At first, opportunistically then pragmatically, a growing number of us thought that the Arab Spring would enhance women rights in the MENA region.
Though we are acutely aware of the pace of such a development, the speed at which it has deteriorated is quite shocking. The dream of women being effective participants in political, economic and social life in the post-Arab Spring countries has been crushed.
Demonstrators hold posters of women sexually harassed during mass protests. Demotix/Mayada Wadnomiri. All rights reserved. From a blooming chance for women to claim their rights, dreams and be active participants in the political sphere, to smashed spirits that have been left behind hopeless under authoritarian regimes in deeply enshrined patriarchal societies. In countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen and Palestine, the fight seems to have disappeared.
