ABSTRACT
In Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Bahrain, women and men have been taking to the streets to protest for political freedom and to shape their own emancipation from authoritarianism. Dispelling both Islamic and Western stereotypes, Arab women have taken up leadership roles in these incipient social movements in the streets and on the Internet. On International Women's Day – 8 March 2011, the centenary of this day celebrating women workers – in Tahrir Square, Cairo, hundreds of women, many of whom had participated in the protests that toppled Mubarak, chanted ‘Now is the time; there is no freedom for men without freedom and equality for women’. In a counter protest, men objecting to the call for a new constitution allowing women to stand for the Egyptian presidency charged violently on the women while police and military stood by. Writing in The Guardian, Jumanah Younnis claimed ‘this revolution will have achieved nothing if it does not recognise the basic right of the Egyptian women to exist, to demonstrate, to work, to live and walk the streets with dignity’ (2011).
