My presentation about Women in Arab Spring, social media and public/private divide. CEU, 2013

1. +
Women in Arab Spring: revolution
(between public/private divide)
Shushan Harutyunyan
Central European University
March 2013

2. + What’s the symbol of the Arab Spring?
Long lasting protests?
 Clockwise from top left:
 Protesters in Tahrir
Square inCairo;
 Demonstrators marching
through Habib Bourguiba
Avenue in Tunis;
 Political dissidents in Sana'a;
 Protesters gathering in Pearl
 Roundabout in Manama;
 Mass demonstration in Douma;
 Demonstrators in Bayda.

3. + What’s the symbol of the Arab Spring?
Social Media?
 “Instead, that defining image is this: a young woman or a young man with a smartphone. She's in the Medina in Tunis with
a BlackBerry held aloft, taking a picture of a demonstration outside the prime minister's house”- Guardian
 “Egypt’s Jamal Ibrahim has named his newborn daughter Facebook Jamal Ibrahim, a tribute to the central role the social
network played in helping organize the demonstrations leading to Hosni Mubarak resigning from the presidency he’d held for
30 years”

4. + What’s the symbol of the Arab Spring?
Women? Or may be women and social media?

5. + What’s the symbol of the Arab Spring?
May be this 2 particular woman?
Both 20 year old Egyptians
Participants and
activists of Arab
spring

6. + Story N1- Egyptian blogger Aliaa Elmahdy: “Why I
posed naked”
The hashtag #nudePhotoRevolutionary. The tweet was viewed over a million times,
while Elmahdy's followers jumped from a few hundred to more than 14,000
 “I took my nude photo myself in my parents’ home. The yellow rectangles
on my eyes, mouth and sex organ resemble the censoring of our
knowledge, expression and sexuality.

7. Story N1- Salwa Hosseini, a 20-year-old hairdresser:
+ She and the 16 other female prisoners were taken to a
military detention center in Heikstep.
A senior Egyptian general admits that "virginity checks" were performed on
women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after
previous denials by military authorities.
 "The girls who were detained
were not like your daughter or
mine," the general said.
"These were girls who had
camped out in tents with male
protesters in Tahrir
Square, and we found in the
tents Molotov cocktails and
(drugs)”.
 "We didn't want them to say
we had sexually assaulted or
raped them, so we wanted to
prove that they weren't virgins
in the first place," the general
said. "None of them were
(virgins).“(CNN Report)

8. +
Women in Egypt after the revolution
Pushing women back to private space
 Rhetoric about returning to Islamic law, which could result in a regression of
rights for women and girls similar to what we experienced in Iran in 1979.
 Massive Street Harassments of women
 149 people detained after the March 9 protest were subsequently tried in
military courts, and most have been sentenced to a year in prison.

9. + Icons of Arab spring?! The act of liberation and emancipation: recognition
of the simple act of reclaiming own body, and understanding the need for
the “other” to own her body
To mention - women’s bodies are a fixed symbol of possession in Arab word, where
everything else is negotiable: economy, social justice, election, and constitutions

10. +
Sources 1
 The truth about Twitter, Facebook and the uprisings in the Arab world
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/twitter-facebook-uprisings-arab-libya
 Egyptian Baby Girl Named 'Facebook' After Revolution
http://www.allfacebook.com/egyptian-baby-girl-named-facebook-after-revolution-
2011-02
 So, Was Facebook Responsible for the Arab Spring After All?
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/09/so-was-facebook-responsible-
for-the-arab-spring-after-all/244314/
 We cannot fail the women of Arab Spring
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/03/opinion/pelosi-women-africa-democracy/index.html
 A Warning for Women of the Arab Spring
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577265840773370720.ht
ml

11. +
Sources 2
Egyptian blogger Aliaa Elmahdy: Why I posed naked http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-
19/middleeast/world_meast_nude-blogger-aliaa-magda-elmahdy_1_egyptian-blogger-nude-photo-
kareem-amer?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST
Who Is Afraid of Alia’s Nudity? http://www.sawtalniswa.com/2011/11/who-is-afraid-of-alias-nudity/
Egypt's naked blogger is a bomb aimed at the patriarchs in our minds
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/18/egypt-naked-blogger-aliaa-mahdy
Egypt Shocked After Female Dissident Blogger Posts Nude Photos
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/11/17/egypt-shocked-after-female-dissident-blogger-
posts-nude-photos.html
These 'virginity tests' will spark Egypt's next revolution
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/02/egypt-next-revolution-virginity-tests
Women's rights must not be forgotten in Arab revolutions http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/the-
womens-blog-with-jane-martinson/2011/jun/01/womens-rights-arab-revolution-virginity-tests-tahrir
Egyptian general admits 'virginity checks' conducted on protesters
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/05/30/egypt.virginity.tests/?hpt=T2

12. +
Thank you!