This paper answers important questions about causes for which Arab women fought, ideologies in which they believed, manners by which they expressed their agency, and strategies through which they utilized space and mobilized followers. As for demands, and in addition to challenging the status quo and fighting against totalitarian regimes, Arab women fought for their political, economic, legal and social rights. Sexual rights were also among the causes for which women fought to curb patriarchal and social structures’ long oppression of women, children and sexual minorities. Likewise, ideologies and beliefs are among the most important resources that social movement actors mobilize to influence the masses. Motivated by their own convictions of how things should be, or what is fair or equitable, women internalized their commitment to gender legal equality, nonviolence, secularism, religiosity, and feminism. Although some were influenced by Western political, gender or economic ideological trends, most women’s beliefs were embedded in the socio-political environment in which they lived and against which they protested. The ways women expressed their agency were diverse. Arab women applied creative means and cultural nuances to advocate for social change. While tweets and graffiti became popular forms of self-expression during the Arab Spring, other women expressed their activism through drawing, music, film-making, photography, and poetry. They also utilized space strategically to Mobilize. Arab women navigated numerous alternative spaces to make their claim and build their movements away from power centers. Finally, how women organized matters. The debate in the social movement literature on whether disruptive tactics are more likely to have an impact than moderate actions is far from consensual. While disruptive tactics are more likely to produce comprehensive change, they are harder to organize and achieve. Alternatively, moderate actions, such as negotiations and calls for reform, are easier to achieve but less likely to produce a significant impact. Women’s activism during the Arab Spring varied tremendously in context and consequences. Some organized widely to challenge authorities and modify oppressive norms; others focused on changing regimes. Women organized to build alliances, launch campaigns, seek reform, and sustain social and political change.

The Arab Spring: Questions for Gender Politics This paper considers theoretical and empirical questions that emerge from the Arab Spring in regard to gender politics. Hoping that the presence of women during and after the protests puts to rest orientalist representations of gender, feminist scholars should now be in a position to move away from having to refute these representations – an endeavor which has occupied many for a long time. Time has come to move forward, as the Arab Spring opens up a host of new questions. Some of the questions concern agency and source of change. Historically in the Middle East and North Africa, change in women’s rights was often initiated by state reformers, sometimes in alliance with women’s rights advocates. The Arab Spring has revealed the power of women’s agency in its own right. We now need to understand better which women were at the forefront of the demands for change in different countries, how they organized themselves collectively, how they framed their demands, and the conditions for success, or on the contrary, disappointments. The Arab Spring also leaves us with queries about what women have gained from it and what major issues they still face in different ways in different countries. Focusing on future research, the paper identifies possible lines of inquiry.

How have norms towards gender equality in the Arab world changed across the last ten years? Across the Arab region we’ve seen noticeable changes in attitudes towards gender equality especially in the sphere of politics. More people across all Arab countries believe that women can assume leadership roles. However, growing levels of support for political leadership are not associated with egalitarian norms towards female leadership capabilities. Majorities across the region still believe that men make better political leaders than women. Further, women are still seen as inferior to men in many other social arenas. What explains these paradoxical findings? Which subsets of the population have made the greatest advancements in altering perceptions about gender egalitarianism? And among which segments have we witnessed stagnation? This paper will discuss these patterns by examining ten years of data from the Arab Barometer surveys.

Launching the first Gender Studies Program in the conservative university of Fez was quite a challenge. Obstacles and glass ceilings come to mind: What to call the Unit in Arabic? What to include in it? How to legitimize the program as worthy of academic attention? The university finally settled on dirasat al-ajnas (Study of Genres) as the closest to what would constitute an “acceptable” name, a name we had to accept lest the program be refused.We also agreed to link the contents to our own specializations and avoid “taboo” topics like homosexuality or sexuality altogether.. The whole experience has been some kind of university activism that is now changing minds in ways we did not think were possible!