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Cairene Women, Graffiti, and Online Social Networks: Pinterest as a Platform for Social, Political, and Religious Reform Efforts
Abstract
Through an unparalleled explosion of street art and graffiti campaigns during and after the 25 January 2011 uprising in Egypt, many public spaces in the capital city of Cairo became symbols of women’s revolt against the state. These spaces resembled open-air galleries showcasing street art on a wide range of social, political, and religious issues—women’s resistance to societal pressures and daily humiliation, existing power and gender dynamics, and political and religious injustices. However, many of these iconic graffiti images have been erased or modified and no longer exist on the walls around Cairo. They have, nevertheless, been immortalized in pictures and videos, especially on online social networks (OSNs). OSNs have become popular platforms for people to connect and interact with each other. Among these networks, Pinterest, a popular social curation site where people collect, organize, and share pictures of items, has recently become noteworthy for its growth and promotion of visual over textual content. In this study I perform a rhetorical analysis of the graffiti created by women in Cairo, during and after the 25 January 2011 uprising, that are recorded in two Pinterest boards titled “Egypt Graffiti” and “Women Graffiti Art and Artists #MENA.” The purpose of this study is to: (a) discover what is constructed in the graffiti about women’s social, political, and religious agency in Cairene society; (b) examine the role of Pinterest in aiding women’s social, political, and religious reform efforts in Arab societies, in this case, Cairo; and (c) examine the role of Pinterest in challenging Western stereotypes about Arab-Egyptian women’s agency and offering a new way of viewing Arab-Egyptian women’s reform efforts in contemporary Cairo.
Discipline
Other
Geographic Area
Egypt
Sub Area
Gender/Women's Studies