Arab Women’s Changing Identities, Activisms and Resistances in a Changing Region

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Author(s) Sahar Khamis
Contact Sahar Khamis, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. E-mail: skhamis@umd.edu
Issue CyberOrient, Vol. 8, Iss. 1, 2014, pp. 4-6
Published May 10, 2014
Type Editorial
Abstract The wave of uprisings which swept the Arab world in 2011 did not just instigate a "political awakening" that has shaken the power structures in a number of Arab countries and resulted in dictators fleeing their countries, resigning from office, or facing brutal death. Rather, it also instigated a "social awakening" that has shaken Arab societies' commonly held assumptions about gender roles and women's ability to challenge them. This was evident in the many heroic examples and iconic images of Arab women's multiple activisms and resistances, in both the political and social spheres, which stunned the world and earned its respect and recognition, as evident in the selection of Tawakul Karman, as the first Arab Nobel Prize winner ever, in what has been seen by many as a node to the "Arab Spring" movements, in general, and to Arab women's roles in them, in particular.
Keywords gender, cyberactivism, Muslim women, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, democracy, Libya, politics, journalism, Morocco, Arab Spring, Bahrain, public sphere, Egypt, activism