Women and Uprisings in the Arab World: History and Orientalism.

Abstract

The media coverage of the involvement of women in the uprisings in the Arab world reveals both discontinuities and synergies between local and Western perceptions of the revolts. The presence of women in the protests gives rise to contradictory readings rooted in a surprisingly robust orientalism. Although in certain circumstances Arabic women appropriated Western feminist reference points, the media emphasis on parallels with iconic landmarks in women’s liberation in the west serves to present Middle Eastern women as mimicking the same path towards female modernity. Finally, the media coverage also often emptied the actions of women of their radical content, thereby reducing political gestures to colorful
local tradition.