scholarly journals Springing into Action: A Consideration of Policies Encouraging Female Political Participation in Tunisia and Egypt

Elements ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Oviatt Stateler
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Female Literacy ◽  
Gender Quota ◽  
The Arab Spring

What causes women to have higher political participation? There are several competing arguments as to why some countries experience higher female political participation than others. These include the introduction of gender quotas, a country’s cultural norms, and widespread social/political movements within a country. In a case study comparing Egypt and Tunisia leading before and after the Arab Spring, Tunisia has repeatedly reported higher levels of female political participation. Both these countries participated in the Arab Spring, have similar societal perception of females bound to their traditional roles, and report similar socioeconomic statistics regarding female literacy rates and female employment-to-population rates. Tunisia, however, was successful in increasing female political participation after the implementation of a gender quota under a new government after the Arab Spring. This differs from Egypt, where the post-Arab Spring government, the Muslim Brotherhood, revoked the country’s gender quota and experienced a decrease in female political participation.

Turkey’s Islamic Public Diplomacy in the Post-Davutoğlu Era: Neo-Ottomanism, Humanitarianism and the Legitimation of Hamas after the Arab Spring

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Hae Won Jeong
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Policy Position ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Turkish Government ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Arab Spring

Summary What are the public diplomacy strategies for legitimising a pro-Islamist foreign policy? This research unveils how Turkey, which has been a vocal supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates across the Middle East since the Arab Spring, draws on pan-Islamic soft power, neo-Ottoman myth-making and public diplomacy strategies embedded in the precepts of the strategic depth doctrine to rationalise its pro-Hamas foreign policy position under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). By employing critical discourse analysis to the political speeches delivered by the Turkish government officials in domestic and international fora, this article suggests that Turkey has sought to legitimise its pro-Islamist foreign policy and subvert the terrorist designation of Hamas internationally through the humanitarian, Islamic and neo-Ottoman framings of the Palestinian issue. It is argued that Turkey’s public diplomacy of Hamas constitutes part and parcel of the AKP’s grand strategy to project Islamic soft power.

The meta-geography of the Middle East and North Africa in Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 431-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aylin Güney ◽  
Nazif Mandacı
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Critical Geopolitics ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Geopolitical Imaginations

This article critically analyses Turkish security discourses connected to the meta-geography of the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) before and after the developments of the Arab Spring. A critical geopolitics approach and critical security theories in international relations provide the theoretical framework, as security discourses are considered to be a product of geopolitical imaginations and codes that, in turn, shape the making of foreign and security policies. First, the article examines the invention of BMENA as a meta-geography within Turkey’s new geopolitical imagination, as well as the new geopolitical codes underlying the new security discourses. Then, the article assesses the impact of the Arab Spring, which led to major changes in Turkey’s newly established geopolitical codes, formulated in the pre-Arab Spring period, and analyses the ruptures and continuities in Turkey’s security discourses in the light of those developments. Finally, the article concludes that the Arab Spring, especially the Syrian crisis, shifted the focus of Turkey’s foreign policy in BMENA from cooperation to conflict. This has led to a resecuritization of Turkey’s geopolitical codes, discourses and security practices in the region, revealing the limitation of Turkey’s current geopolitical imagination.

From Revolution to Elections. A Comparative Analysis of Tunisia and Egypt

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Bettarelli
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Electoral Participation ◽  
The Arab Spring

AbstractPolitical participation is far from being a trivial issue. The focus of this paper will be on two dissimilar acts of political participation in the context of the Arab Spring: revolution and elections. In detail, I will first describe participants in revolution and elections – who they are and why they do participate – to then analyse the link (if any) between revolution and electoral participation. This study will develop a comparison between the cases of Tunisia and Egypt. The findings will illustrate that Tunisian insurgents are more likely to vote in post-revolution elections when compared to their Egyptian fellows, and that this is consistent with the events in the aftermath of the two revolutions.

Monarchs and Mamluks, or How Do You Say “Thank You” for $20 Billion

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-24
Author(s):  
Richard W. Bulliet
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Financial Support ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Cooperation ◽  
The Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
The Arab Spring

The causes and processes of the Arab Spring movements are less important for current political developments than the responses to those movements by states that were not directly involved. After discussing the Turkish, Israeli, Iranian, and American responses, the focus turns to the recently announced military cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Did the Saudi government conspire with the Egyptian high command to plot the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Cairo? If so, as seems likely, was the United States aware of the conspiracy? More importantly, what does the linkage between the Egyptian army and Saudi and Gulf financial support for President al-Sisi's regime suggest for the future of stability and legitimate rule in the Arab world?

Quotas and Gender Gaps in Political Participation among Established Industrial European Democracies: Distinguishing Within- and Across-Country Effects

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 657-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrine Beauregard
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Gender Quotas ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Subsequent Increase ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Country Effects ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
European Values ◽  
And Gender

This paper proposes to investigate the influence of legislative quotas on gender differences in political participation by analyzing the within- and across-country effects of quotas. Gender quotas can signal to women that their presence in politics is welcome, leading to a subsequent increase in their involvement in political activities. This change in political behavior should not be reproduced in men; thus, when gender quotas are present, the gap between men’s and women’s participation narrows. Using the European Values Survey and data from eighteen European democracies, this paper demonstrates that this indeed occurs for some political activities when gender gaps are compared before and after the introduction of quotas within countries. This result, however, is not replicated for across-country analyses. European countries without legislative gender quotas tend to have smaller gender gaps than countries with them. This result is explained by referring to the context of the adoption of gender quotas.

Martyrdom in North Africa Following the Arab Spring and the Process of Transitional Justice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas DeGeorges
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
State Security ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Arab Spring

In Chapter 7, Thomas DeGeorges argues that martyrdom has played an important role in the transitional justice processes both before and after the Arab Spring of Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco. While martyrdom and transitional justice are not traditionally associated with one another, he makes the case that martyrs involve people who are victims of what may be framed as political violence, whether committed by state security forces or unknown perpetrators. In this context, martyrs may be understood in the frame of victims addressed by transitional justice, but also as icons for social or political transformation. Broadly speaking, claims regarding martyrdom were important in these countries insofar as martyrs were held up as symbols for whom reform must be pursued.

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