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United Arab Emirates

Barany, Zoltan, Why Have Three Gulf States Introduced the Draft?, The RUSI Journal, Vol. 16, 2017, pp. 16-26

An analysis of the factors that have led to Kuwait, the UAE and Qatar introducing conscription for their armed forces. Barany argues that conscription is a response to emerging security needs, but is also designed to strengthen the link between state and citizen.

Brock, Hannah, The Return of Conscription?, War Resisters' International, 2018

The author, a full time worker at War Resisters' International with a focus on support for conscientious objectors to military service, discusses whether the previous trend towards the abolition of conscription around the world is being reversed. She notes that it has been reintroduced in Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania and Kuwait (after a short period when it was not in force) and introduced for the first time by Qatar and the United Arab Emirates; in total over 100 states practice, responding with varying degrees of harshness to objectors. Most states impose conscription for men, but both Norway and Sweden (where it h ad been reintroduced) extend it to women. The article discusses the varying regional security situations, which influence states to use conscription and carrying rounds for exemption.

Svetlova, Ksenia, Rising from ashes of Arab Spring, women lead a first Muslim feminist revolution, Times of Israel, 2019

Highlights important challenges that women face in the Kurdish part of Syria; Tunisia; Morocco; Egypt; and the Persian Gulf in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.