THE MISSING BLOSSOMS OF THE ARAB SPRING
On May 24, 2012, 10:30 AM by Savannah Cox
As Egypt and Libya prepare for historic elections a year after the Arab Spring, women still wait for real reform.
It’s 2012 and the rebels have won. Over a year after Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi’s heroic act of self-immolation spurred what is now known throughout the world as the Arab Spring, many Middle Eastern dictators have fallen and now exist as mere comedic fodder for lighthearted summer blockbusters. The overriding Western whoops are familiar ones: the oppressed have been liberated. The seemingly perpetual drought of democracy in the Arab world is on its way out. A humane society is imminent and freedom perseveres. But as presidential and general assembly elections loom in countries like Egypt and Libya, the so-called spring has yet to bear any substantial fruit to some of its strongest supporters: women.
At first, the Arab Spring showed all the right signs of long-term, material reform: the uprisings were localized, fought for and sought by the people; foreign aid was limited and its presence brief; and above all, the nations’ subsequent leaders were not imposed by outside authorities. To their success or failure, this group of Arab countries finally held their political, societal and economic futures in their own hands. But as the political platforms and ideologies of some of their emerging leaders present the international community with a painfully familiar picture of potential oppression and cultural regression, it begs the question of what was so “revolutionary” about the series of upheavals to begin with. And so, the real issue remains: if the 2011 rebellions in North Africa truly represented a bright and burgeoning “spring,” when will all of its participants finally be able to smell the roses? ...
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