Thesis Title Gendering Egypt's January 2011 Revolution: the State
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Thesis Title Gendering Egypt’s January 2011 Revolution: The state, feminism, and competing for the Egyptian nation. By Ahmed Tarek Kadry Imperial College London Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication Doctorate Submission December 2015 Abstract This thesis highlights the fact that the Egyptian state has competed and continues to compete against political forces opposed to their rule, and that this contestation over the framing and image of the Egyptian nation is constructed along, among other things, gendered contours. Specifically, that the nation is often imagined and identified by both the Egyptian state and opposing political forces by defining expectations and roles of Egyptian masculinity and femininity, and those failing to uphold such standards find themselves excluded, or worse, targeted. These competing political forces include the Egyptian state, namely the office of the presidency under both Hosni Mubarak and Abdel Fattah el Sisi, and all those under their jurisdiction, such as the police and the armed forces. In light of this, this thesis emphasises that any understanding of the way in which the January 2011 Egyptian Revolution and its aftermath was contested, must come with an understanding of the importance of gender performativity and expectations in Egypt, as these are continuously evoked within the political struggle. At the heart of this, the thesis underscores the consequent challenges and objectives the Egyptian women’s rights movement have faced as a result of the ongoing political turbulence in Egypt, and the consequences for them of a gendered discourse being used by political factions. 2 Contents: Abstract 2 Declaration of Originality 6 Copyright and Plagiarism Declaration 7 Notes on Transliteration 8 Acknowledgments 9 Introduction i. Aims of the Thesis and Chapters’ Outline 12 ii. An Overview of Sources Used and the Relationship between Gender and Nationhood 20 iii. Methodological Approaches and the Fieldwork Interviews 48 iv. Positionality of the Researcher 60 Chapter One: Contextualising Feminism in Egypt before the 2011 Revolution 1.1 Feminist Formations and their Colonial Burden 65 1.2 The History and Rupture of ‘State Feminism’ in Egypt 78 1.3 Understanding and Articulating the Nation and Nationalism in Egypt 88 1.4 Feminism and Islam 95 Chapter Two: The Contestation for Egyptian Nationhood and Womanhood in Tahrir Square 2.1 Asmaa Mahfouz’s Gendered Call to Protest 101 3 2.2 Competing for the Nation in Tahrir Square 105 2.3 After Mubarak: The Egyptian Military, Virginity Testing, and Regaining Control over Egyptian Bodies 123 Chapter Three: The Women’s Movement Amidst Political Upheaval 3.1 Considerations between a Women’s and Feminist Movement in Egypt 137 3.2 Who Speaks for Egyptian Women? The 2013 Constitutional Drafting Process 145 3.3 The State, Women, and Patriarchal Bargaining 155 Chapter Four: The Personal is Political: The Shaping of Feminists 4.1 The Personal and Political 174 4.2 ‘Revolutions’ at Home 179 4.3 The Making of Gender Awareness and Performativity 194 Chapter Five: Conclusion: History Repeating itself? 5.1 Considerations on Concluding the Unconcluded 208 5.2 Understanding the Reemergence of State Feminism in 2014 212 5.3 Reflections on the Future of Feminist Activism in Egypt 219 4 Work Cited: - Personal Interviews with Author 225 - Academic Sources and NGO Reports 226 - Online Sources 231 Appendix: - Feminist and Women’s Rights Organisations 236 - Fieldwork Interview Questions 243 5 Declaration of Originality I hereby confirm that this work is my own and that where the work of others has been used, they have been appropriately referenced. Parts of this thesis have already been published by the Journal for Cultural Research (2015) in a special volume on the 2011 Egyptian Revolution entitled “Women, Culture, and the January 2011 Egyptian Revolution”, edited by Dalia Mostafa. 6 Plagiarism and Copyright Declaration I confirm that this thesis is my own work, is not copied from any other person's work (published or unpublished), and has not previously been submitted for assessment either at Imperial College London or elsewhere. I confirm that I have read and understood the Department and University regulations on plagiarism. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives licence. Researchers are free to copy, distribute or transmit the thesis on the condition that they attribute it, that they do not use it for commercial purposes and that they do not alter, transform or build upon it. For any reuse or redistribution, researchers must make clear to others the licence terms of this work. 7 Notes on Transliteration This thesis has transliterated Arabic words into English spelling by following the transliteration system prescribed by the International Journal of Middle East Studies. Diacritics have not been used except for the hamza and ‘ayn as advised by the IJMES. All Arabic names and terms have been italicized with the English translation provided in brackets by the author immediately after. 8 Acknowledgements This PhD thesis began long before I formally began the process in September 2012. As an Egyptian living in Egypt during the January 2011 Egyptian Revolution, I, like many millions of Egyptians in Egypt and abroad, was inspired by what was happening in Tahrir Square. I had moved to Cairo in April 2009 uninterested in Egyptian politics because to me, it did not appear to exist. There was Hosni Mubarak, who had been president before I was even born, and all the talk about his successor started and stopped at the mention of his son, Gamal. Both family and friends in Egypt appeared to have no interest in topics like government or elections, often responding with a joke or two about the situation. I remember my cousin, Amr, telling me, “Mubarak is like your Robin Hood in England, except he takes from the poor to give to the rich”. He followed this with a laugh, but that did not make it any less true or meaningful to him. My cousin at the time was a recent graduate with a degree in Economics but could not find a job. His case was not special. Most of his friends were in the same situation. In short, a frustrated generation with qualifications but no opportunities, and it would be this youthful generation that I would see most in Tahrir Square, seemingly trying to right the wrongs of generations gone by. As a result, my first thanks for helping me through this journey go to Amr and his parents, my uncle Abdullah on my mother’s side, and his wife Maha, who housed me in Cairo for much of my stay, and who imparted so much of their wisdom, feelings, and experiences of Egypt that aided my understanding of my Egyptian heritage. I will always be thankful for them correcting my Arabic and answering all my questions over the dinner table every evening. 9 My mother, Nabila, also played a crucial role before and during this PhD process. I think she would be the first to admit that she was sceptical about me moving to Egypt in 2009, wondering why I would seemingly trade ‘the first world’ for ‘the third’. She worried that I would not be able to adapt; that “Egypt has its own way” she would tell me, and she was right. It does. Yet the process of finding out how Egypt operates on a day to day basis, what I call ‘organised chaos’ when people ask me about living there, has been extremely rewarding. There were certainly times and days living there that were very frustrating, but it prepared me well for being able to research and write about Egypt for this PhD thesis at a pivotal time in its history. My mother has been a pillar of support for me for the past six years, and indeed my entire life, and while she jokingly always tells me she does not always understand what I write when she reads it because English is her second language, she tells me she is glad that I am writing about Egypt and that I am passionate about her and my father’s Egyptian roots. I want to thank my two academic supervisors at Imperial College London who have supported and advised me since we met in September 2012. Dr. Maggie Awadalla, my main supervisor, for her guidance and suggestions, reading my work with a critical lens and asking me questions that aided my analytical development. Professor Charmian Brinson was a constant source of support for me at the university, helping me settle in quickly and always on hand to help me whenever I needed it. In particular, her suggestions led me to thoroughly enjoy reading and understanding the process of using oral history as a source, and the benefits and drawbacks that can arise. I hope they are pleased with the end product which is this thesis. Finally, I want to formally thank every interviewee that graciously gave up their time to be a part of this PhD process, making it possible in the first place. There 10 is no doubt that events in Egypt over the past five years have had a profound emotional impact on many activists, including some of those that I interviewed. Nevertheless, they still spoke with me, answered my questions, and offered me so much to contemplate, both academically for this thesis, and personally as well. I hope I have done their sentiments justice in this thesis and that they received a benefit from speaking with me just as I did with them. I end with a reflection of how this process began. I was in Tahrir Square on the evening of 12 February 2011 when Hosni Mubarak’s resignation was announced on the large projector erected to a western wall of the square.