US Approaches to the Arab Uprisings: International Relations and Democracy Promotion by Amentahru Wahlrab & Michael J. McNeal

Author:Amentahru Wahlrab & Michael J. McNeal [Wahlrab, Amentahru & McNeal, Michael J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784536077
Goodreads: 29886689
Publisher: I.B. Tauris
Published: 2018-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

Are we forever trapped in discourses? Is there some truth about the situation of women's rights or what would “work” for the quality of women's lives in the Middle East and North Africa? Maybe we could ask Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist. Indeed, he has on more than one occasion described encounters with Egyptian women asking him what to do, who to vote for, whether they will be okay.71 I have to admit that I must suspend reality as Friedman describes the women who approach him in the “Arab street.” Maybe that is what happens to him when he travels; maybe it is a version of what he wishes would happen. Perhaps writing the alleged words of Egyptian women allows him to show that he has indeed consulted “the natives,” who have affirmed his authority and expertise about speaking about and for them.

When writing this chapter I thought about the Thomas Friedmans among us: the well-traveled ones who gaze upon “natives,” the academics in the classrooms, the experts on a CNN news segment, the armchair political commentators at a dinner party. They rehearse a script about “us” and “them” that seems to loop endlessly. That is why it is crucial to sort through not only the effects of Western practices of narrating how others address democracy, but also how countries in the Global South avail themselves of narratives that perpetuate themes of rescue and rehabilitation. It is precisely an investigation into the contestedness of democracy discourses that reveals dynamics within the Global South. Contesting discourses of democracy should not be limited to lamenting how Western countries aim to export secular liberal democracies, or how the Global South resists such interventions. Instead, we should consider multiple, often unheard and delegitimized narratives about what democracy should and can look like. So, discursive analysis does not limit us but rather opens the way to hear and listen to a variety of ideas, concepts, and advocacy agendas.

Returning to the sentence that opened this chapter, what have we learned that can confront the situation of women's rights in the Middle East and North African region? Can mining the discursive effects of representational practices have material effects on a variety of feminist activist causes? I contend that to ask, who is talking about women's rights and why, is to get at the heart of the possibilities of political change. If the endgame in caring about women's rights is to ensure that some political actors can and should influence, monitor, and shape the actions of other political actors, then this is a story about global power relations and international hierarchy, not one about improving women's lives. But it is transnational feminist networks, not just one set of states, that have increased attention to what comprises women's rights, articulated gender norms, and pushed for principled action to implement those norms.72 And that advocacy work is also deeply contested and replete with vibrant, difficult discussions about the causes and solutions of misogyny, patriarchy, and sexism.73 But the

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