Women Rising

Groundbreaking essays by female activists and scholars documenting women’s resistance before, during, and after the Arab Spring

Images of women protesting in the Arab Spring, from Tahrir Square to the streets of Tunisia and Syria, have become emblematic of the political upheaval sweeping the Middle East and North Africa. In Women Rising, Rita Stephan and Mounira M. Charrad bring together a provocative group of scholars, activists, artists, and more, highlighting the first-hand experiences of these remarkable women.

In this relevant and timely volume, Stephan and Charrad paint a picture of women’s political resistance in sixteen countries before, during, and since the Arab Spring protests first began in 2011. Contributors provide insight into a diverse range of perspectives across the entire movement, focusing on often-marginalized voices, including rural women, housewives, students, and artists.

Women Rising offers an on-the-ground understanding of an important twenty-first century movement, telling the story of Arab women’s activism.

Rita Stephan is a Research Fellow at The Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University and the Director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative at the U.S. Department of State. She is the co-editor of In Line with the Divine: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Lebanon and the author of several publications on Lebanese women’s movement, social movements, social networks, and Arab-Americans.

Mounira Charrad is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Baker Institute, Rice University. She is author of the award-winning book, States and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, as well as the editor or co-editor of Patrimonial Power in the Modern World, Patrimonial Capitalism and Empire, Women’s Agency: Silences and Voices, and Femmes, Culture et Société au Maghreb.

Rita Stephan is a Research Fellow at The Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at North Carolina State University and the Director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative at the U.S. Department of State. She is the co-editor of In Line with the Divine: The Struggle for Gender Equality in Lebanon and the author of several publications on Lebanese women’s movement, social movements, social networks, and Arab-Americans.


Mounira Charrad is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Texas, Austin and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Baker Institute, Rice University. She is author of the award-winning book, States and Women’s Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, as well as the editor or co-editor of Patrimonial Power in the Modern World, Patrimonial Capitalism and Empire, Women’s Agency: Silences and Voices, and Femmes, Culture et Société au Maghreb.

For educators teaching about the region, selections from the anthology are an excellent source of potential course material ... The editors have done a truly impressive job of collating work by a wide range of individuals writing about a large number of countries.

Delivers theoretical and empirical insights to the field of Middle East, gender and women’s studies. Stephan and Charrad bring together different stories of resistances and diverse voices of change and thus challenge essentialist and ahistorical readings of women and gender in the region.

A welcomed reaffirmation that women have been and successfully continue to work for change as well as a much needed resource for area scholars and those who want to know women can accomplish.

Aili Mari Tripp, author of Seeking Legitimacy: Why Arab Autocracies Adopt Women's Rights:
This exciting and unique collection of essays by Arab activists, politicians, scholars, and others is remarkable in its breadth, covering a wide range of Arab countries and contexts to explore the activism of women before, during and after the Arab Spring uprisings. This important and impressive contribution to the study of women’s activism in the region reveals distinctive features of Arab women’s struggles and the national and local origins of their protests. It shows how women, through their very presence in protests, transformed the relationship of women to public space. Women were emboldened through their organizations; they increased political representation; and made legislative changes. But they also asserted their creative agency through literature, film, street art, the photographic lens, and many other forms of expression.

Deniz Kandiyoti, co-editor of Gender, Governance, and Islam:
A uniquely stimulating and timely compendium teeming with Arab women’s voices and multiple forms of activism before, during and after the Arab uprisings. Using varied forms of expression, from art and literary production to political commentary, this volume offers a definitive challenge to misrepresentations of Arab women’s agency and their ongoing roles in democratic struggles.

Myra Marx Ferree, author of Varieties of Feminism: German Gender Politics in Global Perspective:
The message of this inspiring collection of personal reflections from Arab women activists of various types is that the Arab Spring is far from over - even bloody civil wars are not extinguishing women’s efforts to be heard in calling for reform, resistance and even revolution! The activist chorus so effectively captured here includes poetry, academic essays, accounts of organizing experiences and political reflections from more or less successfully democratized countries. Each contribution is a striking solo, but they harmonize nicely, pointing together to the variety of roots of women’s rebellions in 2010 and the diversity of blooms still opening since!

Amira Sonbol, author of The New Mamluks: Egyptian Society and Modern Feudalism:
A rich collection that records the life and efforts of women during a critical point of history for Arab women as they struggle against odds that often seem insurmountable.

Verta Taylor, co-editor of Feminist Frontiers:
In Women Rising, activists, scholars, politicians, and artists tell a compelling story of women’s mobilization before, during, and after the Arab uprising of 2011. Well written and analytically powerful, these essays show us the important role women have played in the struggle for democracy, social justice, and women’s rights across the diverse communities in the region. Pushing the boundaries of the study of feminist resistance, this book will inspire students, scholars, and activists.

Amaney A. Jamal, author of Barriers to Democracy: The Other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World:
An amazing, timely, and spectacular contribution to the scholarship on women’s empowerment in the context of the Arab world. The volume brings together works by the field’s most renowned experts. It captures theoretical debates, empirical nuances and a remarkable and sophisticated lens that captures the daily lives and experiences of Arab women. This is a must-read! Stephan and Charrad have assembled a masterpiece!