Revolutionizing the Body: Eros and Demos in Post-Arab Spring Women Writings (Published)
The successful political revolutionary transformations fulfilled by the Arab Spring of 2010-11, acted as a catalyst for synchronous cultural, social and sexual changes. The ‘double revolution’ heralded the emergence of the new woman, transitioning from the docile and conservative, into a concupiscent hermaphroditic rebel, who dares to demand her sexual rights and freedom, challenge the existing norms and disclose her sexual trauma, pleasures, and desires. The body is ‘revolutionized’ and instrumentalized to resist marginalization and to propound bodily and sexual rights. There is an attempt to establish a relation between the historical events and their literary portrayal. The gender perspective of the Arab Spring is analyzed through examples of Arab women artists, whose works in literature, graffiti, blogs or social media, reflect the changes in the ‘Spring’ woman’s character, thought, and conceptualization of sex. Their opus epitomizes the new feminine subjectivities created through the intersection of gender, class, and nation.
Keywords: Arab Spring, Body, Freedom, Gender, Revolutions, Rights, Women, sex