Authoritarian Politics, Feminist Struggles and Democratic Futures in the MENA Region

Wednesday, 9 July 2025: 09:00-10:45
Location: FSE002 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
RC32 Women, Gender and Society (host committee)

Language: English

For the ISA Forum in Rabat, Morocco in July 2025, I propose a Regular Session with the working title:

“Authoritarian politics, feminist struggles and democratic futures in the MENA region”

The politics of gender in the MENA region attests to the continued relevance of religion, nationalism and gender in the envisioning of social orders at a time of economic, ecological and political crises. At the same time, the resilience of feminist / women’s movements and their responses to these crises attest to their transformative potential and power.

This panel will bring together speakers across borders to address the relationship between religion, nationalism and gender in different contexts such as Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco, Iran, and Afghanistan. The panel will

1) highlight the current situation of (and attacks on) women’s and LGBTQ+ rights

2) discuss strategies that feminists and women's rights activists have used to counter these attacks, and

3) conceptualize the transformation (and reconstitution?) of patriarchy in the region.

Session Organizer:
Ozlem ALTIOK, University of North Texas, USA
Oral Presentations
Rupturing Myths: Nationalisms, Religion and the Politics of Resistance in Iran after the Woman, Life, Freedom Movement
Ladan RAHBARI, Netherlands
Conflicting Social Forces within the Žina Movement
Khalili ESMAEIL, Iran; Samaneh MOAZZAM, Postdoctoral Rellow,, Iran
To Live in a Feminising Society: How Younger, Middle-Class Male Citizens of Tehran Appreciate Their Becoming City after Women, Life, Freedom Movement
Mr. Hossein HAMDIEH, Germany
Radical Democratic Iterations: Gender and Sexuality within Social Movements
Hakan SANDAL-WILSON, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
What Kind of Feminism? the Women’s Platform for Equality, Turkey (EŞİK) and the Struggle for the Istanbul Convention, Human Rights, the Rule of Law, and Democracy
Ozlem ALTIOK, University of North Texas, USA
The Power of Secular Feminist Mobilization in Democratizing Societies: Findings from Tunisia, 2011-2021
Maro YOUSSEF, The George Washington University, USA
"Digital Feminism in the MENA Region: Arab Youth Confronting Patriarchal Discourses on Social Media"
Raoudha ELGUEDRI DUMBROVSKA, Doha Institute For Graduate Studies, Tunisia
A New Vision of Masculinity?: Activism Against Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Egypt, 2010-2015
Helen RIZZO, The American University in Cairo, Egypt
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