Presentations
Abstract
In May 2019, past and present MEI research fellows Dr. Lihi Ben Shitrit (2018-2019), Dr. Yuree Noh (2018-2019), Ms. Lillian Frost (2018-2019), and Dr. Hind Ahmed Zaki (2017-2018) convened 32 scholars on feminism and feminist activism in the region for a first-of-its-kind, interdisciplinary workshop on “Feminisms in the Middle East and North Africa: Old/New Directions?” funded and coordinated by MEI.
The workshop was dedicated, as MEI Faculty Affiliate Soha Bayoumi expressed in her opening statement, to not only describing but also standing in solidarity with the numerous expressions of movements for equity, justice, and bodily integrity for women and gender minorities in the region today. Workshop organizers Ben Shitrit and Noh explained the workshop’s origins, why they added that “s,” and the future of feminist activism and research in the region.
From dinner conversation to academic workshop
The idea for a workshop on feminisms in the Middle East materialized at an MEI-hosted book launch for Nermin Allam (Rutgers University-Newark), “Women and the Egyptian Revolution,” in fall 2018. Over the subsequent dinner, Allam, Leila Ahmed (Harvard Divinity School), Tarek Masoud (MEI Faculty Director), and current and former MEI research fellows Lihi Ben Shitrit, Yuree Noh, and Hind Ahmed Zaki discussed extensively new trends in feminism and gender activism in the Middle East post-Arab Spring. Such a talk over dinner, naturally, was insufficient. The organizers decided that a formal workshop was necessary to explore the issues in greater depth and to create opportunities for junior and senior scholars to network and receive feedback from each other. Initial outreach began organically with invitations to colleagues of the organizers, mainly on the East Coast. They were then able to recruit widely known senior scholars Aili Mari Tripp (University of Wisconsin), Sherine Hafez (University of California-Riverside), Hanan Hammad (Texas Christian University), Valentine Moghadam (Northeastern), Lisa Fishbayn Joffe (Brandeis), and Soha Bayoumi (Harvard). A public talk with Professors Hafez and Moghadam was also arranged for the benefit of the entire the Harvard community.
The organizers acknowledged past meetings on gender and politics in the Middle East, such as a POMEPS workshop organized by Mark Lynch (George Washington University) and a conference at NYU-Abu Dhabi organized by Marwa Shalaby (University of Wisconsin). The MEI workshop, however, took a new and unique approach, convening academics who conduct research in a feminist tradition on activism and feminist politics in the Middle East from a diverse range of disciplines and methods beyond political science.
Why the plural?
The “s” in feminisms was crucial to this workshop because the organizers wanted to be as inclusive as possible. “Feminism” has been a contentious term, defined and applied differently by activists and scholars. To recruit a diverse range of scholars, the workshop invitations listed themes and trends without narrowly defining feminisms. All participants were required to submit a three-page memo on their broader work and to read all other participants’ memos. Reading the memos beforehand eliminated the need to discuss definitions, though inevitable debates still emerged, such as whether or not female Muslim Brotherhood activists are feminists. Still, the participants placed more emphasis on substantive issues, making scholars’ arguments stronger, more rigorous, and more informative. And all agreed that the deeper debates on substance ultimately contributed to a better conceptualization of “feminism.” The workshop’s unique approach was widely successful in inducing productive, congenial debate and conversation, without getting sidetracked by who is or is not a feminist. Participants felt grateful to join the conversation with others whose research agendas intersect.
Defining the future of the field
The organizers envision annual meetings and have already begun to plan the next iteration of the workshop,
forming a small committee tasked with raising funds and finding venues. Though they skipped a call for proposals for this workshop due to lack of time, they plan to seek out new research and expand their network.
And while they deemed the single panel workshop this year extremely effective in maintaining a diverse and inclusive conversation, a multi-panel format may become necessary. For the future workshop, the organizers will also broaden the selection process and make the themes even more inclusive by including work on topics such as the transgender community in the region.
The future of feminisms research in the region featured prominently at the workshop and will be key to subsequent conferences. The participants did not agree on a single way forward, but Ben Shitrit and Noh are confident that future conferences will continue to advance the debate. For many scholars studying feminisms in the region, finding new approaches, questions, and topics to prioritize has been challenging. This is an especially important challenge for scholars of the Middle East. Though the Arab uprisings upended the longstanding paradigm of “authoritarian durability,” scholars are now circling back to “authoritarian retrenchment” and old debates about authoritarianism and democracy, religion and secularism, and women’s rights and democracy, to explain why meaningful change was limited. Amidst these discussions, feminisms research must find new angles and new developments on the ground that deserve attention and can inspire hope.
Another influence from the broader feminist context, both on activism and scholarship, is intersectionality. Studies of women’s activism can no longer remain separate from other simultaneous struggles. Advancements in women’s rights often come at the expense of other groups or serve as window dressing for regimes wishing to appear more liberal, even as they thwart real progress toward genuine respect for civil and political rights.
Still, despite the dissonance between their hopes for change and their sober assessments of the realities on the ground, the organizers highlighted the inspiration they found in the workshop. They note that many attendees are scholar-activists, much like feminist scholars in the U.S., and seeing their commitment to both research and progress on the ground motivates them to continue their work. They are decidedly not giving up.