Synopses & Reviews
This pioneering explanation of the Arab Spring will define a new era of thinking about the Middle East.
In this landmark book, Hamid Dabashi argues that the revolutionary uprisings that have engulfed multiple countries and political climes from Morocco to Iran and from Syria to Yemen, were driven by a 'Delayed Defiance' - a point of rebellion against domestic tyranny and globalized disempowerment alike - that signifies no less than the end of Postcolonialism. Sketching a new geography of liberation, Dabashi shows how the Arab Spring has altered the geopolitics of the region so radically that we must begin re-imagining the 'the Middle East'.
Ultimately, the 'permanent revolutionary mood' Dabashi brilliantly explains has the potential to liberate not only those societies already ignited, but many others through a universal geopolitics of hope.
Review
"Hamid Dabashi's
The Arab Spring is an enormously enlightening and original study, a landmark work of a political and historical convulsion of immense proportion and significance, with ripple effects of great magnitude. The book is so rich, careful and systematic in making its case that I expect it to define a new paradigm regarding the nature of revolution itself, in our understanding of post-colonialism in some of its fundamental articulations, and in putting to rest the Eurocentric hypothesis about the end of history." - Alamin Mazrui, Rutgers University
"A refreshing, thoughtful and historical reading of the dramatic changes sweeping the Arab world." - Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst, Al Jazeera
"Embracing the poetic justice of the Arab Spring, Hamid Dabashi seizes upon and expresses the lyrical. He recounts philosophically an open-ended nonlinear story, which is still in the making. It begins with an end-credit (like in a film) which closes the recent past of wishful tyrannical thinking of total domination, and it announces a new era of young hope which can today dream of the possible. Within this narrative, recent happenings suggest it they will continue indefinitely." - Elia Suleiman, writer and director, The Time that Remains
Review
"A refreshing, thoughtful and historical reading of the dramatic changes sweeping the Arab world." - Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst,
Al Jazeera"Dabashi provides a revolutionary, imaginative and open-ended reading of what will turn out to be a founding moment of the twenty-first century." - Fawwaz Traboulsi, author of A History of Modern Lebanon
"This illuminating and beautifully written book, by a brave intellectual and a brilliant scholar who knows the terrain like the back of his hand, traces the genealogy of this unique moment and offers a bird's eye view of the horizons it promises." - Sinan Antoon, poet and novelist
"The Arab Spring is enormously enlightening and original, a landmark work of a political and historical convulsion of immense proportion and significance. The book is so rich, careful and systematic in making its case that I expect it to define a new paradigm regarding the nature of revolution itself." - Alamin Mazrui, Rutgers University
"Embracing the poetic justice of the Arab Spring, Hamid Dabashi seizes upon and expresses the lyrical. He recounts philosophically an open-ended non-linear story, which is still in the making." - Elia Suleiman, filmmaker
"The depth and richness of Dabashi's perspective contrasts with the barrenness of the modernization paradigm dominant in the West's academy and media as much as in liberal, nationalist and socialist Arab accounts. It offers a fresh look at some deeper resources of Arab societies and cultures." - Haifa Zangana, writer and activist
Review
“Every contributor here has insights to offer. I found myself re-thinking again and again what women activists created in the wake of their historic acts of political resistance. What a valuable book!”
Review
“Boldly challenging Orientalist and liberalist analyses of the Arab world, El Said, Meari, and Pratt assemble a set of brilliant interventions.”
Review
“Prescient and insightful. . . succeeds in unpicking unfounded generalizations concerning both the nature of the Arab Spring and of women's participation and resistance.”
Review
“This timely and exciting volume leaves no doubt that a gendered lens is key to understanding socio-political transformations in the Middle East.”
Review
“If you are interested in Palestinian resistance of Israeli sexual interrogation techniques and/or the post-revolutionary politics of Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia and how they have placed the body and sexuality at center stage, this book offers fresh discussions of new approaches, debates and constructions that will help you appreciate the study of old and new forms of power and their complex relations. As its title suggests, this book is a must read for anyone interested in rethinking gender in revolution and resistance.”
Review
“Complicating our understanding of the gendered genealogies and contours of resistance in the Arab world,
Rethinking Gender in Revolutions and Resistance challenges dominant periodizations of revolutions in the region, mapping a new and persuasive historiography of deeply feminist concerns. An important and original contribution to transnational, postcolonial feminist scholarship.”
Synopsis
Since the end of 2010, when a wave of mass protests and uprisings swept across the Arab world, there has been unprecedented media attention to Arab women and their role in regional political transformations. Yet, this large body of commentary and speculation has yet to culminate in a substantial study of gender roles in relation to the ‘Arab Spring, as well as often ignoring or marginalising socio-political change prior to 2011 and womens participation in it.
Rethinking Gender in Revolutions and Resistance takes an original approach to analysing the shifts in gender roles, gender relations and gender norms that have occurred as the result of what is known as the Arab Spring, rejecting essentialising and orientalist assumptions that dissolve issues of class, nationality, migration and religion which are key axes of social difference in the region.
Synopsis
Ever since the wave of uprisings that swept the Arab world in 2010, Arab women and their role in political transformations have received unprecedented media attention. The copious scrutiny and commentary, however, has yet to result in any serious study of fluctuating gender roles in the Middle East. Rethinking Gender in Revolutions and Resistance is the first book to analyze the shifts in gender roles, relations, and norms that have occurred since the Arab Spring. With chapters written by scholars and activists from the countries affected, including Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria, this is an important addition to Middle Eastern gender studies.
About the Author
Hamid Dabashi is an Iranian-American Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City. Hamid has been a columnist for the Egyptianal-Ahram Weekly for over a decade, and is now a regular columnist for Aljazeera, and he has had a regular column at CNN. He has travelled and lectured extensively in the Arab world, from Morocco to Egypt to Palestine to Syria.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements Introduction
Rethinking Gender in Revolutions and Resistance in the Arab World
Maha El Said, Lena Meari and Nicola Pratt
PART 1 The Malleability of Gender and Sexuality in Revolutions and Resistance
1. Reconstructing Gender in Post-revolutionary Egypt
Shereen Abouelnaga
2. Re-signifying ‘Sexual’ Colonial Power Techniques: The Experiences of Palestinian Women Political Prisoners
Lena Meari
3. A Strategic Use of Culture: Egyptian Women’s Subversion and Resignification of Gender Norms
Hala G. Sami
PART 2 The Body and Resistance
4. She Resists: Body Politics Between Radical and Subaltern
Maha El-Said
5. Framing the Female Body: Beyond Morality and Pathology?
Abeer Al-Najjar and Anoud Abusalim
6. Women’s Bodies in Post-Revolution Libya: Control and Resistance
Sahar Mediha Elnaas and Nicola Pratt
PART 3 Gender and the Construction of the Secular/Islamist Binary
7. Islamic Feminism and the Equivocation of Political Engagement: ‘Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair’
Omaima Abou-Bakr
8. Islamic and Secular Women’s Activism and Discourses in Post-uprising Tunisia
Aitemad Muhanna
Conclusion: Towards New Epistemologies and Ontologies of Gender and Socio-Political Transformation in the Arab World
Maha El Said, Lena Meari and Nicola Pratt
About the Contributors
Index