Women Resisting Sexual Violence and the Egyptian Revolution

Description

Women were at the forefront of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011, with the Arab Spring protests providing an unprecedented opportunity to make their voices heard. But these women also faced an intense backlash from Egypt’s patriarchal authorities, with female activists subjected to sexual violence and intimidation by the regime and even fellow protestors.
Centered on the testimonies of four women who each played a significant role in the protests, this book provides unique insight into women’s experiences during the Egyptian Revolution, and into the methods of resistance these women developed in response to sexual violence. In the process, Hamzeh casts new light on the relationship between gendered and state violence, and argues that women’s resistance to this violence is reshaping gender relations in Egypt and the wider Arab world.

Manal Hamzeh is a professor of Gender and Sexualities at the department of Interdisciplinary Studies of New Mexico State University. Manal Hamzeh’s teaching and research draw on anti-racist educational theories and decolonial feminist research methodologies. She is the author of Pedagogies of DeVeiling (2012) and co-author of the short animation film, The Four Hijabs (2016), with playwright Jamil Khoury, of Chicago’s Silk Road Rising Theater, Chicago.

1. Women’s Resistance in the Egyptian Revolution: Arabyya Feminist Methodologies
2. Introducing the Three Shaahedat: Samira, Yasmine, Ola
3. Shahada by Samira Ibrahim: Military-Sanctioned Kushoof El’uzryyah
4. Shahada by Yasmine El Baramawy: State Security-Sanctioned Mob Rapes
5. Shahada by Ola Shahba: Islamists-Sanctioned Sexual Assault
6. The Power of the Shahadat: A Legitimate Arabyya Feminism Methodology and a Strategy of Exposure and Resistance

“’Manal Hamza provides an extremely powerful account of gendered violence and provides an original contribution to transnational and decolonial feminist scholarship by introducing “Arabyya methodologies”.” —Nadje Al-Ali, Brown University“Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the significance of sexual violence to the course of the Egyptian revolution and the bravery of the women who spoke publicly about it.” —Nicola Pratt, University of Warwick“An intimate and committed depiction of politically-motivated violence against women in the post-2011 era in Egypt. A significant contribution to the ongoing endeavor to develop an Arab-feminist theory and methodology.” —Randa Aboubakr, Cairo University

Additional information