Soma Ahmad / Version 3

Arabellion der Frauen



Emancipation movements in the Middle East and North Africa

Feminists and women’s rights activists in the Arabic-speaking world have been campaigning for equal opportunities and gender issues for decades. In recent years, these efforts have become increasingly visible in the arts and cultural spheres.

„Now it’s your turn to do something,“ a woman snapped at me recently. Once again, I had encountered a proud representative of the ’68 generation, who felt she had already done her part for women’s rights and had no patience left for the struggles of Muslim women. Because that’s exactly who she meant by “you.” „You“—that’s us Muslim women, the poor, helpless, constantly oppressed women who supposedly put up with everything from evil Muslim men and never raise our voices. The assumed reason: our religion doesn’t allow it. And suddenly, I felt my anger rise. Anger at this racist statement, anger at the arrogance and ignorance of such a sweeping judgment, and anger at the lack of solidarity with global women’s movements. I know that in moments like these, I need to keep a clear head and choose between a short or a long response. In a heated and racist discourse, it’s nearly impossible to respond with facts. You have neither the time nor the opportunity to respond in the way this topic deserves. Without claiming to be complete, this article offers a brief overview of emancipatory movements and standout figures in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa)—especially in the past five years. Especially in the arts and culture sector—writers, filmmakers and artists—more and more women have always spoken out. Politically and socially, both new and established voices are rising, particularly in the context of the Arab Spring. Social media, in politically authoritarian and repressive societies, has become a relatively safe space to express opinions, move freely, and break taboos.

Egypt: Drawing Against Body Shaming
Bassant el-Qassem had had enough of being harassed and insulted on the streets of Cairo. The 24-year-old decided to depict the female body in all its facets and spread those images as widely as possible. She launched a Facebook page called هليمج يتنأ..كمسج يبح (Love Your Body, You’re Beautiful), and uses her drawings to spark discussions about the right to self-determination over one’s own body, body shaming, sexuality and emancipation. Her followers grew rapidly—the page now has nearly 40,000 likes. This is not without its problems, she stands up to the hate posters and also gets support from her fans. Through the many discussions that have taken place since the founding of her page, she is breaking the silence on these taboo subjects and at the same time offering other women a platform to do the same.

Turkey: “My Body, My Choice!”
In the spring of 2012, a heated debate erupted in Turkey over a proposed abortion ban. The government was tasked with drafting legislation to restrict abortion rights. In response, thousands of women and men, human rights activists, feminists from various religious and ethnic backgrounds, the medical association, gynecological societies, and others took to the streets in protest. One of the central protest slogans was “Benim Bedenim, Benim Kararım—My belly, my decision!” or provocative slogans directed at Prime Minister Erdoğan, such as: “Are you the guardian of my vagina?”, “AKP, hands off my body” and “Abortion ban means more dead women”. While protests in Istanbul remained mostly peaceful, demonstrations in Ankara and Eskişehir saw violent police crackdowns, with young women being hauled off in handcuffs. The police violence does not intimidate the demonstrators, which is why the government withdraws the plan a month later. Only recently, the Turkish government withdrew a draft law to suspend prison sentences or criminal proceedings for sexual abuse if the perpetrator marries his victim. This law was prevented by the outcry of the opposition and civil society, which had not raised its voice so loudly since the attempted coup in June 2016.

Joumana Haddad: “I Killed Scheherazade”
In her autobiographical essay I killed Shehrezade, the Lebanese-born Christian writes about the strong influence social norms have on a woman’s life and how important it is to question them. But her book is more than a personal liberation narrative or the refutation of Western clichés about oppressed Arab women. Above all, it is a declaration of war on the dominant, anti-body and misogynistic structures in the Arab world, which it relentlessly names, a declaration of war on clichés and generalizations: The Arab woman doesn’t exist.

Arab Spring: The Uprising of Women in the Arab World
The Arab Spring was also meant to be a springtime for women—at least, that’s what the five founders of the Facebook page يبرعلا ملاعلا يف ةأرملا ةضافتنا (The Uprising of Women in the Arab World) believed. In November 2011, they launched a campaign calling on Arab women to share their experiences of violence. Their mission: “It’s time to point the finger at the perpetrators, not the victims.” The personal backgrounds of the site’s founders are as diverse as the societies in which they live: Yalda Younes and Diala Haidar come from Lebanon, Farah Barqawi is Palestinian, Sally Zohney contributes from Egypt and Rana Jarbou lives in Saudi Arabia. They all share the experience of being a woman in patriarchal structures. Over 120,000 people now follow the page, and the number continues to grow. The women post self-portraits in which they explain why they are in favor of a women’s uprising in the Arab world. “I support the uprising because in my society I am judged by who I marry and not by what I achieve,” is the message from May, an Egyptian woman. Yara, also from Egypt, writes: “I support the women’s uprising because I’m sixteen and have been sexually harassed since I was twelve.” Each post sparks heated debates—with up to 900 comments on a single portrait.

Iraq/Syria: Women Take Up Arms
Literally fighting back, Kurdish women have joined the armed resistance against IS terrorists. When IS took over Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq in 2014 and later attacked the Kurdish town of Kobane in Syria, women picked up arms to defend themselves. The region is home to religious minorities like the Yazidis, who were systematically persecuted by IS as infidels. Thousands of people were murdered by the terrorists and around 800,000 people fled the violence to the neighboring autonomous region of Kurdistan. There, women joined Kurdish Peshmerga forces, particularly the all-female YPJ units from Turkey. Since then, these women have been fighting IS in northern Iraq and the Kurdish region of Rojava, Syria.

Lebanon: Women Conquer the Film Industry
Empathetic, moving and at the same time with a certain lightness, Arab women directors shed light on the lives of women. In recent years, many filmmakers have tackled the roles and struggles of Muslim women and show in their sensitive essays the important role of women in Arab society, emphasizing their strength and cross-border solidarity. One such filmmaker is Nadine Labaki from Lebanon, who places women at the heart of her films Caramel and Where Do We Go Now?, depicting everyday experiences as well as life during times of war. Similar themes are addressed by Tunisia’s Moufida Tlatli (The Silences of the Palace), Palestine’s Annemarie Jacir (Salt of This Sea), Yemen’s Khadija al-Salami (The Scream), and Saudi Arabia’s Haifaa al-Mansour (Wadjda).

Mona Eltahawy: Headscarves and Hymens
Mona Eltahawy is a rather uncomfortable contemporary. To men, she says: “I don’t care about you.” To women: “You don’t need me to save you.” And to major world religions, her advice is: “Stay out of my vagina—unless I want you in it.” In 2012, Newsweek named the Egyptian-American journalist one of the world’s 150 most fearless women, while it is still relatively unknown in the German-speaking mainstream. Eltahawy envisions a global feminism, one that goes beyond the white Western lens. The private, intimate is essential for Eltahawy: for her, sex is the revolution. For the political revolution in the Arab world to succeed, there must also be a sexual and a social revolution – because women are not only oppressed by the state, but also on the street and at home. With books like Headscarves and Hymens and Why Do They Hate Us?, she has stirred heated debates across both Muslim-majority and Western societies. With her direct manner, she breaks taboos and at the same time does not allow herself to be taken in by right-wing hardliners.

Europe: Bans as “Liberation”
Hijab bans are often framed as a form of liberation. The same goes for bans on burkinis and burqas. But what does the wearer want? No one knows—because no one asks. Can women truly be “liberated” by those who speak disdainfully about their supposed culture and actually look down on them? No. And what does liberation even mean in this context? Is the public humiliation of a veiled woman on a beach in Nice the kind of freedom women’s rights activists are fighting for? I don’t think so. The fight for freedom must be led by the women it concerns. Resistance against traditional norms around family, sexuality, education, and partnership has always taken place—not only in their home countries but also in the diaspora. There is so much going on that it is impossible to even begin to describe a fraction of it here. So my short answer to the accusation of doing nothing is: just because people are not looking does not mean that these fights do not exist.