The Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination's Project on Gender in the Global Community co-sponsored a lecture and discussion, "The Arab Spring and Women's Rights," on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. at the UN North Lawn Building (CR 6). The featured speaker was Alison Boden, Dean of Religious Life and the Chapel at Princeton University, who discussed ways in which the extraordinary political events in the MENA region since February 2011 have opened new opportunities related to women’s human rights and women's participation in political processes, but have also created new challenges and threats.

A webcast of the event is available.

The event is part of a series of lectures and panels on the UN's Women, Peace, and Security Agenda, organized by LISD's Project on Gender in the Global Community, the Permanent Mission of Liechtenstein to the United Nations, and the PeaceWomen Project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

The Rev. Dr. Alison Boden is Dean of Religious Life and of the Chapel at Princeton University, a position she has held since August 2007. Previously, she served twelve years as Dean of Rockefeller Memorial Chapel and Senior Lecturer in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago, and as co-chair of its Human Rights Program board. Boden is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and served as the Protestant chaplain at Union College as well as the University Chaplain for Bucknell University before joining the University of Chicago in 1995. She received her A.B. from Vassar College, her M.Div. at Union Theological Seminary, and her Ph.D. from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. She has authored numerous articles and chapters on religion in addition to a book, Women's Rights and Religious Practice (Palgrave 2007). At Princeton and Chicago her course offerings have included such topics as religion and human rights, the rights of women, and religion and violence.

Boden has participated in a variety of capacities with numerous non-governmental organizations, including Religions for Peace, the Institute for Global Engagement, UNFPA, the Parliament of the World's Religions, and the Carter Center, particularly on the topic of women of faith as intentional agents of peacebuilding and security.