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Spring 2011

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global I REPORTS Women of the Arab Spring Unsung activists now face the aftermath of political upheaval BY ROBIN MORGAN T 20 | SPRING 2011 HE MIDDLE EAST’S PRO-DEMOCRACY UPRISINGS MAY WELL BE THE LATEST IN A long line of gifts (algebra, soap, even the fork) that Arab civilizations have given the world. Yet one might think only men were risking, and sometimes losing, their lives in these protests—and definitely leading them. But women were (and are) involved at every stage, including leadership. This doesn’t surprise those familiar with Arab feminism, since women have been the most consistent advocates of civil society across the region. In most of these countries women suffer from such discriminatory legislation as “guardianship laws,” which imprison them in the status of minors, so they’re well aware that “democracy” for half the people isn’t democracy. But they also have reason to be wary about how male-defined revolutions betray women. Western instances of this abound, but a notorious Arab example is fitting. During the Algerian revolt against French colonialism, women fought and died beside men in the un- derground, certain that their own future equality was at stake. But with independence won, their “revolutionary brothers” sent them back to the kitchen. www.feminist.org HOLLY PICKETT/REDUX

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