1. Introduction: The Arab Uprisings and the Rights of Women
Drude DAHLERUP and Hanane DARHOUR
Part I: Women’s Rights, Feminism and Islamism
2. The Center: A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Women’s Rights in Pre- and Post-Arab Spring North Africa
Fatima SADIQI
3. Whose Gender Equality? On the Boundaries of Islam and Feminism in the MENA Region
Ilyass BOUZGHAIA
Part II: Post-Spring Dynamics and Feminist Norm Diffusion
4. Cultural Change in North Africa: the Interaction Effect of Women’s Empowerment and Democratization
Ginger FEATHER
5. Changing Tides? On How Popular Support for Feminism increased after the Arab Spring
Saskia GLAS and Niels SPIERINGS
Part III: Women’s Activism and the Reconfigured State
6. Women’s Activism in North Africa in Post Arab Spring
Moha ENNAJI
7. Political Opportunities for Islamist Women in Morocco and Egypt
Anwar MHAJNE
8. Contrasting Women’s Rights in the Maghreb and the Middle East Constitutions
Aili Mari TRIPP
Part IV: Empowered or Sidelined? On Women’s Political Representation and Influence
9. Examining Female Membership and Leadership of Legislative Committees in Jordan
Marwa SHALABY and Laila ELIMAM
10. Empowering young women? Gender and youth quotas in Tunisia
Jana BELSCHNER
11. Whose Empowerment? Gender Quota Reform Mechanisms and De-democratization in Morocco
Hanane DARHOUR
Hanane Darhour is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Languages, Arts and Human Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Morocco. She is the author of Implementation of Electoral Gender Quotas: Evidence from the 2002 Moroccan Elections (2012).
Drude Dahlerup is Professor of Political Science at Stockholm University, Sweden, and Honorary Professor at Roskilde University, Denmark. She has published extensively on gender and politics, gender quota systems, the history of women’s movements, and theories of feminism, including Has Democracy Failed Women? (2018).
While the Arab Uprisings presented new opportunities for the empowerment of women, the sidelining of women remains a constant risk in the post-revolutionist MENA countries. Changes in the position of women are crucial to the reconfiguration of state-society relations and to the discussions between Islamist and secular trends. Theoretically framed and based on new empirical data, this edited volume explores women’s activism and political representation as well as discursive changes, with a particular focus on secular and Islamic feminism, and changes in popular opinions on women’s position in society. While the contributors express optimistic as well as more pessimistic views for the future, they agree that this is a period of uncertainty for women in the region, and that support by ruling elites towards women’s rights remains ambiguous and double-edged.
Hanane Darhour is Associate Professor at the Polydisciplinary Faculty of Ouarzazate, Ibn Zohr University, Morocco. She is the author of Implementation of Electoral Gender Quotas: Evidence from the 2002 Moroccan Elections (2012).
Drude Dahlerup is Professor of Political Science at Stockholm University, Sweden, and Honorary Professor at Roskilde University, Denmark. She has published extensively on gender and politics, gender quota systems, the history of women’s movements, and theories of feminism, including Has Democracy Failed Women? (2018).