world where professionals …and… crucial matters of war and peace.
Ethics cannot be separated from foreign policy making. We must analyze the rhetoric and values embodied in foreign policy decisions.
Frost 05 (Mervyn, professor of international politics at Kings College, London, The Idea of Global Civil Society: Politics and ethics in a globalizing era, editied by Randall D germain and Michael Kenny, p. 126-127) PM
In discipline which has been …and… the constitution of the South African state.
Furthermore, women’s protests in Yemen are at the frontline for political change throughout the region towards post-dictatorship governance in the region
Hudson and Leidl, 02.02.11. (World Politics Review. Valerie M. Hudson. Professor of Political Science. Brigham Young University. Patricia Leidl. International Communication Consultant in Afghanistan. “The Arab Intifada and Women's Rights.” http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/7749/the-arab-intifada-and-womens-rights) {M.e. 10.02.11}
The massive, exhilarating protests in …and… once the current dictatorships fall.
And examining strategies to improve women’s status in Yemeni politics offers a chance for Western feminists to examine gendered identities and inequalities in their own societies
Kennedy-Glans 6 the founder and executive director of Bridges Social Development, a Canadian registered charity providing capacity building in Yemen, [Donna Kennedy-Glans is “Gender Jihad: Enhancing Female Access in Politics”, Yemen Online, http://www.yemenonline.info/news-62.html]
The election outcomes …and… elections and won on 426 occasions.
