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Feminist Studies

Public Feminism, Female Shame, and Sexual Violence in Modern Egypt

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This paper examines the interconnections between public sexual violence, female shame,
and public feminism in modern Egypt. It connects aspects of public sexual violence against women
generally and politicized sexual violence in 21st
-century Egypt in particular, arguing that
successive political regimes in Egypt produce and maintain a spatial culture of humiliation and
inferiorization as a political tool of silencing, and oppressing women and opposition. This culture
of humiliation and inferiorization is premised upon media-oriented female shame ideas that relate
and condemn female sexuality and public participation, establishing the public space as
militarized, dangerous and exclusive. This paper attempts to assess the successes and failures
of public feminism in Egypt in addressing such politicized culture of female humiliation and
isolation in public spaces, with a particular focus on fighting politicized forms of sexual violence
directed against women in post-2011 revolutionary Egypt. It argues further that sexual violence
against women and the repression of public feminism in Egypt are parts of the failure of the
processes of democratic transition, state formation and of the survival of socio-economic and
cultural hierarchy and vulnerability in modern Egypt. The paper maintains that Egyptian women’s
remarkable and solid public activism during and after 2011-revolution shows them as able to
invade the exclusive public spaces and hence are able to create new spaces of female resistance
and new forms of public mobilization in the country.

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Publication Information
: Journal of International Women\'s Studies.,
Number of Pages
-
ISBN
-
Language
English
ISSN
https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol2
Subject(s)
Sexual Violence
Public feminism
Egypt, Egyptian women
State feminism
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Citation
Other Information
Type
Article
Part Of Series
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DOI Identifier
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