Hope for women in Arab Spring countries

The plane was starting to land. I gazed down at Tunis airport and pondered the wisdom of my decision to attend the “Arab Women’s Network Regional workshop for Social Democratic women in January 2013”. A decade ago I took the decision to refrain from attending regional Arab women seminars. These occasions were a source of frustration, they just depressed me. Many participants were women designated by authoritarian regimes that spoke along set party lines. Contributions and intervention were restricted by the exclusion of relevant subject matters that were tabooed by the organizers as hosting countries had restricted freedom of speech laws. The changes around the Arab region were an encouraging factor in my decision. I was hoping to meet women that were part of the revolutions or the change movements in Egypt and the Maghreb region.

The first item on the agenda of the first day, January 19th of January read “Welcome- Iyes Fakhfakh, Minister of Finance and Tourism”. I braced myself to be bored. My experience with old regimes' officials was monotonous speeches that praise the Leader. Mr. Fakhfakh, a charismatic professional looking young man surprised me. His speech was concise, up to the point and interesting. It did not deviate from the theme of the workshop. That represented for me a first indication that I was experiencing a new Tunisia and maybe some of the early positive signs of the Arab Spring era.
The second speaker was Lobna Jeribi, member of the Tunisian National Constituent Assembly. It was very encouraging to hear about the experience of a young woman activist taking part in a process so crucial to shaping the Tunisia of the future.
As soon as the first session was underway, I started to understand that this event was different in a positive way. The format of the workshop and the moderation strategy, a joint effort by the initiators and funders were innovative and conductive to focused dialogue. The “Labour Party/Westminster Foundation for Democracy” and the “CEE Network for Gender Issues” got it right about how to go about to facilitate the formation of a functional network. It is a good example of how European organizations can fund projects that emanate from the needs of the beneficiaries and in parallel shadow the project in order to fill in the gaps coming from lack of experience. Guidance and shadowing are two crucial factors in the formation of networks. So is funding during the start-up phase.

As time went by and from one session to another, the social democrat Arab woman network project started to take shape. The participants and organizers were equally committed to serious work. Even the after lunch sessions when all are usually sleepy were intense! My usual cynicism just melted like ice in spring.

I came back with hope for women in the Arab Spring countries.

The Tunisia Ettakatol team had such a variety of competent and committed young women that I am confident they will be able to further their agenda soon. They have the advantage of real support within the ranks of their party that is today part of the ruling coalition. The team from Morocco surprised me. I have to say that my knowledge of what is happening in this country is lacking. I met very determined progressive women with set strategies and goals. Their tactics are innovative and well-studied. What they achieved until today within the actual context is impressive. The Egypt team reflected the status quo in the country; very competent progressive women as individuals, yet a lack of unified strategy at the party level. The birth process in Egypt is difficult, but necessary. The future may still hold focused positive change. The Lebanon team’s contribution was lessons learned from decades of activism. It sadly came in the form of a negation “what not to do if we want to succeed”. Realistically the women’s movement in Lebanon has been facing failure after failure for the last fifteen years. When we talk about achievements, we need to go back to the last century!