A Discussion of Women Rising: In and Beyond the Arab Spring By Amy Madsen

The collective understanding of "Arab Spring" is often simplified to a series of isolated protests and demonstrations between 2010-2012: a brief period of Arabs discovering the power of collective voice, only to have those same protests brutally quashed, with few exceptions.

As is often the case, the reality and ramifications of the Arab Spring are much broader than a series of isolated events. I like to think of a stone being dropped into a body of water, with the stone representing what we understand as the Arab Spring, and the resulting ripples the ongoing ramifications.

Undivided was fortunate to host a discussion with Rita Stephan and Mounira M. Charrad, editors of Women Rising: In and Beyond the Arab Spring to explore women's rights across the Middle East, in the context of pre-and-post the Arab Spring. Professors Stephan and Charrad provided an overview of their book, underscoring that Arab women's political participation did not start, nor end, in 2010. Women continue to make gains across multiple countries in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa).

We learned that in Saudi Arabia women can now run for municipal election and join the Shura Council, drive cars and travel without male consent. Morocco, Lebanon and Jordan abolished penal codes that allowed men to escape punishment for rape. Tunisia, Iraq, Algeria and Egypt passed laws related to eliminating violence against women or sexual harassment. Bahrain amended its labor laws. And Tunisia passed the first constitution in the region containing language regarding male and female equality.

Guests and participants, from across the US, the UK and Jamaica, discussed that while laws do not always translate to immediate cultural or behavioral change, they are a start or basis from which to advance equality. And that ten years does not a democracy make, lasting reforms and increased freedoms often require generations of work.

When asked what we can do to best support Arab women, Stephan and Charrad said we can all start by simply listening to the women. We can be more active in seeking out their voices, and learning not only about their struggles, but also their solutions. And when we find their voices, we can amplify them by making them heard in our networks and across the world.