Women and the Egyptian Revolution: Engagement and Activism during the 2011 Arab Uprisings

Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-211) and index.

Introduction: a dramaturgy of women, Egypt, and the 2011 Egyptian uprising -- Women and Egypt's national struggles -- Activism and exception: media and the framing of women's engagement in the 2011 Egyptian uprising -- Trenching dissent: women's collective action frame in the uprising -- An epicenter of solidarity: women's recollections of the 18-day uprising -- 'Intu Bito' Sūzān ('You are Suzanne's Clique'): gender and political opportunities in the 2011 uprising -- What holds next? The politics of hope and disappointment.

Since the fall of the former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, female activists have faced the problem of how to transform the spirit of the uprising into long-lasting reform of the political and social landscape. In Women and the Egyptian Revolution, Nermin Allam tells the story of the 2011 uprising from the perspective of the women who participated, based on extensive interviews with female protestors and activists. The book offers an oral history of women's engagement in this important historical juncture; it situates women's experience within the socio-economic flows, political trajectories, and historical contours of Egypt. Allam develops a critical vocabulary that captures women's activism and agency by looking both backwards to Egypt's gender history and forwards to the outcomes and future possibilities for women's rights. An important contribution to the under-researched topic of women's engagement in political struggles in the Middle East and North Africa, this book will have a wide-ranging impact on its field and beyond.