WUNRN
THE
MIDDLE EAST - WOMEN & THE REVOLUTION |
By
Naomi Wolf/ Among the most prevalent
Western stereotypes about Muslim countries are those concerning Muslim women:
doe-eyed, veiled, and submissive, exotically silent, gauzy inhabitants of
imagined harems, closeted behind rigid gender roles. So where were these
women in In both countries, women
protesters were nothing like the Western stereotype: they were front and
centre, in news clips and on Facebook forums, and even in the leadership. In Other citizen reporters in But women were not serving
only as support workers, the habitual role to which they are relegated in
protest movements, from those of the 1960’s to the recent student riots in
the The role of women in the great
upheaval in the The greatest shift is educational. Two generations ago, only a small minority of the daughters of the elite received a university education. Today, women account for more than half of the students at Egyptian universities. They are being trained to use power in ways that their grandmothers could scarcely have imagined: publishing newspapers (as Sanaa el Seif did, in defiance of a government order to cease operating); campaigning for student leadership posts; fundraising for student organisations; and running meetings. Indeed, a substantial
minority of young women in But, as Westerners should know from their own historical experience, once you educate women, democratic agitation is likely to accompany the massive cultural shift that follows. The nature of social media, too, has helped turn women into protest leaders. Having taught leadership skills to women for more than a decade, I know how difficult it is to get them to stand up and speak out in a hierarchical organisational structure. Likewise, women tend to avoid the figurehead status that traditional protest has in the past imposed on certain activists – almost invariably a hotheaded young man with a megaphone. In such contexts – with a
stage, a spotlight, and a spokesperson – women often shy away from leadership
roles. But social media, through the very nature of the technology, have
changed what leadership looks and feels like today. Facebook mimics the way
many women choose to experience social reality, with connections between
people just as important as individual dominance or control, if not more so. You can be a powerful leader on Facebook just by creating a really big “us”. Or you can stay the same size, conceptually, as everyone else on your page – you don’t have to assert your dominance or authority. The structure of Facebook’s interface creates what brick-and-mortar institutions, despite 30 years of feminist pressure, have failed to provide: a context in which women’s ability to forge a powerful “us” and engage in a leadership of service can advance the cause of freedom and justice worldwide. Of course, Facebook cannot reduce the risks of protest. But, however violent the immediate future in the Middle East may be, the historical record of what happens when educated women participate in freedom movements suggests that those in the region who would like to maintain iron-fisted rule are finished. Just when France began its rebellion in 1789, Mary Wollstonecraft, who had been caught up in witnessing it, wrote her manifesto for women’s liberation. After educated women in America helped fight for the abolition of slavery, they put female suffrage on the agenda. After they were told in the 1960’s that “the position of women in the movement is prone”, they generated “second wave” feminism – a movement born of women’s new skills and old frustrations. Time and again, once women have fought the other battles for freedom of their day, they have moved on to advocate for their own rights. And, since feminism is simply a logical extension of democracy, the Middle East’s despots are facing a situation in which it will be almost impossible to force these awakened women to stop their fight for freedom – their own and that of their communities. |