BEYOND THE ARAB UPRISINGS : WOMEN ACTIVISM and SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN MENA REGION SINCE 2011

1. BEYOND THE ARAB UPRISINGS: WOMEN ACTIVISM and SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN MENA REGION SINCE 2011 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nur KÖPRÜLÜ

2. Impact of Orientalism • As Simon Bromely (1997) notes the conventional view that: “democracies are strangers to the Middle East ... the limited post-independence experiments with democratic politics did not survive, the rise of nationalist forces seeking modernization and independence, were thwarted by monarchical rule and oil wealth”. (p. 329 in Beverley Milton-Edwards, Politics in Contemporary Middle East)

3. ExceptionalismSalamé, 1994 • The culturalist (on the basis of Muslim political culture) arguments then lead to a concept of exceptionalism. “The idea of an Arab or Islamic exceptionalism has thus re-emerged among both western proponents of universal democracy and established orientalists, and this in turn has encouraged a great many local apologists of cultural authenticity in their rejection of western models of government” (Salamé, 1994)

4. For Simon Bromely “the relative absence of democracy in the Middle East has little to do with the region’s Islamic culture and much to do with its particular pattern of state formation”

5. For Heydemann; “authoritarian upgrading involves reconfiguring authoritarian governance to accommodate and manage changing political, economic, and social conditions.

6. Edward Said and understanding “the East” – the Orient … • Is it an exceptional region? • Twenty-five years after the publication of his post-colonial classic, Orientalism Edward Said argues that “humanist understanding is now more urgently required than ever before”. • The Middle East exceptionalism and cultural authenticity has been discussed and questioned by Said and others.

7. Why Middle East is important!Wars and conflicts in last century • Orientalism is a book tied to the tumultuous dynamics of contemporary history. • Arab-Israeli Wars (1948-49 & 1967) ; Coup d’état in Egypt, Jordanian civil war • Its first page opens with a description of 15 years of Lebanese civil war that ended in 1989-1990, but the violence and the conflicts and sectarian cleavages continues till today. • The failure of the Oslo Peace Process (1993), the outbreak of the second intifada, and the suffering of the Palestinians on West Bank and Gaza. • The events of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath in the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq  War on Terror Campaign and polarization • Us (those supporting the campaign) vs them (the Others) • Islamophobia

8. 2011 ARAB UPRISINGS

9. The social movements that first erupted in Tunisia and spread out to Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Libya and Syria have clearly heralded a process of transformation within the structures of Arab regimes and their legitimacies in the region. • Nothwithstanding the different nature of the regimes and their political structures in MENA region, there existed common reasons that led to a public outcry in the Arab world.

10. WOMEN of the UPRISINGS • Mehrezia Labidi came to hold the position as the Deputy Speaker of the Tunisian National Assembly following the election of Al-Nahda in the first democratic elections in Tunisia after the Jasmine Revolution in October 2011. • The Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Tawakul Karman.

11. Resistant to gender equality • Public opinion surveys, including the World Values Survey, the Arab Barometer and the Arab Transformation Survey, suggest that the majority of citizens are “still resistant to gender equality”. • While there are considerable differences between Arab countries, when it comes to gender issues, conservative values are deeply entrenched, perhaps even more since the 2011 uprisings.

12. For some scholars like Huntington; Islam itself is often identified as the cause of this resistance. Some even identify a “clash of civilisations” between the West and the Islamic world, with the way women and girls are treated as proof of “backwardness” and “barbarism.” • But the lack of progress on equality between men and women is the product of external as well as internal factors, including the lack of political alternatives to Islamism and the way in which women’s equality agendas are disregarded by autocratic regimes.

13. During the Arab Spring, what protesters demanded was not just the removal of corrupt leaders, but an end to a system based on increasing economic injustice and political marginalization, and held together by repression. • “Gender equality” is an essential part of achieving that goal.

14. Patriarchal attitudes persist not because Islam is incompatible with gender equality, but because in most Arab countries since the 1970s, progressive forces have been undermined by supposedly "secular” regimes. • Surveys show that conservative gender attitudes are entrenched, but also that people remain profoundly dissatisfied with their ruling elites for precisely the same reasons for which they protested in 2010-2011.

15. On the whole, the regional average for women’s representation in parliament has increased since the beginning of the Arab uprisings.

16. Arab Spring/Uprising/Revolts • The Arab Spring/Uprising/Revolution will go down in contemporary history as the season of short-lived hopes and aspirations of a people, both men and women, who wanted dignity and change. • They sought freedom, respect for human rights, the rule of law and accountability.

17. Women in the region were advocates for such reform, but more than four years after the Arab uprisings began, many of their desires have yet to be achieved. • Despite escalating turmoil and the rise of extremist groups in the region, women have maintained their focus and continue to fight for greater rights.

18. We are seeing that although women supported the Arab uprisings, it appears the Arab uprisings did not support women(Esfandiari & Heidman). • The number of women participating in drafting the new Egyptian constitution was minimal (women and youth shared 10% of the drafting committee’s representation). • Egypt also, for example, abolished its quota for women’s parliamentary seats, which reduced women’s representation from 12% in the 2010 parliament to less than 2% of seats before the 2012 parliament was dissolved.

19. Women’s involvement • Following the overthrow of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in 2011, Tunisia elected the National Constituent Assembly and more than 20% of the deputies were women. • Since the uprisings, Tunisia and Morocco have implemented gender parity in nominations. • Algeria also has a parliamentary quota and ranking on nomination lists for women’s seats, which means that women now hold 146 parliamentary seats (more than 31%). • After Libya’s 2012 elections, 33 women held seats in its 200-member parliament. • Source: https://www.iemed.org/observatori/arees-danalisi/arxius-adjunts/anuari/med.2015/IEMed%20Yearbook%202015_Panorama_WomenAfterArabUprisings_HalehEsfandiariKendraHeideman.pdf

20. Global Gender Gap Index • On the downside, the Global Gender Gap Index (in which higher numbers indicate a worsening of women’s conditions) ranked • the UAE at 115 in 2014, down from 103 in 2010; • Tunisia at 123, down from 107; and • Yemen at 142, down from 134.1 • The figures for women’s employment, on the other hand, are mixed. According to World Bank statistics, Syria and Algeria – at 13% and 15% respectively – have the lowest rate of female employment; • the figures are much better for the smaller Persian Gulf states, with Qatar at 51%, the UAE at 47%, and Kuwait at 44%. • For details please see; source: https://www.iemed.org/observatori/arees-danalisi/arxius-adjunts/anuari/med.2015/IEMed%20Yearbook%202015_Panorama_WomenAfterArabUprisings_HalehEsfandiariKendraHeideman.pdf

21. Algeria has one of the lowest rates for employment of women, but the highest percentage of women in Parliament in 2015 (31.6%), followed by Tunisia with 68 women Members of Parliament (31.3%). • Yemen and Oman, with one woman in Parliament each, are at the bottom of the list.

22. The parties that came to power after the Arab uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia did not exactly open up the gates to women. • In Tunisia, however, the Islamist Ennahda Party quickly discovered that women activists and society as a whole would resist such new impositions on women. • In Libya, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and other countries in the MENA region, the Sharia remains the dominant source of law where women’s rights are concerned.

23. TUNISIA • Tunisia provided another example of women’s active participation. • As the protests gathered pace across Tunis, women took to the streets demanding political freedom as well as responding to rising unemployment, corruption and unsustainable food prices. • Additionally there were calls for women’s rights to be honored, for the personal status code to be upheld and enforced and for women to be allowed greater political involvement in their country.

24. Gender Equality Gap Index • Overall, the performance of countries across the region is somewhat more divergent than in other world regions. • In addition to Israel, which maintains a remaining overall gender gap of 28%, the region’s best-performing countries this year are Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, having closed 65%, 64% and 63%, respectively, of their overall gender gaps. • Source: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2018/middle-east-and-north-africa/

28. The lower end of the regional table is made up of Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which have closed 57%, 55% and 50% of their overall gender gaps, respectively. • Source: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2018/middle-east-and-north-africa/

29. Another cluster of countries consists of Jordan (138), Oman (139) and Lebanon(140). • The overall performances of Jordan and Lebanon remain largely unchanged, despite Lebanon’s minimal progress on the ratio of women in parliament. • Oman re-enters the Index this year, with a larger gender gap than previously recorded in 2016, mostly due to a wider gap on the Economic Participation and Opportunity sub-index. • Source: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2018/middle-east-and-north-africa/

30. THANK YOU!