As a 22-year-old still living at home with her family in Chicago, college student Ala’a Basatneh doesn’t seem like a typical revolutionary. 

Born in Syria, Basatneh moved to the U.S. at a young age and grew up as an ordinary suburban teenager. But after hearing about a group of Syrian children being brutally punished for writing anti-government slogans on their school walls, she used Facebook to contact Syrian protesters, joining the revolution from 6,000 miles away.

Algeria has appointed three women army Generals, therefore becoming the Arab country with the biggest number of high-ranking female army commanders, Al Arabiya News Channel reported on Tuesday.

The nomination of the three generals, whose names were not revealed, come as part of a move seen as a sign of the liberalization of Algeria’s closed military organization.

A fourth general was appointed by the Algerian President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika in Nov. 2010 as the first general of the Armée Nationale Populaire (ANP) or People’s National Army.

Tunisian civil society activist Ahlem Hachicha and University of Tunis El Manar professor Fatima Radhouani talk to Marwan Bishara about the achievements for women in the Arab world.

We invite our users to watch the video published on July 6th 2014.

While Lebanon suffers from a paucity of female politicians, establishing a quota is not the only way to bolster women’s participation in the political sphere, say members of UNDP’s Lebanese Electoral Assistance Program.

Parties from all across the political spectrum acknowledge the need to include more women in Lebanese politics, but agreeing what steps to take toward that end have proved more difficult said Richard Chambers, the Chief Technical Adviser at LEAP.