Before 2011, the Middle East was often referred to as an ‘institutional wasteland.’ Arab regimes were determined to prevent the growth of civil society or democratic institutions. There existed no political space for the millions of Arabs who were seeking to emerge from decades of political and economic failures.

A large group of dynamic Arabs are eager to transform their societies. They are now at the forefront of a global push to connect citizens and modernize political structures. In Egypt they are organizing themselves into revolutionary committees, the internet is abuzz with Tunisian bloggers, and social media has brought the painful struggles of Syrian revolutionaries to the homes of millions of westerners. As Arabs continue to find new ways to innovate, we will race to keep up. Return to Arab Awakening

Tunisia: Feminist Fall?

Kristine Goulding 25 October 2011
Nine months after the overthrow of the former president, Tunisia has voted in the first open and fair election in the region. In the final part of a three part article Kristine Goulding argues that if a 'feminist fall' does not come to fruition, it will be because the citizens of Tunisia have shown democratically that feminism is not consummate on their agenda.

Tunisia: Arab Spring, Islamist Summer

Kristine Goulding 25 October 2011
Tunisia has voted in the first open and fair election in the region. In part two of a three part article Kristine Goulding warns against framing Islamism in direct opposition to women's rights. The Arab Spring redefined the roles of both women and the Islamist al-Nahda, and the two cannot be seen as mutually exclusive

Tunisia: Women's winter of discontent

Kristine Goulding 25 October 2011
Nine months after the overthrow of the former president, Tunisia has voted in the first open and fair election in the region. In part one of a three part article Kristine Goulding asks: Is a Tunisian feminist fall, driven by local, national and international support, possible? Or will countervailing forces of politics, social pressure and religion prevail?

The "Arab spring" in historical perspective

Sami Zubaida 21 October 2011

How will the popular uprisings in the Arab world affect the future of states and regimes in the region? All possible outcomes are shadowed by the fate of the contending ideologies and movements - nationalism and socialism, secularism and Islamism, dynasticism and liberal constitutionalism - that have dominated the Arab political landscape in recent decades, says Sami Zubaida. His overview of their rise and fall both illuminates a complex history and indicates the scale of the challenge facing democratic reformers today.

Cell phones, camels and the global call for democracy

Simon Cottle 27 September 2011
In the Arab spring, new social media and the established media disseminated the voices of dissent and images of state brutality worldwide. The sheer drama of these unfolding events conveyed to us by correspondents physically embedded among the protestors, vividly conveyed the elation involved in challenging repressive state power.

The Arab 1989 revisited

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen and David Held 27 September 2011
The establishment and deepening of a democratic culture is a long-term project and is intergenerational. As divisions open up between the elites and the street as well as within the elites, the events of 2011 across the Middle East and North Africa represent a powerful first step in a larger process of transformation.

African leadership for a new generation: reflections on the North African revolutions

Rawia M Tawfik Amer 23 September 2011
The young revolutionaries in North Africa face two challenges: the attempt by incumbent regimes to co-opt them and the attempt by western governments to influence them. For the Pan-Africanist movement to be sustainable it has to be owned by the people, says Rawia Amer

Wanted: local entrepreneurs to help imagine new Arab futures

Imad Mansour 31 August 2011
Local financiers investing in local potential are needed everywhere. But in Arab societies, what we need above all is people who appreciate the importance of the free exchange of ideas and dialogue with others who do not share one’s opinion.

Egypt shaped at the grass roots

Philip Marfleet 25 June 2011
While headlines in global media focus upon candidates for the presidency and new parties jostling for electoral advantage, the dynamics of change in Egypt are being shaped at the grassroots

The Arab revolutions: an end to dogma

Hazem Saghieh 24 June 2011
The popular uprisings in the Arab world are a great disaster for a radical camp led by Syria-Iran and long indulged by media such as al-Jazeera. A great opportunity follows, says Hazem Saghieh.

Tunisia: will democracy be good for women's rights?

Kristine Goulding 13 June 2011

History reveals an abundance of democratic paradoxes: cases in which progress on women’s rights regressed in the aftermath of revolution. Coming to terms with the battle between secularism and Islam – a dispute long silenced by Ben Ali’s rabidly secular policies – will require a redefinition of women’s rights. Are the secularists or Islamists ready for that step?

The Arab prospect: forces and dynamics

Tarek Osman 9 May 2011

The convulsions in the Arab world in 2011 are creating a new political and social reality. But what will be its character? Tarek Osman identifies three factors that are shaping the possible future.

A human right to resist

Maciej Bartkowski and Annyssa Bellal 3 May 2011
We need the international community to favour the worldwide groundswell of civil resistance over armed violence. This could be facilitated by a more dynamic and comprehensive interpretation of existing international law in the light of a broader understanding of those rights of which civil resistance is comprised.

Not "Refolution", just Democratic Revolutions

Stephen Wheatcroft 2 May 2011
Contra John Keane, we don’t need new words to describe the Arab Spring. These are democratic revolutions in the age of monitory democracy. Through active monitory procedures they may even stay democratic

Refolution in the Arab world

John Keane 28 April 2011
A new word is needed to describe these events of recent months. They should be called ‘refolutions’, radical refusals of the old choice between reform and revolution - remarkably sensitive to the grave dangers and high costs of using violent means to get their way

The other Arab exception

Hazem Saghieh 18 April 2011
The Arab revolutions of 2011 have disproved one argument about the Arabs only to raise another, says Hazem Saghieh.

The Arab spring: protest, power, prospect

David Hayes 11 April 2011
What is the “Arab spring” becoming? After three months of upheaval, repression and conflict, the democracy wave in the region, including Iran, is at a crucial stage. openDemocracy authors offer concise perspectives on a complex and fluid political moment.

(The first contributions in this series were published on 4 April 2011)

Tackling corruption in revolutionary Egypt

Marc Michael 29 March 2011
"Corruption" is the word on every Egyptian's lips as the misuse of public funds and office is exposed from Mubarak downwards. The answer is to repeal the semi-privatisation of the state bureaucracy and introduce a minimum wage, argues Marc Michael

The advantage of not understanding politics

Ahmad Alehossein 19 March 2011
The Arab uprisings have proved very different in type to those in Iran, in terms of the scale, scope, both their conscious constituents and their beneficiaries, dynamics and social roots.

A new window for academic freedom in Egypt

Florian Kohstall 14 March 2011
The end of Mubarak’s thirty years reign may mark an opportunity to revive the Egyptian universities’ founding ideals as autonomous institutions seeking knowledge for knowledge’s sake.

Columnist of the Week

Ali Gokpinar

Why use violence against peaceful protesters?

Syria: 'cold war redux'?

Syria: the imperative of de-escalation
Julien Barnes Dacey and Daniel Levy

Syrian: is blood always thicker than water?
Rita from Syria

Turkey’s Syria quagmire takes a new turn
Firdevs Robinson

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Rap and the Arab Spring

Interview with Arab rappers Ibn Thabit and Deeb

Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3

Full Event, Rap and the Arab Spring

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Our Editors

Bassam Gergi

Bassam Gergi

Associate Editor of Arab Awakening is pursuing an M.Phil in Comparative Government at Oxford University

Mazen Zoabi

Mazen Zoabi

Translation Editor of Arab Awakening is a psychology graduate with an interest in film

Mali in crisis

The Mali effect
Stephen Ellis

Mali, and remote-control war
Paul Rogers

Qatar intervening in northern Mali?
Mehdi Lazar

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