is about to go down. It's about to go down US Olympic marathon team trials 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. I cannot believe it. The day is finally here. Yes, I'm going to say at the Super Bowl of long distance running, at least in the United States. I love the Olympics, of course, but this is just the raw unfiltered some athletes that are not sponsored. Some athletes that are sponsored go in mono in mono on the same streets, which I will say the difficult streets of Atlanta, Georgia. We're going to go over the course, the race strategy today that I would implement if I was, if I was a dark horse, if I was on the outside looking in, I'll give my thoughts as to how I would approach the course in Atlanta, which again is just not an easy course at all. And then we'll talk briefly about the Nike Alpha Fly next percent. And then lastly, I'm going to answer your questions that you submitted to me about the Olympic trials, the marathon process of qualifying for the US team from 10 days ago, where I asked that question of the day in the QD, or sorry, the Q&A from 10 days ago. So we'll get to all that. And let's dive in, first of all, to my picks from last week. A lot of people asked in that Q&A who are my picks to make the team. So here you go. On the women's side, Des Linden, all right, first place, Jordan Assay, second place, and Molly Huddle for third place. Okay. If you want to see upper right hand corner, I explained my picks in more depth, upper right hand corner. You can go check that blog out from last week. And then on the men's side, whoo. Oh man, it's just tough picks all around. But I went with Jared Ward. Okay. He made the 2016 team, Galen Rupp for second place. He made the 2016 team. And then lastly was, oh yeah, Scott Fawble, Scott Fawble, a Colorado native. So there you go. Those are my top three picks. And then there is an alternate that fourth place is an alternate in case somebody gets injured leading up to the Olympics just so you know. Now let's dive into the course in Atlanta. It's a three loop course. Atlanta Track Club, shout out to you. You nailed it. I think this is a brilliant move to do more loops and allow the spectators to see the runners as much as possible. There's also a dog leg that goes out and back at a certain point. I foresee me standing in that area so I can film the runners coming at me. And then somehow, I don't know. Oh, I just realized, unless there's a bridge, maybe they built a bridge. I don't know. I'm going to, by the way, I'm going to go scope out the course Friday night when I fly to Atlanta just so everyone knows so I can find my spot for filming. And so it's an out and back.  But here we go. Look at the elevation profile. So it's an eight mile loop, an eight mile loop, and then a 10.2 mile loop. So the last loop is an extra 2.2 miles to make the 26.2 miles for the marathon distance. Look at this elevation profile, everyone. I mean, this is going to be, I'm just saying, like I ran New York City last fall. I think this is going to be a really hard day for a lot of runners. Now, some questions we're coming in about, do you think runners who trained in the hills will be better prepared? Absolutely. A hundred percent. If you did your training on rolling hills, and like, these aren't going to be steep, big mountain, you know, running up steep mountain roads, we're talking rolling, which I think can be really deceptive for your muscles, how much actual exertion you're putting forth. So it's going to be intense, and there's really no flat spots. And I'll get to the race strategy here in a minute, as far as who I think this will benefit more. As far as no flat spots, all rolling hills. And again, Atlanta Track Club, you picked a tough one. You picked a tough one. Another point on the course is the mental strategy for approaching this type of course. Because of that dog leg that goes out and back, I forget the name of the street. It's not peach tree. But anyway, I'm going to be out there on that section. I do believe the runners are going to see each other. So if there's a pack that's, you know, 20 seconds ahead or 30 seconds ahead, when they turn around, they're going to see the other runners coming toward them. So it's going to be difficult to run away from people and see like, okay, how much distance, because some courses like, yeah, like New York City or really any of the major marathons, you can run away from people and get far enough ahead where you turn the corner just before the other runners can see you. And it's really mentally difficult to not be able to see your competitors and be like, oh no, they are way ahead because I can't even see them. So on this course, I don't see that happening as quickly, maybe toward the end of the race. But I think that, I think that will lend itself to a more competitive race all around. Now let's dive in real quick to the Nike Alpha Fly, next to that. This is crazy. I don't even understand it. And it's brilliant marketing. I have no idea. I guess, okay, USA Track and Field is sponsored by Nike. So maybe I don't understand the whole contract side of this, but Nike is putting onto the an offer out on the table for this.  And Nike has put out there that they are offering all the runners, if they want, they can run in a Nike Alpha Fly next percent pair of shoes, which are being released, I think, midnight on Saturday morning, basically. So it's going public and the shoe is going to be out there in a big way. But here's what's blowing my mind is I saw some Brooks runners, like, okay, some runners that I know who are sponsored by Brooks Adidas. And I think maybe one Hoka, and also Hoka has a carbon fiber plate shoe that's called the Rocket X. Yes, the Hoka Rocket X. And we're going to talk about Jim Walmsley in a minute. But bottom line, it's brilliant marketing on Nike's part. But I don't understand if you have a contract with another shoe company, how you might be allowed to run in this shoe? Because I saw some Brooks guys holding the shoe at the pickup location in Atlanta just today. It's just as blowing my mind. But hey, this is the marketplace. This is the competitive edge that at the end of the day, long term, will help us, the consumers, receive the best running shoes possible on the marketplace.  It's insane. Okay, so here we go. Let's dive into some questions about the US Marathon Olympic Team Trials 2020 in Atlanta, Georgia. I pulled as many as I could. I want to keep this video as concise as possible. Because I got to edit and then go to bed and wake up really early to go for a run and then catch an airplane to Atlanta. So here we go. Mr. Dale asks, and there's a lot of questions that came in about this gentleman. As a mountain runner yourself, how do you think Jim Walmsley will do in Atlanta? There was another question about it. Yeah, I'll just ask this one as well right now from James. I have seen this below. I think it's a big talking point. Do you think Jim Walmsley will make the team? I saw he did a two hour 5350K this last week and is using regular 50K training runs in the lead up to the trials. If he succeeds, will this change the way people train for marathons? And so this gets into the racing strategy. I have already said last week that Jim Walmsley is an outsider looking in. And I think he, probably, I think based on the interviews I've seen, and I know Jim, he doesn't, we don't know each other real well, but we were on the World Mountain Running Championship team together last fall in Argentina. And so I got to know him a little bit. And I think he places himself on the outside looking in based on the interviews I've seen. And so I am not picking him to make the top three. And it's but, but I will say this much as far as a racing strategy for also on the lady side, Emily Sisson. I think that's how you say her name. You know, I would put her on the bubble along with, I know a lot of people are picking Sarah Hall to make the team. That would be amazing. That would be great if she did, but I put her on the outside looking in as well. So for Jim, Emily Sisson, Sarah Hall. And then who else? I put even like a, well, I'll just say like a Luke Biskedra or a Reed Fisher, Luke actually took fourth in 2016. So I do think the Hills will help Jim Walmsley and some of these quote unquote slower runners barely like these are all fast runners, but the slower runners on the outside looking in, I think it helps them absolutely, especially if they were able to train in the Hills, like I, I know Jim was in many other runners out there that train like in the mammoth lakes area or even here in Boulder, Colorado. But here is my prediction. I think these runners, they need to break these guys. They need to break them. They need to break their will and they need to go for it or else they're not, they're just not going to out kick Galen Rump. And that is why I'm not picking Jim and some of these other runners is basically their 10K PRs. And I know Jim recently ran a 102-13 even though the course was about 900 feet short in Arizona just in January. So that's fast, but it's not 101 fast. Okay. And so therefore race strategy, US Marathon Olympic team trials 2020, they got to break them. And I'm going to call it right now. I think Jim is going to go for it around mile eight. Okay. I, if he waits to mile 13, I don't think it's soon enough. I think after one lap, Jim might start to go for it. And especially if he's feeling good, but I think that's the only way he can try to break the will of some of these faster guys. Cause I just don't see him out kicking these other guys, even like a Luke Puskettra. He was a great runner in college. Yeah. Or even a Reed Fisher. So that's my thought on the race strategy anyway. Oh, good question from Mr. Dale and James. Moving on now. Do you feel Galen Rupp will be in top form and how much credit with his progression with his new coach, Mike Smith? I think Mike Smith, like, I think it was a, you know, fine move. Galen has so much experience. I'm not going to give that much. I'm going to put it in the camp of Galen's work and trying to tune out all the noise of Salazar. I'm not going to put a ton of credit to Mike Smith. And I don't think he would expect that either. I mean, how long has he been coaching him a couple months? Not even that. So anyway, that would be my thought for that question. And yes, I think he's, I think he's ready. I think now the hills are going to be interesting for Galen, but I think he's going to be just fine. Okay. For second place. All right. Moving on to Stefan. Do you think runners who are training in hillier locations have a better shot in qualifying than others? Yes. As I've already mentioned, absolutely. Yeah. If you're just like a fast, like a Bernard Legat, even though I'm not expecting him to be toward the top, but like some of those really talented track guys, it could be a more difficult day for them. He just came to mind because he's such a famous runner from the United States. Okay. Moving on to Mason. How many runners have qualified for the Olympic trial? Oh yeah. So over 700, I think guys said 717. Actually, oh yeah, this is an update. Parker Stinson has had to drop out because of an injury. That was sad news that happened this past week. And he trains here in Boulder, Colorado, and his coach is Nathan Ritzenheim. Ritz, who's also racing a 12, 56, 5K PR guy, excuse me, or 57. So there you go. Those are my thoughts. Thus far, vlog's not done. We're going inside to pack and it's going down, baby. It's going down. Can't wait to get to Atlanta and see the course. So I'm going to go out on the course Friday night and just film for all of you to give you a little course preview of how hilly this course actually is. Did I actually mention the elevation profile? It's 1300 feet of elevation gain and loss. That's a lot. That is a lot. All right. Here we go. Okay. So some packages arrived at the PO box. Thanks for sending them, everybody. And yes, this is a critical package that arrived. I will open that up in a minute for the Olympic trials down in Atlanta. Critical. I will talk about that. First of all, just so everyone knows, there is a vlog fan who every month, he has it set up where a company sends me a box of turmeric tea. I forget his name. I'll have to look it up. It's in an email. So sorry, but there's the next box. I drink probably two or three bags of turmeric tea every single day, especially when I'm sick. Okay. Moving on to this package. Here we go from Amazon. So this is a, and this is from Todd and Christina. And so what is it? It's a pizza cutter. He said, congratulations on the arrival of baby Henry. You and true love look like amazing parents. We saw you cutting pizza with a huge knife and thought you could use this. Thank you so much, Todd and Christina for sending a huge pizza cutter. That is amazing. I love it. Thank you so much. That's awesome. And this arrived from Slovakia. Okay. So let me just see here. This is from Rado. Rado in Slovakia. I hopefully I'm pronouncing that name right. Oh, let's see here. Oh my goodness. Is this a buff? Oh, sweet. Oh, that's awesome. It's a buff, but I bet this is a pattern and color pattern that is known in Slovakia. That is so cool. And he also sent a postcard. I bet this is where he is from. I will read the letter later. Thank you so much. I bet he's enticing me to come visit and come run the mountains in Slovakia. That is amazing. Okay. Let's get to this box, which the item inside I will be taking to Atlanta. So I'm a big fan of high quality video production. And that means, what does that mean? That means getting the shots for all of you. And so part of that process is making sure you have the right equipment, which this is a 100 to 400 millimeter lens. There we go that I rented just for the Olympic Trials. So I put this on the tripod, the tripod I'm using now. And I'll just get those nice. This is what I used for the INEOS 159 challenge with Kipchoge over in Vienna. I used this also in western states. So it's just an amazing lens that I love using to get those nice close up shots of the feet, like the runners and their foot strike and, you know, then grabbing bottles off of the aid station tables. It's going to be amazing. Okay. I'm going to call there because I need to go pack because I'm leaving early in the morning question of the day. What if you did not answer last week your top three picks for men and women? Who are your picks? Who do you got? That's option one. Option two is how do you plan to watch the race? Are you going to be there in person? Are you going to be watching on NBC? Are you going to be streaming it on your phone? Yeah. Are you going to be watching updates on Twitter? Let us know down in the comments. And especially for everyone outside the US, I'd be curious to see how everyone's going to be watching around the world. It's about to go down. So exciting. Thanks for watching. Thanks for being here. We're going to toss it back right up here to last week's picks for the US Olympic Marathon team trials where I went over in more detail the runners and their potential. And then if you haven't subscribed yet, click on my face right down there. I'd appreciate it. Spread the word. Let everyone know I'm coming to film in Atlanta. Here we go. Butter it, butter it.


Okay, good evening everyone. Welcome to this Tuesday event lecture or seminar by professor Ailey Marie Tripp. Really welcome to have you here. And she is, I'm just going to give a short bio and let her speak because her topic is very exciting, which is around women's rights adoption of women's rights discourse in, you know, in some parts of the Arab world, but with a focus on North Africa, if I'm not wrong. So, Ailey, a professor Tripp has a long and illustrious career. She is the one Gary Mathie professor of political science and gender and women studies at Wisconsin Medicine University. She works and she researches women and politics in Africa, women's movements in Africa, African politics, and also the informal economy in Africa. And she has published widely and she and her work is award winning work, but her major publications are books, women and politics in Uganda, Mussolini's Uganda paradoxes of power in hybrid in a hybrid regime, and women and power in post conflict Africa. But today she's going to talk to us more in relation to the Middle East and North Africa, and the question of women's rights, and she will be giving a presentation and if I may ask for you to put here for all the participants to put their questions in the question and answer, and then I will pose them to Ailey. So this is the fifth lecture in term two of a series of lectures and seminars that we hold and is hosted by the so as Middle East Institute, and I co chair it with my colleague, Nergis Ferser, who is the chair of the Center for Iranian Studies, and I am the chair of the Center for Palestine Studies and my name is Dina matter and I also work at so as. So welcome everyone. Thank you for joining us and looking forward to this exciting presentation. Welcome, Ailey. Thank you very much. I'm just going to get this going here. Make sure I have it. Here we go. Okay, so thank you very much for the invitation. And I'm delighted to be speaking to you in London. Wish I could be there but another time. I've heard from other people who've spoken at your seminar that it's a wonderful place to present because you get such excellent feedback so I'm very much looking forward to your, your input. So today, I'm talking about a book that I just completed recently called seeking legitimacy why Arab autocracies adopt women's rights. And one of the overarching questions that I've been asking in my work in Africa, North and South and Sub-Saharan Africa is why are some countries more keen to adopt women's rights and law and women's laws and policies, women's rights laws and policies than other countries. And in this book I'm asking the same question, because women's rights are generally associated much more with democracies. And yet we have reforms taking place in autocratic countries as well. I'm asking, in particular, why do we see divergent trends between the Maghreb countries and by here I'm referring to Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia in this talk although sometimes people include also Libya and Mauritania but this book I'm looking at these three countries Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. And so I'm asking why do we see divergent trends between these three countries and the Middle East, when it comes to women's rights. And, of course, it's not like there's nothing, I mean obviously there's plenty happening in the Middle East and there are many reforms taking place and we just saw the United Arab Emirates has increased the representation of women in their Federal National Council and their legislative body by up to 50%, which is a big jump from the previous 22%. So you see, you know you're seeing reforms taking place elsewhere. But in general, I am arguing that there's quite a big difference between these groups of countries. When I talk about just to define a few terms here. When I talk about, let me see, when I talk about women's rights, I'm talking about, I'm talking about them as how they're defined by women's movements within these countries so that's my reference point. And I'm drawing on two original databases. One on women's women's rights and constitutions in the MENA region from 1950 to 2018. And then also I draw on interviews that I did between 2015 and 2017 in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. And I did these with leaders of various variety of organizations, Islamists, feminists, Amazir, human rights groups, members of parliament, leaders of women's legislative caucuses, party leaders, religious leaders, lawyers and so on, journalists. And so very quickly, just to get to the answer to my question when I'm going to spend the rest of the time elaborating, but basically my argument in the nutshell is that it has to do with activism by women's rights organizations that took advantage of critical junctures. After there was a change of leadership or some kind of social upheaval they took advantage of these moments to assert their demands. And the other part of the explanation has to do with the ways in which the leaders in these countries used women's rights kind of an instrumental way as an internal strategy to neutralize extremist Islamist elements or movements. And I also did it for the purpose of presenting a modernizing image of their countries to the world so that it had this internal and external objective. So that's that's my argument in a nutshell just so you know where I'm hitting with this. Generally, and I know that most of you study this region so it's, I don't want to go into any great detail here but generally the Margaret and the Middle East share much in common, even though I'm talking about the divergence today but they share common historical influences, colonial influences, they share a similar language Arabic, and they have a dominant religion, they share the Islam religion, they experienced the spread of conservative Islam in recent decades. And they also share with Middle East, some common cultural practices like a cousin marriage. But there's also there are also some important major differences. The Berber or the Amazir culture as they refer to it is something that is is more specific to the demographic. So, maybe a good place to start is what is in what does the literature say about these issues, and very generally, there are many of the existing explanations at least in my field of political science have to do with Islam and and one of the main explanations has come from Ron Engelhardt and Pippa Norris who argued that it's Islam and autocracy that work together to impede the progress and women's rights or to challenge progress. But what we see in these countries, these Margaret countries is that you have considerable reform in women's rights. And so that requires more explanation than just saying okay with writing it off and just saying you know it's there's nothing here. And others like Joseline Cesare have argued that it's really religiously based legislation that contributes to the lack of women's rights in Muslim countries. And in particular, kind of a hegemonic religion where there's a privileging of one religious group over others. And still has to explain why there's so much variance among Muslim countries, if not just in this region but but also elsewhere. And this is in part, you know, much of my interest in this question came from working in Sub-Saharan Africa where you had Muslim countries where some of the leaders in adopting women's rights so it's not it's too simplistic to say that it's just about the hegemonic religion. Dawood Ahmed and Mormon Buddha have also argued that the more, the more the constitutions in Muslim majority countries, the more that they're Islam is sized, the less they advance women's rights, and the less democratic and politically stable they are others in my field have challenged this Daniela Dono and Bruce Russet say that it's not about a talk or see it's not about Islam it's not about Arab culture. No one has to look at the role of religious groups, political actors, how secular the state is the role of international civil conflict. And in my project I'm trying to isolate some of these factors. I draw heavily from the work of Monera Sharad, who has argued that the greater the autonomy of the state from kinship groups. The easier it was to adopt women's policies and she worked in these three, particularly these three same countries. And she's arguing that the more that the state is autonomous from society, and especially from tribal groupings the more you're going to see these reforms as was the case in Tunisia. But again, this may have explained the past but it is something would have had to change in terms of the kinship groups relationship to the state to explain the changes we're seeing today. So and again this this argument maybe goes so far but it doesn't go far enough perhaps to explain what we're seeing now. Finally, there's an argument by dirt to angle angle get and running a Maktabi who have talked about the importance of unified legal systems, unified laws and unified courts in term in implications for reforming family law. And again, I think this is an important argument and it's one that I draw on. You have many countries outside the Margaret Iraq, Kuwait have unified laws and a unified court system you have Libya, Yemen, Oman and Egypt have unified courts but not unified laws. And so you see some of this these patterns but it's it perhaps is a necessary but not sufficient condition for reform so you have to have it, but it's not enough there has to be something else. And I'm building on the unified legal system argument but I think one needs to still go further. So before we, let's see, sorry, jumping around here. It's perhaps important even though I'm generalizing about the Margaret countries. It's important to show that there are differences also between them. In fact, they're quite substantial differences I think people often lump them together but in fact there are quite big historical differences that in fact that affect the women's rights regimes. So in, in the in Morocco you have a monarchy, and you have this king who Mohammed Sadis who think who sees himself as a modernizer as somebody who promotes women's rights human rights. And he, he very much draws on the religious and cultural traditions to legitimate his rule he sees himself he he and his ancestors were in his father and so on before him were the commanders of the commander the faithful. And so he draws on religious symbolism to maintain religious pluralism and to promote women's rights. In particular he's used women's rights as part of a modernizing strategy to moderate the Salafi and Islamist influences. And he's used his religious authority to do that. So, and these use many different mechanisms. Some are constitutional mechanisms but some are also repression of the Salafi inspired violence, offering incentives to nonviolent Salafis, and then engaging in these reforms. Another influence and we don't have much time to go into it but is that Morocco was never part of the Ottoman Empire and so that has legal implications, you know for the way that the law was family law was was adjudicated. And also it was not part of the African Union until very recently it joined four years ago rejoin, it had been left 30 years ago as a result of some differences over a dispute over Western Sahara. But that also has implications because African Union put certain has had certain goals and targets around women's rights, but that didn't affect Morocco for that time. Algeria was colonized longer than the other two countries and 132 years compared to 40 years with the other two. And it has post of post war legacies to force post war legacies, the first one after the war of independence, and then the second one after the black decade of 1991 to 2002. And I've written a book, an earlier book about the impact of conflict, especially after the 90s, and even more so after 2000 in Africa and how countries that came out of conflict had higher rates of representation of women in parliament they passed more legislation and so on. And so you see some of these post war tendencies that you see them the rest of Africa you see them in Algeria as well. And finally you have Tunisia, which of the three countries is the only democracy, although it's, it's running into some difficulties these days, but it, it had a much more centralized state as I said I mentioned about money restaurants work. And it has a much longer history of women's rights legislation. One of the first things that were given did was to reform the personal status code and improve women's rights in the family. And also, so that was in 1956 right from the get go and he even did that before them before me in the Constitution. 1959 they changed the Constitution and they also increased various women's rights provisions in that. So, you can see that there's big differences within these between these three countries. And having said that, now we're seeing this convert convergence. And you can see it in this chart around women's rights provisions within the Constitution that each country started with minimal provisions and gradually they've all adopted the same types of provisions in the Constitution. The same thing has happened in the laws, you see, initially that with a personal status code but then there's been a diffusion of, of one country adopts one law then the next year, the other country will do the same so you see that with sexual nationality law, photo laws, photos for women in the legislature, violence against women act, the abolition of the rape loophole, and so on. So you have this diffusion of influences within the region. And this is not an accident. Sorry, this is not an accident. Sorry about that. My mouse is a little bit loose today. Oops, I might go in the wrong direction. All right. If you look at kind of the oh here this is one another index or another way of measuring it. The closer you are to one of the greater the discrimination so here again. To compare the light bar is in the least the darker bar is the average for the Margaret countries, you can see differences in terms of family code. This measure is one that combines I'm not very happy with it but it combines law as well as outcomes. So it's not, it's also looking at the impact of the law, not simply the law. So family code. You see the difference physical activity, whether women can travel, for example without permission from a spouse restricted resources and assets is the only one area where you see similarity in terms of the percentage access to to land or property or inheritance. Civil liberties whether women can run for office and so on, and, or rather, to what extent are they succeeding in running for office. And then you see the overall difference so this is quite a big, big gap between the two regions, if you average out the the, the, the index. Perhaps the biggest differences you see in the, in the political arena.  You can see that the the percentage of women in the legislature is is is a quite a big divergence between the Maghreb and the Middle East. And if you look at the local level, you may even see bigger differences in Tunisia, for example, women make up a stunning 37% of the Tunisian Council positions after the 2018 election. It's much higher than the rates in France or Britain or Germany, for example. The Islamist Party had a was elected their first woman mayor into Tunis. At the local level in Morocco also 38% of the communal council seats are held by women. That's, and that was after 2015 and that was three times as many as you had in 2009. Okay, so what then explains the differences. I think people, I mean they came up with a lot of explanations and I think some of them are useful to think about just in terms of, they provide a background for the arguments that I'm going to make they aren't there I wouldn't call these my argument or my reasons but they help, they help explain some things. The explanations people gave me were cultural. So, for example, they talked about the role of the influences of French socialism and French feminism on the women's movements in, in, in these countries as you know there's a lot of back and forth among the elite, or the elite in general, between France and North Africa. And so, and may studied in in France, and elsewhere in Europe but so there was this this kind of influence. Another one that's talked about a lot, especially in Algeria and Morocco was the influence of the rise of the Amazigh dimension or factor dimension as they call it the Berber aspect. This, it's, it's not very tangible but it's something that you still you see a lot in the culture there this is a statue of D here who was, you might know her better as he enough from in Arabic, but D here in Berber or Thomas here was a Amazigh queen warrior who lived in the 7th century in an part of Algeria, and she was, she could have some say she was Jewish some say she was Christian but anyway she was somebody who had twice beat back the Umayyad invaders in this eastern Algeria and Tunisia area. And so today you see all kinds of books about her in the demonstrations they had for the last, you know, in 2019 2020 in Algeria you can see the middle, the middle picture you can see her picture of her. You have restaurants named after her pizza parlors named after her cosmetics I mean everything's story books cartoons every she's very, very popular. And in the imagination and she's not the only one. There's also Tina Hinan, the fourth century to our queen and warrior from the hog our region in Algeria. And there was a Zaynab, Nazouya in the armor, armor rabbits, which is a Berber dynasty that control the Maghreb and Andalus from 1040 to 1147 CE. So and this many others so it but it gives you a sense that there's a sense of it's a it's a secular movement it's a movement that's pushing up against, especially Islamist extremism. And so that's seen that's seen as one aspect and and it's a it's a culture that gives elevates women's women as leaders in a in a particular way. I also heard a lot about the Sufi Sufism and the importance of women, it's a women are cut out of many religious roles but Sufism provides a certain gives them certain central roles in pre Islamic rituals that are associated with healing and fertility. And so it's fairly strong in the Maghreb Sufism and women are given these leadership roles and and in mosques and so we as other kind of religious monasteries. And so it's an area where women can assert their independence and sometimes challenge local patriarchal culture and escape from convention. It's not my argument but I just want to give this these are these explanations they're due because they do infuse the they're the cultural background and the landscape on which I'm talking about. But I will hinge much more of my argument to in terms of women's rights to pressures that from some women's rights organizations. And, in particular, there were several there are many organizations today and in fact the numbers are increasing into country like Tunisia, quite dramatically. But you have this certain kind of inflection certain moments that women have taken advantage of. And they've been able to, sorry, assert themselves. I'm sorry, I don't know why my mouse is just jumping like crazy today. One of the most important early organizations, which helps explain the diffusion of these laws was the collective Maghreb a Galite. Which was an association of women from these three countries that got together and they developed a plan of 100 laws they wanted to change and the laws that you're seeing today they are the ones that they outlined it if they have this playbook and it's amazing to what extent they've actually been able to accomplish the goals that they set for themselves and and made the changes that they they targeted. So it's so that this in part explains, you know, the collaboration between these groups explains why you have the the the synchronicity of these legislative reform. As one Tunisian lawyer and women's rights activists explained, I currently participate in many meetings on law. And when you attend these meetings you realize their approach mom between the Maghreb countries, and the legal difference between the Maghreb and the Middle East. First, the feminist movement appeared almost simultaneously in all three countries. For example, we conducted many meetings together on sexual harassment. These three states at the same time change laws to punish sexual harassment. When we established parity in our electoral law in 2011 in Algeria they modified the Constitution and modified the electoral law to introduce the quota. Morocco introduced parity in the Constitution and laws and so it's moving forward in a convergent way. So, so there you see one piece of the explanation. They took advantage of key moments that I could go through many of them but you know one would have been in Algeria would have been the end of, I mean sorry in Tunisia would have been the end of Ben Ali's rule. And the Arab Spring 2011 and after which they really made big push to get changes to preserve and make changes in the Constitution to preserve their rights and make changes. In Algeria, the push came after the end of the black decade, a very, very brutal war in which, which left many people dead and disappeared. And women suffered very, very, very horrifically in that period, a conflict between the Islamists and the extremists and the government. And then the 20th of February movement in Morocco which was kind of their mini Arab Spring. Again you saw after that changes in the Constitution which affected women and al-Mazir. In my book I talk about to understand why women's rights have been so central in the region and to major developments in the region. I argue that one has to not just look at the events that took place but also look at the symbolic dimension of politics, something that's not done very much in my recent political science. And women's rights in many ways have become a proxy for attitudes towards progress, modernity, secularism, nationalism and democracy. And women and women's bodies often represent attitudes towards sexuality and morality and religious devotion. And so in the region you see many debates going on over how women are dressed. And you have the state regulating in all three countries regulating what women wear they banned the niqab in all three countries or at least the sale of the niqab in the case of Morocco. It's seen as something extremist and foreign. So, you know women are very much at the center of all these of all these battles that are going on. And it's also, you know, one of the things that I was always curious about was that so if you go to like a lecture on women's rights, I was teaching at the al-Hawaiian University in Morocco for a year. And they, the women's rights are, you know, you almost will have more men at an event than women if you're talking about women's rights and I was always curious about why but it's because it, you know, it is this proxy it represents so much more than just it's not just about women it's about all these other, you know, about modernity and about nationalism and secularism and all these other concerns. So this, this comes up a lot in society daily life, just to give one or two examples. There was a woman in Algiers, who was in 2018 who was verbally assaulted and beaten for jogging on the beach during Ramadan. And when she went to the police to complain, they asked, why was she jogging and they blamed her and they did nothing. I just told her to go home. So then she took it to the social media and the next day hundreds of women and men and some NGOs they all came out to run alongside her. So you have these, you know, these kinds of everyday forms of resistance. You also have other other moments. You know, one of the, one of the state itself has has in all these three countries has used a variety of tactics to try to repress extremism. And they've used repression, they've used co-optation, they've used surveillance, and they've used various kinds of accommodation to neutralize extremists. And the use of women and women's rights and women's bodies is also one of these as they've used them as a moderating force. And so, and this has had both problematic but beneficial consequences for women and women's rights and women's rights activists. So for one example here we get it, we draw on the symbolic politics, but there was a man who placed you can see him in the picture there who placed a Daesh flag on top of the University of Manuba. And in response, this 25 year old woman's student climbed up onto the top of the university building and took the flag down and then put the Tunisian flag up. Again, drawing national attention to her active defiance.  I'm praising her patriotism and suggesting that the Salafi flag represented a foreign influence that was external or the Daesh flag represented an external influence, a foreign influence that was from outside of Tunisia.  So, so leaders, so one of the biggest differences then between the most Margaret, the Margaret countries and most Middle East countries I think Egypt is kind of a, we'll have to talk about that because it's a little bit of an exception here but I don't but I still think what I'm arguing it holds. One of the biggest differences is that these Margaret leaders use women's rights as a strategy to neutralize extremist Islamist movements. And they then at the same time were signaling to the West that they know they have this modernizing image and so on. It's very weird. And so they, they, how am I doing for time. You're okay. Very good. So, for example, they, you know, they released a lot of these Islamist parties you have Islamist parties in power in Morocco and Tunisia they, they realize very quickly that if they were going to have staying power they would have to make concessions in this area. And perhaps they were defensive, but they have now adopted the language of women's rights through a process of what El Hashimi is called political learning. So the party, the PJD, the party of justice and development in Morocco came to power in 2011, and it has made a almost 180 degree turnaround from its opposition to, for example, the reforms of the personal status code that were made in 2004. They had led demonstrations against the reforms in the code, family code, they had issued fatwas against women who were in the activists who are promoting these reforms. But when they became then headed up the coalition government, they changed their position, and it's great, it's changed gradually didn't happen just overnight but it's, but since 2011 you see this, this, this change. They were very much against, for example, the convention on the elimination of discrimination of women's CEDAW. And today they're basically supported, at least verbally. They support the personal status code, and they've continued with their, with the reforms so they didn't just they in fact they went further than Istiklal, the more secular party. They've, when when Istiklal was head of the coalition that made very few reforms around women's rights but under PJD they continued with the electoral law reforms that introduced quotas. They made it introduce anti-trafficking law, violence against women act. They're considering abortion legislation, I don't know how far that will go. They've included protections for domestic workers. They've adopted two European Union funded programs that are quite major in terms of women's policy reforms. So again, a huge, huge shift in terms of how they see women's rights. Now what they mean by all this we can discuss it's not perhaps that, you know, they have may have very different understandings than maybe the some of the secular feminists do. I know they do. But, you know, it is, it is a change. So the big thing with an idea you saw, especially in the debates over the constitutional reforms when the Constitution was being amended and rewritten in 2014 you saw big debates over, especially over, I mean that there are many issues, but one in particular had to do with the complementarity clause. And they wanted to introduce this clause that would more or less suggest that women are competent in their home sphere and men in the public sphere. There was also language that talked about, you know, that Tunisia is part of a sacred country, laws are sacred. And there was a worry that that might introduce a religious element that would then push back and undo some of the laws like the personal status code that had been in effect. And so they were the, the activists, women's rights, activists were able to, to keep those clauses from entering in to the Constitution and they were able to, they ended up with the one of them one of the most progressive constitutions in the world for women. Butiflipa also in Algeria, before he was thrown out of power, he also has used women's rights as part of an act, a means of isolating and neutralizing Islamist extremists and promoting women as leaders. Now the current president just hasn't been visible. He's had COVID for the much of the time he's been in power. So it's hard to evaluate what happened after him, but at least that was the policy up until Butiflipa left office a year and a half ago. So in a nutshell, what we've seen, what I will argue is that the reason for this different divergence between the Maghreb and the Middle East is that there has been a political will of the leaders to neutralize Islamist extremist movements, not to not to neutralize Islamist movements with extremist movements by promoting women's rights.  And a lot of it has come from parties recognizing that their political survival was at stake here and that they had to, they would have to make these accommodations in part for international consumption but also for internal reasons. And then, and then this wouldn't have happened without pressure from activists and you need actors to make these things happen. And so these women's activists took advantage of critical junctures to push for these changes. And with a cautionary note about autocrats adopting women's rights policies in which women's rights are instrumental to other purposes may mark symbolic advances, but they also can run the risk of not addressing women's rights concerns. And they can also have problematic unintended consequences of not for example including women representatives in the crafting of policies, or of not of not being developed with the interests of women themselves in mind, if they're being used for some other objective. They're used to divert attention from other human rights violations, and then they can work at cross purposes to women's rights, which are contingent on freedom of association, freedom of speech and free and fair elections, and the right to freely participate in politics. The policies which are enacted for purposes of expediency and a pleasing and external audience may look good on paper, but then they may not be implemented and in fact that's one of the biggest concerns is that very often there's nice policies but there's no funding for them and they're not carried out because they're, you know that people are not serious about really seeing them through always. And then finally, as happened in the case of women who were associated with Ben Ali's regime in Tunisia, women's rights activists who are sometimes associated with autocrats in this way. Even if they themselves are sincere in their goals they may find themselves tainted by association with a corrupt and dictatorial government. That's one of the ones that govern a country democratizes. So, I'll leave it at that and thank you very much for listening and I look forward to your comments and questions.


Okay guys, welcome back to another played lately Let's start off with a PC game and yeah, I rarely talk about PC games But this one is worth mentioning now. I have loved the MMOs back in the day and Something is still intriguing with MMOs within me even though I'm just not going back to World of Warcraft anytime soon. Also, I came off Elder Scrolls Online earlier this year played that a lot with my friend Katrina But this time I am playing a new MMO that is called New World And I have to say that I really enjoy it It is on Steam so you can play it on PC currently because MMOs are always best on PC I guess but New World it is about you being shipwrecked I think at an island and this is where you will Colonize a new world sort of thing and this island is already full of war There are no classes or races per se, but you can play any Specific weapon type that you like. May that be accesses, swords, all the usual weapons I am liking the guns so far. Now you run around you see a lot of other players This is an MMO on the PC. It is brand new and I like it so far The graphics are beautiful, but you can also turn down the graphics a bit so that your PC doesn't die Some people have gotten their graphics card fried from this game Rumors though cannot confirm that but rumors and it feels good It feels very polished and nice and I like the fact that you level up in the skills that you use the most so in that way it is just like Skyrim's level-up system in a way and I like it so far Just thought I would mention it and show you some gameplay of that game now I want to know if you play it. I've heard about it. I'm pretty new to the game I just needed this MMO right now I think even though I don't have the time to sit down with an MMO as much as I did when I was like 19 and playing World of Warcraft all day every day as I did But yeah, I would really like to see tiny hats play this game I know she is really into MMOs and Yeah, you can find me in the game if you want to sometimes just thought I would mention it Because it is something that I have tried and played lately. Oh Yeah Now the reason that you have come to this video, I'm sure it is I have started Nino Cuny 2 again on the switch And I got a review code. Thank you so much for the review code now Nino Cuny 2. I actually have that in physical Stuff always falls down when I do that. Okay, this game is now ported to the switch This game came out. It feels like five years ago, and it says 2018 You all know that I love Nino Cuny 1. I find Nino Cuny 1 to be a masterpiece It has all the elements like a wonderful big world this fairy tale like I don't know like way of telling a story and the story is just super Cozy and down to earth if I can say that about the story within a game, but it is and It is this Pokemon aspect where you collect all these small familiars and all of that I can only praise Nino Cuny 1 forever. I love that game the graphics the music the story the gameplay everything Everything is like 10 out of 10 sort of game. Now Nino Cuny 2 though on the other hand It had a lot to live up to for being Nino Cuny 2 now This is taking place in a different time era than number one So they are not related you can't jump into this one if you have never played or if you have played Nino Cuny 1 It doesn't matter because this is a separate sort of story now this time you are following along with a modern-day president that is Sucked back into this separate other world the other world where Nino Cuny is taking place and You meet let's pretend this guy is you I play as him mostly So I control him and I play him and I use him in battles. So I identify with this president That is sucked back. I mean not really back in time, but into this other world You meet Evan a child of sorts that is supposedly the king of the Kingdom, but the mice has killed the king and Evan is not able to step on the throne as he is supposed to So he's like screw everything. I'm gonna make my own kingdom and Rowland this president guy Which also turned younger by going into another world They become friends and Evan is starting up his own kingdom now this game starts off So good so good it starts off as a 10 out of 10 game But as you play as I play I realize it is not living up to Nino Cuny 1 Because they changed a lot of things now I don't know the budget on this title, but it is not as high in my opinion as Nino Cuny 1 So first of all, you no longer have familiars that we are familiar with We now have this small hibbidi-dobbidi things I don't remember what they were called but something like that and they are sort of replacing the familiars and I don't find that to be very enjoyable I preferred much preferred to the familiars and another thing is that Nino Cuny 2 is a sprinkling in a lot of other gameplay elements not only the traditional good old RPG that we are looking for But I am looking for anyway. They are sprinkling in sort of like Pikmin style-esque areas in a sort of like battle arena thing and Yeah, they're a minor complaint about the whole experience of the entire game But they were annoying enough sometimes in the story you are forced to do some of those sections And they are not enjoyable. There are also some puzzle sections. They are hard But not necessarily what I'm looking for when I have decided to sit down with an RPG I haven't decided to sit down with a puzzle game if that makes sense So I don't enjoy those sections either and you also have the town building aspect of the gameplay along with the other traditional Nino Cuny-esque gameplay things So there are several other like gameplay styles thrown into the mix And some of the good things from Nino Cuny 1 is ripped out like the familiars Now critique aside The graphics are beautiful, but the Switch version is struggling terribly much on the overworld map And I don't remember Nino Cuny 1 doing that. So it's a Nino Cuny 2 thing I think because I don't remember complaining about that in my review of Nino Cuny Which you can also have a look at just super struggles There are terrible frame drops in the overworld map. Let's just say and sometimes in handheld the entire game looks very blurry But these are graphical issues The music is good Oh god, I can't stop thinking about my cousin when he had his little youtube career when he reviewed games He was like the music is good The music was good history was good Music was good. It's a good game Good history Good music. Okay, so I can't say the music is good anymore without thinking about that He's taking a break from youtube. I think Anyways, but other than that, I find myself playing the game. I find myself playing the game Yeah, I play it up on the couch in the living room handheld preferably. I don't know. I enjoy handheld I've always done that That's not a thing my last video where I showed you my Gameboy Advance and DS and they're super beat up So many people in the comment section were like, what the freak? Have you done with your handhelds? Why are they so beat up? I have to say in my defense you have no idea how much I played on those Imagine playing on your Gameboy Advance from the age of 9 or 10 up to the age of 14 Every single day all day every day for several years That is how a Gameboy Advance turns out after a while. You have no idea how much I use that Every single day. I have been obsessed with gaming. I don't know what you thought of me But why else would I make a channel about gaming? I am obsessed I'm an obsessed person with games and I can't help myself So I just had to embrace it in a way. So I made a youtube channel about gaming But back to Nino Cuny 2. I recommend it still. It is not a 10 out of 10 game But it is super cute. The music is just as good as in Nino Cuny 1 I believe and I think the Switch version struggles So I would actually recommend the PS4 version still I went back to this one just to check and it looked super good Actually, but my final verdict is that it is not as good as Nino Cuny 1 But still worth it still good and I think you should try it and buy it Buy it and try it I play it Preferably don't get a big backlog guys. Play your games. When you buy a game play it Don't buy a new game until you've played some other games like you already want Don't get a big backlog Like I have I'm gonna make a backlog episode video later. I think Now I have two other games on the table We have Metroid Dread and I can talk a tiny bit about it I think I'm like three hours in and Metroid is hard It is a hard game if you don't have the patience and you kind of have to memorize patterns of the bosses and It is also sort of like a maze and it is 2d side scrolling platformery Which is not something that I'm particularly very fond of to begin with and Provided by bergsala nintendo. Thank you so much for sending this to me also Warrior wear get it together. I just got this. I'm looking forward to playing it So that is something that I will talk about later But I can already say that I recommend who are you where get it together because I played the demo and I Love warrior wear. I was very obsessed with the game with once warrior wear now Metroid Dread I have a friend. I have a neighbor actually That is also a friend and a neighbor and he can confirm that this game is a 10 out of 10 now Check out what he had to say Okay, I'm having a go at that. Yeah I should go Okay Ooh Metroid I know you will use it more than me. It's written in chozo. What can you say about Metroid? Well, it's a 10 out of 10 because I have just completed a game. Well, I have 100 percent items but I have the last boss. Okay. So you feel like it is a 10 out of 10 game? Absolutely. So old Metroid fans will be happy with this game I'm pretty sure you are an old Metroid fan. Absolutely. Okay, cool. So they have kept pure Metroid the spirit alive So he was very happy with this game. He is a big fan of castlevania and Metroid and take his word for it I trust his judgment and so should you if you are into the genre If you love Metroid to begin with it is a solid game and everyone is saying it too So, yeah, Metroid Dread it is not necessarily a game for me, but I'm trying so Thank you again Nintendo for sending that to me I don't know how long I'm gonna have this video, but I have a few small fun things Which is a package from Vernon Slayton and I am looking forward to seeing what you have sent me this time Undercup things Undercup things guys. I don't know the name of these things. I made my own name With some characters on there that I don't recognize immediately Vanished sir sir verne productions. Did you make a game? Trey Slayton my good friend and subscriber. He made a game. There's a little manual inside So cute story sir verne awoke to chaos one full morning Sounds like me today. Oh my god program used rpg maker msat. Thank you so much Oh my god So these are probably the characters from your game though. Then thank you That was actually super surprising. I didn't see that one coming creating your own game Let me know if anyone else has created their own game. I could give them a mention Now some other people that actually created a game. I have a note here that was sent to me I have to include this. Sorry.  They were practically saying that we're yeah I'm not sure how to pronounce the game. That is kind of embarrassing, but it is coco pa I think and it says isha. Thank you so much for the interest in coco pa Now coco pa is a game that reminds me of dragon quest builders 2 with cats And it is sort of like it has all the elements that we love that I know you guys love to like Collecting and crafting and building and firing and you know leveling up stuff But you are a cat. So they sent me a card and a pin and I say thank you so much. I am looking forward to your game I'm excited for it. Now the video is getting too long and I have to say thank you so much for being subscribed And I hope I will see you later. Leave a comment down below of Anything that you have in your in your mind on your mind And I will try to reply to as many comments as I can as I usually do As I usually do. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you later Bye guys. Oh, maybe I should have a thumbnail Oh, I'm just taking something from the video Bye Hey Stefan, I have another gift for you Well, okay, let's see what it is and this is from someone in Norway I will leave links down below, but I think you will need this. Oh, this is a video call stand This one actually looks small and decent So there's also yours. Thank you. Thank you Let's try to use it I use it Oh Can you? No, we have to open it The last Isha game collection Hey, buddy