Embodying Geopolitics: Generations of Women's Activism in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon

325 Pages·2020·2.814 MB·English

by  Nicola Pratt

Embodying Geopolitics

Embodying Geopolitics
generations of women’s activism
in egypt, jordan, and lebanon
Nicola Pratt
university of california press
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2020 by Nicola Pratt
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pratt, Nicola Christine, author.
Title: Embodying geopolitics : generations of women’s activism in Egypt,
Jordan, and Lebanon / Nicola Pratt.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2020] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2020010790 (print) | lccn 2020010791 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520281752 (hardcover) | isbn 9780520281769 (paperback) |
isbn 9780520957657 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Women political activists—Middle East—History. |
Women’s rights—Political aspects—Middle East—History. | Women
political activists—Egypt—History. | Women political activists—Jordan—
History. | Women political activists—Lebanon—History.
Classification: lcc hq1236.5.m628 p84 2020 (print) | lcc hq1236.5.m628
ebook) | ddc 305.420956—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010790
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010791
Manufactured in the United States of America
27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
contents
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction: Embodying Geopolitics in the Middle East
and North Africa 1
1 • Female Respectability and Embodied National Sovereignty 33
2 • The 1967 Defeat and Its Aftermath: The Breakdown of
the Gender Order and the Expansion of Women’s Activism 59
3 • The Gendered Effects of Political Repression and Violence in
the 1970s and 1980s 85
4 • The Political Economy and Geopolitics of Women’s Activism
after the Cold War 113
5 • Women’s Rights as Geopolitical Discourse: The Struggle
over Geography in the Post–Cold War Period 148
6 • The Struggle over Gender at the Heart of the Arab Uprisings 170
7 • The Gendered Geopolitics of Fear and Counterrevolution 201
Conclusion 221
Notes 225
List of Interviewees 233
List of Organizations 239
References 245
Index 293

acknowledgments
First and foremost, I thank the British Academy for awarding me a Mid-
Career Fellowship in 2013–2014, which enabled me to conduct the research
for this book. I also thank the University of Warwick and the Department
of Politics and International Studies for providing extra funding for field-
work and awarding me study leave in the academic year 2014–2015, which
allowed me to write the first draft of this book.
Several of the women that I interviewed are people whom I met during
earlier research trips, including short visits to Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt in
2007–2008, funded by a British Academy small grant, as well as personal
relationships that I developed from living and working in Egypt after 1994.
I am very grateful for further suggestions of potential interviewees that I
received from my initial interviewees as well as other friends and acquaint-
ances. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the following individuals
who were very generous with their time in suggesting potential interviewees
and providing contact information: in Lebanon, Samia El Tabari, Myriam
Sfeir, Sonya Knox, Dima Dabbous, and Chantal Sarkis; in Egypt, Mandi
Fahmy, Aida Seif El Dawla, Mozn Hassan, Arab Loutfi; in Jordan, Samar
Dudin, Hala Ghosheh, Oroub Al Abed, Sara Ababneh, and Marta Petrobelli.
Their assistance was invaluable. I also thank Sherene Seikaly for lending me
her apartment in Cairo, Amal Sabbagh, Haifa Jammal, and the late Rula
Quawass in Jordan for sharing their time, memories, and invaluable insights,
and Kholoud in Lebanon for enabling me to conduct some interviews in Borj
al-Barajneh camp among refugee women living there. While I did not end up
using these interviews in this book, the perspectives of these women provided
a contrast that enabled me to better understand the significance of class and
vii
citizenship status in shaping the subjectivities, identities, and activism of
those women who are the focus of this study.
I spent my study leave in Jordan, writing my book, where the British
Institute in Amman (Council for British Research in the Levant) provided a
wonderful place for working and the opportunity to discuss ideas with the
many fellows and scholars passing through. Thank you to the director, Carol
Palmer, for creating such a welcoming, intellectual space. I also greatly ben-
efitted from feedback that I received from the audience to a lecture that I
delivered at the British Institute in May 2015.
I am very grateful to Nadje Al-Ali, Shirin Rai, Rebecca Roberts, and
Charles Tripp for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of various chap-
ters. Feedback from the reviewers of the first draft manuscript were construc-
tive but also disheartening. Thank you to Sara Salem for reading the entire
first draft and to Nicki Smith for reading the entire final manuscript. Their
enthusiasm and praise kept my spirits afloat in the midst of self-doubt. Thank
you to the reviewers of the revised version of the manuscript for their feedback,
which I have attempted to address in the final version of this manuscript.
Overall, this was a very challenging book to write, and it took me a lot longer
to finish and many more cups of tea than I had anticipated. I apologize to my
husband for all the weekends and holidays that I spent working to finish this
book, and thank him for all the cups of tea. I thank my editor, Niels Hooper,
for his patience. Thank you to my colleagues Richard Aldrich, Shirin Rai, and
Mat Watson for their excellent advice and support on dealing with reviewer
reports. I am also very grateful to a number of friends on Facebook for an
engaging discussion over possible book titles and, particularly, to Aya Nassar
for suggesting the final book title and some of the chapter headings.
I also want to take this opportunity to recognize my friend and former
coauthor Nadje Al-Ali, whose work on the Egyptian women’s movement and
Iraqi women inspired me to become interested in the politics of gender in the
Middle East.
Finally, and most vitally, I am grateful to all the women who gave their
time to be interviewed and without whose cooperation this book would not
have been possible. I dedicate this book to them and the many other women
and men across the Middle East and North Africa who give their time, often
at great personal sacrifice, in the struggle for a better world. All royalties from
this book will be donated to the Palestinian Women’s Humanitarian
Organization in Borj al-Barajneh refugee camp, Lebanon.
viii • Acknowledgments
abbreviations
AAW Alliance for Arab Women, Egypt
ABAAD Resource Center for Gender Equality,
Lebanon
ACT Appropriate Communication
Techniques for Development, Egypt
ADEW Association for the Development and
Enhancement of Women, Egypt
ANM Arab Nationalist Movement
ARDD Arab Renaissance for Democracy and
Development, Jordan
AUB American University of Beirut
AUC American University in Cairo
AWO Arab Women Organization of Jordan
AWSA Arab Women’s Solidarity Association,
Egypt
AWU Arab Women’s Union, Jordan
CBO Community Based Organization
CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of
all Forms of Discrimination against
Women
CEWLA Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal
Assistance
CRTD-A Collective for Research and Training on
Development–Action (Lebanon)
ix
DFLP Democratic Front for the Liberation of
Palestine
DLM Democratic Left Movement, Lebanon
ECWR Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights
EFU Egyptian Feminist Union
EIPR Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
EISA Electoral Institute for Sustainable
Democracy in Africa
EOHR Egyptian Organization for Human
Rights
EPCSP Egyptian Popular Committee for
Solidarity with the Palestinians
ESDP Egyptian Social Democratic Party
EU European Union
FGM/FGC Female Genital Mutilation/Female
Genital Cutting
FJP Freedom and Justice Party, Egypt
GFJW General Federation of Jordanian
Women
GUPS General Union of Palestinian Students
GUPW General Union of Palestinian Women
HASHD Jordanian Democratic People’s Party
HRW Human Rights Watch
IAF Islamic Action Front, Jordan
ICG International Crisis Group
ICPD International Conference on Population
and Development
IFES International Foundation for Electoral
Systems
IMF International Monetary Fund
IR international relations
IWSAW Institute for Women’s Studies in the
Arab World (now the Arab Institute for
Women), Lebanon
JCP Jordanian Communist Party
JNCW Jordanian National Commission for
Women
x • Abbreviations