This volume of Tebaa discusses one of the most affected topics in all societies; the education. The importance of education is represented in being one of the important components of the cultural discourse, which in return forms the gender relations within societies. When Tebaa tackles the issue of education it is not limited to the traditional definition of education – i.e. the education forms in educational institutions such as schools, communities and literacy classes – but it surpasses this limit to reach the more comprehensive definition that involves training the elder in different fields including society’s service and in the human rights field.
 

This volume starts by presenting a field study which tackles the problems and obstacles that are faced by literacy female averagely-educated teachers in some rural societies. The importance of this study is in its introduction to real recommendations like raising the level of literacy programs, for the purpose of empowering women in them.
 

The volume also reviews a workshop in which the NWF participated in 1990. Tebaa has chosen to review this workshop in this volume for many reasons among them: (1) revealing the NWF’s interest in woman’s education issues (2) serving as a reminder of what should be done in the field of literacy for women in the following stages, especially under the circumstances of raising illiteracy ratios in Egypt until today. The detailed review of the workshop has revealed that all male and female participants were keen on linking theory and application.
 

Regarding illiteracy and education, and their relation to the labor market in the Arab world, the Arab Monetary Fund submits a development report which proves thorough statistics on the low status of women in the labor market, despite the notable improvement of interest education for females. This in return leads to creating gaps in the economic and social positions of males and females. The report also focuses on the relation of the widening of such educational and economical gaps regarding the positions of the different Arab countries. It is done in an attempt to assure the importance of education and the improvement of the economic positions in achieving justice and equality between the sexes in the labor market.
 

The study “The Importance of the Feminist Studies in Egyptian Universities from the Gender Perspective”, is based on a historical approach, focusing on following up the origin and development of women’s studies in Egyptian universities. The study also traces the effect of these studies in forming the feminist consciousness, necessary for the women’s movement that is entrusted with the goal of a Women’s Renaissance.
 

The book The Creation of New Egyptian Woman, also uses the historical approach to trace the beginnings and the developments of female education in Egypt. This book concludes that the issues of female education in Egypt are related to the general economic and political philosophies of the state. Such is, for example, the imitation of the west, the creation new markets with new commodities, or, following national policies against the West.
 

On the other hand, the research paper “Gender, Time and Place: Woman and High Education” stresses the obstacles faced by women – especially black women– in the higher- education institutes of the USA. That in turn assures non-growing of the feminist consciousness.
 

Moreover, the research “Women in Academy: Opinions from South/ East” presents the deep vision through field studies on women’s positions in South East Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong). It looks at the different academic degrees: from students, professors and those of higher degrees. Tebaa has chosen this research in particular as it is characterized by seriousness in conducting the scientific field research. The research is also characterized by a deep awareness of the main issues and concepts that may affect the topics of scientific research. Such is done by conducting methods and results, by contrasting the local issues against the global ones, as well as, the feminism issues.
 

The book Women in Academy: Gender and Academic Freedom tackles the same topic of women in the academy. This book is characterized by the diversity of women’s experiences in different African countries within the academic field. The book also presents the problems and obstacles they usually face, which are related to the political systems in these countries; security interventions in the universities’ affairs, or related to political and social trends against the rise of women’s roles in academy and in the whole society.

The research paper entitled “Human Rights Organizations and Education on Women’s Rights” presents a more comprehensive vision on education. The paper tackles the topic of education which is not linked to the traditional educational institutions such as schools and universities, but rather women’s rights and gender issues as part of the human rights education. In addition, the research presents a very pessimistic vision – but unfortunately it is also very realistic – concerning the role of human rights organizations in education, on women’s rights.
 

Another research paper shows a non-traditional vision for the elder education. This study presents different methods for elder education; including training on human rights and gender issues, training on the forms of film, in addition to the traditional method of literacy classes. Moreover, this paper includes a number of case studies which reveal very real representations of the elder education efforts and its obstacles.