The New Feminist Movement Against Sexual Violence in Egypt 2011–2021

Abstract

This article takes up the feminist movement against sexual violence in Egypt after January 2011. It argues that the post-revolution movement is a distinct one, distinguished by the narratives of feminist discourse it advances and the various tools it uses. It further asserts that the January revolution represented both a material space arena and grand narrative that allowed for the creation of arenas for action, occupied by new and diverse feminist actors. In turn, this allowed for the production of new discourses and tools for a broad feminist movement, one that does not break in full with its predecessors, but rather represents a continuation and evolution of the older movement. In its methodology, this article relies on ethnography and personal interviews, as well as personal observation. It concludes that the new feminist movement in Egypt has currently moved beyond the struggle for recognition as its animating cause to make the issue of sexual violence in the public sphere the object of a long-term symbolic struggle that aims to change society’s perceptions about the abuses women endure daily in public life.