Arab revolts and transnational women’s movements in the global society

Abstract

The beginning of the 21st century is undergoing an accelerated process of globalization affecting, among other things, economy and politics. One of the manifestations of this process has been the social protests occurring in several parts of the world, and especially in the Arab countries. In this paper, we focus on the participation of women in the so-called “Arab Spring”. First, we put forward an interpretation of women’s rights and women’s empowerment as a New Social World-Object (NewSWO). Then we sketch an overview of the history of the feminist movement’s internationalization. Thirdly, after clarifying some issues of a methodological nature, we analyze women’s involvement in the revolutions of several Arab countries, by means of interviews and participant observation, which reveal both the expansion of women’s rights and the emergence of a “feminist outrage” and its subsequent disappointment.