Cultural Resistance in the Middle East

Abstract

Both culture and media are sites for domination and resistance. The Middle East culture is largely collective, gendered, hierarchical, and patriarchal. In the Middle East and North Africa region, social and political structures are largely supported by the postcolonial fragile regimes and social institutions including mainstream media, family, religion, and school. It is important to recognize that the Middle East is not cohesive in its culture/s and society/ies, yet, many peoples in the region share similar colonial history, common cultural pillars (religion and language), and the experience of being largely under autocratic and oppressive regimes where personal liberties, equality, and political and civil rights are hardly granted or recognized and where there are considerable constraints on access to information, media freedoms, and freedom of expression. In the Middle East, there is a long history of cultural resistance against the imperial, the colonial, and the oppressive. Middle Eastern women took part in national and other forms of collective resistance in the 20th century, yet, the 21st century is taking resistance to new frontiers as women are enabled by the media and communication technologies, and in particular the internet, with unprecedented opportunities for resisting dominant culture. The Arab Spring of 2011 marked an important phase in social struggle over gender equality, against stereotyped internationally and locally produced images and roles, and over women equal rights to freedom of expression, mobility, and their bodies. Middle Eastern women face multilayered, multifaceted dominations and manipulations within their own societies and beyond many of which have been internalized by women for decades.