Article

Women After the Arab Spring

Posted: 03/16/2012 6:30 pm

The Arab Spring continues to blow winds of change in the Middle East. There is no doubt the direction these countries are heading in will affect Arab societies and personal rights. But recently, the focus has been on women in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

Women have been visible on the streets in countries like Jordan, where the government scrapped an article in the Public Assembly Law requiring consent to hold rallies. Women have taken to the streets to call for more personal rights -- like the rights of Jordanian women to pass on their citizenship to their non-Jordanian spouses and children.

Women were also involved in protests in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia. But their efforts and momentum, like the liberal protestors who spent days in Tahrir Square bringing down a regime, have yet to be transferred into leadership roles that are directing the future of countries. Although an internal barrier of fear was partly lifted during the revolutions, political roles have not kept pace. Female representation in parliaments after the Arab Spring has been either absent or obsolete. In Kuwait, the latest Parliamentary electionsresulted in a male-dominated chamber. In Egypt, women only make up 2 percent of the newly formed parliament.

An appointed National Dialogue Committee to overhaul the electoral system in Jordan included only a few women and many assailed a broken promise by the committee to include the word "gender" in Article 6, concerning equality of all Jordanians.

Many women I interviewed across the region spoke to me with some excitement about people finally having a voice. But many women continue to say they fear their individual rights will slowly vanish and economic disintegration will increase crime and chaos.

Last month at The Doha Debates, an initiative by the Qatar Foundation and moderated by Tim Sebastian, the topic revolved around women after the revolutions. Iman Bibars, an Egyptian, working with nonprofit organizations, argued with the motion that women are worse off after the revolutions: "There have been millions of households in low-income urban areas [in Egypt]. They're being harassed. This is where I work. I work with 100,000 of these women, and they're being asked to stay at home..."

Although the overwhelming majority of the audience voted against the motion, there was perhaps a misunderstanding among audience members that the lives of women were 'good' in the Mideast before the revolutions. The truth is dictatorship can't be good- - neither for women or men. Lack of press freedom and debate, education based on rote learning and memorization and the lack of citizenship cannot build nations.

As Arabs attempt to find their voice and in some cases their political identity, social conservatism seems to be on the rise. Mothers, daughters, and sisters in more rural areas are being punished for the way they dress and for their livelihoods. But in countries with authoritarian leaders -- Libya, Tunisia, Egypt -- who ruled and punished their people for decades, unlocking patriarchy and oppression may take years of debate and social democracy -- not only political democracy.

The question remains if women -- who make up half of society -- will transfer their voices from the streets to political positions and concrete actions or be left behind? The answer is blowing in the wind.

Chapter 23

This chapter main focus is on the struggles of independence in South Africa and how it compares to the situation in India gaining independence as well. Nelson Mandela was a significant figure in Africa, he always fought against white domination as well as black domination. Nelson Mandela became South Africa's nationalist leader, his goal was to overthrow the apartheid government of his country. Mandela spent about twenty seven years in prison but once he was released he was able to give out a speech and later on South Africa held their first election in which both whites and blacks were able to vote. That election made Mandela the country's first black African president. Although there were many struggles to gain independence they were capable of going through it.
On the other hand, Ghandi was born in western India and while being in South Africa he experienced racism for the first time and from then became involved in organizing Indians who were mostly muslims to protest for the country's policies of racial segregation. He was also recognized and admired in the global struggle against the colonial rule.

Chapter 22: Global Communism

Global communism seemed to have been inspired by Karl Marx in the nineteenth century. Most of the European socialist believed that they were capable of achieving their goals through the democratic process. Many people during the time would want to be known as “communist” in the late 1900’s but what it led for a revolution. Russia was one of those countries to go into revolution during the communist era. The Soviet Union was united with Russia so they as well went into revolution. There was a point where communism was very high and most of the world’s population was being governed by communist regimes. The most important communist societies was the USSR and China but it also spread to the eastern side of Europe, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Afghanistan. As we can see communism spread in a lot of countries and parties took control in many areas.

Chapter 21: The Collapse and Recovery of Europe

This chapter focuses on the First World War and the crisis it caused mainly in Europe. The reason for this war was because Europe was beginning to get challenged by other countries. The war began with the triple alliance that was Germany, Italy and Austria then the triple Ettente who was Brittain, Russia, and France.  The war caused weak industrialism, nationalism, and not a defensive military. Other than focusing on World War One throughout the chapter Strayer reveals the marks of a crisis in the modern society politically and economically during these big events. 

Chapter 20- Colonial Encounters

In the beginning of this chapter Strayer begins with a short story of his experience in Kenya along with his friends. As years passed by while he was gathering information for Ph.D. research about the British missionaries, he saw a letter that argued about the teachings of English to the Africans.The reasons given in that letter were "the danger in which such a course would place our white women and girls" and "the danger of organizing against the government and Europeans". Here we are able to see that there is this fear that the natives will go against the government and they imply that there is a need to protect white women, there is still an existence of racial boundaries by the Africans. Because of this issue there was an intense colonial concern to maintain distance and difference between the whites and blacks.
The chapter focuses on the two waves of colonialism and it's consequences from it. The first wave took place in the Americas and its perpetrators were England, France, Spain, and Portugal. The first wave caused a major and permanent demographic change especially because racial blends of people were taken place in the Americas. Most of these peoples' intentions were to live in the Americas, they would take their women and families. The second wave took place in Africa and Asia and their perpetrators were Germany, Japan, Belgium, and England. The second wave didn't cause much of a demographic change. The people isolated racially and worked with local authorities. These people weren't settlers like the ones who stayed in the Americas.

Chapter 18: Revolutions of Industrialization

The industrial revolution became a great impact for all societies with an increase of goods and services for the people. The industrial revolution did have its' consequences but this is what helped people become more aware and understanding of what they were expected to go through. The industrial revolution first began in Britain and it helped in an influential way. Britain's political life encouraged commercialization and economic change. Britain already had a good amount of coal and iron and became an easier reach of major industrial centers. The revolution changed the country completely such as their city life, social class structure, and Britain's power amongst other countries as well as their production of machinery.  The industrial revolution was a positive era to have occurred in Britain. Although in the beginning it appeared to bring no benefits at all for the country as time went by the negative effects of the revolution helped them improve day by day. In the end Britain grew to become the most powerful manufacturing nation and economically they were the strongest country in all Europe.

Chapter 17- Atlantic Revolutions and Their Echoes

This chapter mainly focuses on the Atlantic Revolutions. What was interesting to know was that the Atlantic Revolutionaries shared a set of common ideas. As we know the atlantic became a useful resource for cultural exchange but the ideas that were going across the ocean were in newspapers, books, and pamphlets. Ideas weren't only sent through these sources but there were also new ideas of liberty, equality, free trade, religious tolerance, republicanism, and human rationality. As we can see a little bit of everything was shared during the time. Many of these ideas seem to generate controversial amongst the people. Throughout the chapter we learn about the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and lastly about the Spanish American Revolutions and what were the causes of them. As we read through the book we are able to see that the American Revolution as a conflict between the united thirteen colonies and Great Britain. The French Revolution had conflicts within their own society and offended many of them and it lead into being a more violent than the American Revolution. The Haitian revolution was a conflict with the French colony of Saint Domingue and lastly the Spanish American Revolutions which took place in spanish and portuguese colonies and their revolutions took place in events in North America. Overall, by the end of the chapter we learn that these revolutions benefited from them and supported themselves as well especially because in the end it was a representation to the new world.