Explaining divergent outcomes of the Arab Spring: the significance of gender and women's mobilizations

The Arab Spring has been extensively analyzed but the presence or absence of violent protests and the divergent outcomes of the uprising that encompassed the Arab region have not been explained in terms of the salience of gender and women's mobilizations. I argue that women's legal status,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Politics, groups & identities groups & identities, 2018-10, Vol.6 (4), p.666-681
Main Author: Moghadam, Valentine M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arab Spring
Collective action
Comparative studies
Democratization
Demonstrations & protests
Gender
Legal status
Nonviolence
Oppression
outcomes
Victims
violence
Women
women's mobilizations
women's rights
Womens rights
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Summary:The Arab Spring has been extensively analyzed but the presence or absence of violent protests and the divergent outcomes of the uprising that encompassed the Arab region have not been explained in terms of the salience of gender and women's mobilizations. I argue that women's legal status, social positions, and collective action prior to the Arab Spring helped shape the nature of the 2011 mass protests as well as the political and social outcomes of individual countries. I compare and contrast two sets of cases: Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, which saw non-violent protests and relatively less repression on the part of the state; and Bahrain, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, where states responded to the protests, whether violent or non-violent, with force and repression, and where women and their rights have been among the principal victims. I also show why women fared worse in Egypt than in Morocco and Tunisia.
ISSN:2156-5503
2156-5511
DOI:10.1080/21565503.2016.1256824