Seeking dignity and freedom, Syrian women are fighting a war on three fronts today. Along the men in the opposition, they are fighting the regime for freedom and democracy; also with men they are fighting the Islamists to maintain their rights to equal citizenship. Internally, they are fighting their colleagues in the opposition to gain equal representation. Women continue to pressure the three fronts along with the international community to advance their political rights. Despite their despair, women continue the fight knowing that neither the regime nor the opposition will pay attention to advancing women’s rights. Why and how women continue the fight is the focus of this paper. Women continue the fight because they feel ownership of this revolution. The Syrian revolution has been labeled as the “Women’s Revolution” and women are not about to give up this claim any time soon. They claim this revolution to be theirs because women are present in every aspect of it. Between 2011 and 2012, the role of Syrian women has evolved from organizing protests to leading local coordinating councils in liberated areas. With the development of the conflict in 2013, they assumed more critical roles in providing humanitarian and medical assistance, providing media reporting as well as security and economic assistance. Women have taken on the responsibility of distributing desperately needed food and medical supplies and they are often the ones who provide medical assistance to the wounded due to the lack of safety in local hospitals. Likewise, security is often easier for women, as several forces have allowed female activists to smuggle supplies and food to those in need. Women have also filled the void in media coverage of the revolution by secretly filming demonstrations, documenting human rights violations and uploading these videos and information to the internet. More actively, women have opened up their homes to fleeing activists and refugees. Within the political and economic sector, women have initiated various coalitions to unite minorities and raise funds for the opposition.

Algerian women navigate through authoritarianism Algerians learned in their Arab Spring in the 1990s that an alliance with the military-backed regime is more preferable than falling under the Shari’a ruling of the Islamists. As agents of change since Algeria’s struggle for independence from France in the 1950s, Algerian women have launched a strong alliance with President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika to advance their rights. As strong feminists, business oriented, and firm believers in promoting equality of all Algerians, Algerian women support Bouteflika’s socio-economic campaign because they believe that it guarantees the advancement of women’s rights and prevents the Islamists from taking over. Bouteflika came to power in 1999 as Algeria was trying to heal after a civil war that left over 200,000 dead in the 1990s. Although the Islamists won in Algeria’s first democratic election since its independence, neither the Algerians nor the regime were ready to relinquish power to the Islamists who threatened to take Algeria back to the middle ages. Today, Bouteflika’s authoritarian rule has been challenged by many disgruntled Algerians who have economic grievances and wish to see a regime change. However, many Algerians have abandoned the urge to join their neighbors in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya to remove him. To them, Bouteflika’s secular policies are the strongest weapon they can use to counter Algerian Islamist political agenda and to promote women’s rights outside Shari’a law. This study is based on nine interviews with women conducted in Algiers and Oran, and academic historiography on Algeria.

The upsurge in citizen’s rights campaigns across the Middle East since the start of the Arab Spring in 2011 have focused media and scholarly attention on the role of social media in facilitating processes of social change (Dabashi, 2012; Noueihed & Warren, 2012), referred to as technological determinism (Harrison & Hirst, 2007; Vince & Earnshaw, 1999), or alternately, to the role of human agency in bringing about social change . However, the Arab Spring has also highlighted the role of women in the new social movements and revived feminist debate over the primacy of women’s rights versus citizenship rights in processes of social transformation (Naib, 2011; Wolf, 2011). The case of women's online activism in Lebanon offers new insights into both the technology and social change debate and the women’s rights versus citizenship rights debate. This paper presents the findings of the research project “Social Media, Social Movements, Social Change: The Case of the Lebanese Women’s Movement” and asks: is women’s online activism a new wave of Lebanese feminism? In order to answer this question, the paper considers the history of the Lebanese women’s movement and considers recent online campaigns for women's nationality rights, the reform of personal status codes, civil marriage and the importance of secularism in contemporary women’s rights discourses in Lebanon. The paper concludes with some reflections on the possibility of a revolution postponed by the deteriorating security situation in Lebanon. Bibliography Dabashi, H. (2012). The Arab Spring: The End of Postcolonialism. London and New York: Zed Books. Harrison, J., & Hirst, M. (2007). Communication and New Media: From Broadcast to Narrowcast. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Naib, F. (2011, February 2011). Women of the revolution : Egyptian women describe the spirit of Tahrir and their hope that the equality they found there will live on. Retrieved June 4, 2012, from http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/02/2011217134411934738.html Noueihed, L., & Warren, A. (2012). The Battle for the Arab Spring: Revolution, Counter-Revolution and the Making of a New Era. New Haven: Yale University Press. Vince, J., & Earnshaw, R. A. (1999). Digital convergence : the information revolution. London ; New York: Springer. Wolf, N. (2011, March 2011). The Middle East feminist revolution: Women are not merely joining protests to topple dictators, they are at the centre of demanding social change. Retrieved June 4, 2012, from http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/03/201134111445686926.html

The participation of women in the male-centred Arab Spring drew considerable attention, given most of the societies involved adhere to a largely patriarchal power structure. In Saudi Arabia, many men and women, inspired by the uprisings in neighbouring Arab countries, attempted to negotiate power and space to change existing political and social norms (including gender norms). However, it is particularly notable that women’s movements comprised most of the Saudi protests during the Arab Spring (though not without resistance). Reforms led by King Abdullah have realized some of these demands, but not all. This article focuses on some female activists’ efforts to gain freedom of movement by analysing the campaign to lift the ban on women driving. This article is epistemologically based on Judith Butler’s performative agency. Butler’s theory presumes that gender is performed, and that this performance constantly renews a set of relations and practices. However, performative power may be exercised in multiple directions. Some women may aspire to equality with men, but, as Deniz Kandiyoti points out, women may also bargaining with patriarchy in that they may strategically operate within the constraints of patriarchal society to maximize security and optimize life options. This study, therefore, also pays attention to the theoretical frameworks of Deniz Kandiyoti’s patriarchal bargaining. This study attempts to illuminate women’s agency, strategy, and accommodation by examining a series of driving campaigns inspired by the Arab Spring. Importantly, it also gives voice to the silent majority by analysing the reactions of Saudi women who did not participate in the protests.

On Sunday, January 26, 2014, the Tunisian National Constituent Assembly (NCA) members celebrated the adoption of a new Tunisian Constitution – the second constitution in the history of the postcolonial state. The document was approved by 200 of the 216 parliamentarians. One of its remarkable features is the statement on equality between men and women. Article 46 states: “The state guarantees equal opportunities between men and women in the bearing of all the various responsibilities in all fields. The state seeks to achieve equal representation for women and men in elected council (parity). The state takes the necessary measures to eliminate violence against women.” The emphasis on gender equality is especially striking when we compare developments in Tunisia to those in other countries that have also experienced the Arab Spring. Although it met with near consensus in the final text of the new Constitution, the discourse on gender did not come without fierce struggles, however. This paper considers the struggles and debates that preceded the adoption of such a discourse. It shows how, after the fall of the authoritarian regime in 2011, women’s groups made demands upon the new regime and voiced their concerns in new ways that have profoundly influenced the tenor of debates about gender politics in the country. A theoretical claim of the paper is that we can only understand developments in Tunisia in light of 1) the emergence of a vibrant civil society despite attempts at establishing again tight state control in the short run; and 2) the history of associations in the country over the long run.