Women in Post- Revolutionary Egypt: Can Behavior Be Controlled?

Language: 
English
Sent On: 
Mon, 2017-11-13
Year: 
2017
Newsletter Number: 
48

Women in PostRevolutionary Egypt: Can Behavior Be Controlled?

 

A Book by Mette Toft Nielsen and Peter Hervik

 

Book Launch Event Report & Review

 

            Mette Toft Nielsen, former CAWU intern, co-authored the book Women in Post-Revolutionary Egypt: Can Behavior Be Controlled? with Peter Hervik in 2017. In October, a book launch event was held in the Danish Egyptian Dialogue Institute in Zamalek, Cairo. The book highlights the January 25 2011 Revolution and the sociopolitical conditions defining the post-revolutionary period, discussing how women navigated their social lives, as well as analyzing their political perception with respect to the Egyptian revolution.

 

            The book is thoroughly grounded in qualitative research, with plenty of interviews. In terms of the authors’ methodology, the team partnered with different non-governmental organizations in order to interact with women from Sinai, Asyūt, Sūhāj, Nuwiba‘, Alexandria, and Cairo. This served to diversify the pool of the authors’ interviewees.

 

            Women in PostRevolutionary Egypt: Can Behavior Be Controlled? argues that the role of women in Egyptian society is as crucial as men’s. Hopefully, it will trigger other women to demand their rights, a process already begun by Egypt’s pioneering revolutionary women, and explored at length in the book.

 

            Neilsen and Hervik’s book also expanded upon the revolution’s unifying dimensions, delving into the common aims sought by a variety of diverse social groups. The authors explored this theme using both theoretical and practical lenses. The book also aims to pinpoint the cultural aspects related to women’s rights in Egypt. This section begins by explaining culture from a theoretical perspective, as well as illustrating the impact of globalization.  The authors offer a theoretical approach to illustrate the universal aspects of cultural norms.

 

            This book should be regarded a crucial contribution towards understanding the nuances defining Egyptian women’s experiences in the post-revolutionary period. Critically, the authors also provide women the opportunity to describe their own experiences, thereby allowing greater insight into their perspective through in-depth interviews, which gives a voice to many who might otherwise go unheard.

 

 

The author, Mette Toft Nielsen (second from right) with Sharine Atif (third from right), and Nora Labib (second from left). Source: CairoScene.

 

 

Read the full report about the book launch here and the full book review here.  

 

 

Nour El Gazzar
13th of November, 2017