ABSTRACT
Introduction The revolutionary aspirations of bread, freedom and dignity or social justice that inspired millions to take to the streets of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya did not produce the kind of governance and development outcomes that people hoped for, at least up to the end of 2013. Many countries witnessed political chaos and breakdowns in the rule of law and extreme security laxity leading to unsafe streets (and homes too). The absence of safety had a spillover into every aspect of women’s lives: it undermined mobility, increased vulnerability to violence, hampered economic opportunities for them and their families, reduced leisure activities (such as visiting family and parents) and threatened to stall girls’ access to schools. This chapter argues that, in addition to the impact of security breakdown and severe economic hardships, women’s situations were particularly worsened as a consequence of a backlash spearheaded by various Islamist groups, movements and parties, who sought to exercise an epistemic power over not only lived realities but also the normative values underpinning the kind of society and politics post-ruptures. The Islamists’ role was inimical to development conceived of as positive social change in that they were actively involved in voicing and publicizing a rhetoric that advocated greater control over women’s bodies, mobility and voices, mobilized to strip women of legislative rights, and policed women’s presence in public spaces. The chapter argues that their impact on women’s realities was omitted from Western analysis of the unfolding political situation in the Middle East because of Islamophilia. Islamophilia is conceived in terms of censoring oneself or others from criticizing anything associated with Islam or Islamists in order to avoid seeming Islamophobic (seeming to hate anything that is Islamic) (Tibi 2013: 435).
