The Political Notebook

Tunisian rapper Volcanis le Roi (real name: Anis Mrabti) was arrested on January 25th at his parents’ home in a suburb of Tunis. He was arrested for this song: “Chay Ma Tbeddel (Nothing Has Changed).” The 27-year-old rapper uses the song to express his disappointment with the revolution’s aftermath, particularly over persistent police abuse.

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#Jan14. Tunisians yesterday marching in celebration of the one year anniversary of the ousting of former dictator Zine El Abedine Ben Ali. Tahia Tunis!

Photo Credit: Ali Garboussi

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Tunisians are marking January 14th, the first anniversary of the launch of their revolution (and the revolutions of other North African and Middle Eastern countries that followed suit and continue to do so). In honor of that, have a listen to “Rais Lebled (Mr. President),” an important protest rap song from well-known activist rapper El Général. The description on the YouTube has a decent English translation and the Arab Revolutionary Rap blog has a very nice one up, too.

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The Prospects for Women in Politics in 2012: From the US to Afghanistan

United States: 2012 is a general election year in the United States, and it’s a fairly certain bet that no woman will head the country come next January, but what are the prospects for the Congressional seats and governor’s positions across the country, and where exactly do women stand in the political sphere at this point? Did Hillary break ground in 2008? Yes. Do women stand a fair chance now that they’ve proved their mettle on the national scene? No.

The fight for representation is an important one: as a result of the 2010 elections, the level of representation for women in Congress fell for the first time in three decades. HERvotes, a collective effort by 40 different US women’s rights groups, was created for this election to ensure that women vote and that women’s economic and reproductive rights are preserved. The National Organization for Women also has a PAC dedicated to supporting feminist candidates (take a look at their endorsements here). Sen. Barbara Boxer has also created a PAC, called WinWithWomen2012, intended to up the numbers of female representatives.

Women’s issues (although honestly, aren’t they everyone’s issues?) are also a focus in the upcoming elections: reproductive health being high on the list of worries. As I reported before, 2011 was a banner year for states passing abortion restrictions (like waiting periods) into law and reproductive health has repeatedly come under fire both nationally and in the states with shutdowns of Planned Parenthood and moves against access to birth control. Economics is also a gendered issue: the job gains since 2008 have been predominantly by white men and from 2007-9 while men were making job gains, women were actually posting losses. Women accounted for 64% of public sector layoffs (making up 57% of public sector workers).

Afghanistan: Where women stand in the upcoming transitional and negotiation period is a critical, but inadequately addressed, question. There have been considerable gains in the past decade on the gender equality front, but gains aren’t necessarily permanent. One of the great fears of the activists who have worked long and hard to improve women’s rights and health and wellbeing is that the progress will evaporate as Karzai and the international community reach out to the Taliban and the warlords in an attempt to make peace. But what kind of peace will exist if women are ignored? The outcome document of the Bonn Conference this past December expressed vague admonitions to maintain gender equality and increase women’s role in political participation, but few Afghan women were themselves even present at the conference and the words seem at best like half-hearted moves toward a goal seen as secondary, even tertiary to the supposed goal of peace. Read more here on the issues that women face in Afghanistan.

North Africa: The North African countries that overthrew their dictators in 2011 are now facing transition in 2012 and where women will stand both politically and culturally is a big issue. In Tunisia, women and women’s rights groups have been very politically active and expressed great concern and trepidation over the consequences of the growing power of the Islamist Ennahda Party. They have been exerting great pressure on Ennahda to remain moderate and commit to maintaining women’s rights. The protests and the insistence that women’s issues remain a central part of the discussion and the women’s rights groups’ commitment to political activism all are incredibly positive elements. Egyptians have similar worries about the post-Mubarak political clout held by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafists, and Egyptian women continue to challenge the patriarchal elements of their culture and politics. In Libya, the debate is right now over a quota in the new constitution. As it stands women are tentatively granted a quota of a mere 10 percent, although they are protesting and organizations like The Voice of Libyan Women are pushing for 30%.

Europe: Women’s representation in parliament increased across Europe in 2011 (actually tripling in Slovenia), which is great momentum. Average representation in OSCE member states in Europe is 22% (the global average is 19.8). There are a number of European elections in 2012, hopefully offering the chance to keep the trend moving. Two of the French presidential candidates this year are women: Marine Le Pen of the National Front and Eva Joly of the Green Party will be battling the top candidates, incumbent Nicholas Sarkozy and challenger François Hollande. However, Martine Aubry of the Socialist Party, who openly swore to make gender equality a priority in her campaign in the hopes of addressing gender discrimination, is out. Serbia will undergo presidential and parliamentary elections this May and expects to hear from the EU about its possible accession in March. The pressure from the European Union to implement electoral reforms and progressive policies has meant the institution of a quota system to ensure a minimum representation of 30% for female parliamentarians. Elsewhere - one woman, Eva Biaudet is in contention for the Finnish presidency, and Turkey (holding presidential elections this year) may be sliding worryingly backwards on women’s rights.

Other posts you might like:

An Incomplete List of the Best Protest Slogans and Revolutionary Catchphrases of 2011.

الشعب يريد اسقاط النظام/Asha’ab yurīd isqāt anizām

“The people want the fall of the regime” and it’s variations (The people want the fall of the Makhzen (ruling elite in Morocco), or the Field Marshal) is probably the most classic and well-known of all the chants. Its simplicity and versatility and its place in 2011’s incredible politics make it the shoo-in for first place on this list

We are the 99%

This has been an inescapable slogan, and has resonated very powerfully with people’s experiences of economic injustice around the world, becoming a rallying cry and a point of unification for Occupiers.

ارحل/Irhal!

The command, Leave!, is directed at despots, from Ali Abdullah Saleh to Field Marshal Tantawi. Another versatile protest chant that has been heard in revolutionary music, painted on faces and walls and shouted in the streets countless times over thecourse of 2011.

يمكنك ان تدهس الورود، لكنك لا تستطيع ان تؤخر الربيع

“You can trample the roses but you cannot delay the spring” hardly has the ubiquity of “Asha’ab yurīd isqāt anizzām,” but happens to be one of my personal favorites.

Strike like an Egyptian.

An expression of admiration and solidarity, playing on “Walk like an Egyptian,” acknowledging the incredible influence of the North African revolutions.

The people are too big to fail.

The play on the famous phrase said about banks captures perfectly the intentions of the Occupiers and the potency of the Occupy movement.

كن مع الثورة/Kun ma’ athawra

A beautiful sentiment: be with the revolution. Based on the saying “Be with Allah.”

We are the power!

One of the more popular ones heard in recent Russian protests against Putin’s governance and rigged parliamentary elections.

هو يمشي مش هنمشي/”Huwa yimshī mish hanimshī.”

This very catchy phrase, in Egyptian dialect, means “he will leave and we will not!”

Extras: Watch the teaser clip of director Stephen Savona’s documentary “Tahrir,” featuring footage of Egyptian protest chants. And watch Egyptian singer Ramy Essam perform his song “Irhal,” featuring a number of popular chants.

(Thanks to @ArabRevRap for input on this post!)

AFP/Getty photo via.

Any slogans in particular that you felt were amazing or influential in global protests this year?

Today, December 17th, is the anniversary of Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Sidi Bouzid. Perhaps one of the most powerful and ultimately catalyzing instances of individual protest, Bouazizi (whose real first name is Tarek) self-immolated to protest his mistreatment at the hands of the government and the inability to make a living for himself - a pain and frustration that resonated with Tunisians, and then citizens of nations across North Africa and the Middle East. He later died on January 4th, but the protests and demonstrations that were set in motion across the region have continued to this day - so far leaving three dictators downed in their wake.

Above (clockwise from the top): demonstrators in Tunisia hold a large poster of Bouazizi (Salah Habibi/AP); graffiti in Tunisia by an unknown artist shows Bouazizi’s face and his last name in tribute to his martyr status; his cousin Walid Bouazizi mourns at his grave in Garaat Benour cemetery in Sidi Bouzid in January (Fred Dufour/AFP); Manoubia Bouazizi holds a photograph of her son (Maxpp/Zumapress).

Can we all stop acting like political Islam means that “Arabs can’t do democracy”?

I mean, really? Talking about the possible dangers of the political rise of the Muslim Brotherhood or the Salafists or the Ennahda Party (particularly when it comes to social freedoms) don’t have to involve saying things like “Are the sceptics who said that Arabs could not handle democracy—and would inevitably elect nasty people who would never surrender power—being proved horribly right?”

Just to point out - we rarely look at the Evangelical role in US politics as an argument for a Western inability to successfully implement and maintain a democracy, but Evangelical Christianity’s political and activist role is frequently aimed at detriment to social freedoms like the right to choose or the freedom to plan a family and to have safe sex, or to have the same rights even if you’re gay.* We absolutely need to be talking about what the outcome of Ennahda’s big win in Tunisia and the growing power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt might mean for those populations, but we also need not to get carried away into the land of paternalistic Orientalism and start making broad decisions and evaluations of any culture’s innate ability to form a certain kind of government to our own liking, or make snap decisions for those countries about whether or not their new systems are successfully created.

Important things to remember here when talking about this: not all residents of the Middle East or North Africa are Arab or Muslim; a significant chunk of Egyptians and Tunisians did not vote for political Islam and are exerting pressures on those parties to dilute their politics, make promises about their social policies, and form coalitions with more moderate or secular parties; talking about the failure of a political transition just as it’s officially beginning is hasty and silly; not Western does not equal not successful.

*If you’re reading this and you’re Evangelical, this is not equivalent to me saying your religion is bad or that you automatically believe these things or act in these ways. I’m talking about the politicized elements seen in and wielded by numerous conservative/Republican candidates and their political influencers.

Women and Political Transition in the MENA Region. It’s a little hard to talk about women’s rights and democracy in the Middle East and North Africa without being totally Western and sounding paternalistic or Orientalist. So I’m going to preface this by saying my worries about women’s rights in the post-revolution systems in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya don’t stem from a belief about anything negatively inherent in Islamic or African or Arab cultures, but rather skepticism in general about anybody’s genuine commitment to gender equality and recognition of historical trends in multiple countries. I’m not pulling a Friedman here and saying, “Listen up young countries, time to grow up and get with globalization and get in line with all our Western-defined universalisms and get rid of your camels and such.”

Historical evidence shows that in times of revolution and political transition, even those done with the best and most progressive of intentions, gender equality (or equity) loses out. This happens because women’s rights are seen as secondary nearly everywhere. Women who vocally try to have women’s rights incorporated into new governments and constitutions and revolutionary demands typically get told that they’re being selfish, that gender equality is a goal that is subordinate to and distracts from all the important things. In the transitions from Communist to post-Communist societies, Eastern bloc countries rejected gender equality because of its associations with communist politics (however minimally). This doesn’t have to be an eternally reproducing pattern, though, and I’m hoping that this is not what happens in the three North African countries that have seen their dictators fall this year.

In Egypt, as we speak, Bothaina Kamel is beginning her campaign as the first woman ever to run for president. Egypt has, however, seen some rocky events in its response to women and women’s rights in the transition. The women’s demonstration in Cairo in early March following the fall of Mubarak was met with jeers, harassment and counter-demonstrations. Libya also faces some difficulties, only one woman is on the 51 member Transitional National Council. However, in daily life, women are reporting a much greater sense of freedom in their roles and activities. Their role in the revolution/civil war was indispensable and undisputed.

In Tunisia, the success in recent elections by the moderate Islamic Ennahda party has caused some concern among more secular circles. Here are the good things: A) while Ennahda identifies as Islamist, the party has made a number of statements committing to women’s rights and to moderate and secular governance and B) they felt the need to do so because of popular pressure. Tunisian women have certainly been voiced and active in the post-revolution transitional period and during the elections, and international concern has been focused on the preservation of their rights. The Tunisian Women’s Association put out this video campaign to remind women to consider their rights when they went to the polls. After Ennahda’s victories, a few hundred women demonstrated in Tunis to voice their concern over the future of their rights.

None of this amounts to any guarantee, but it does amount to reason for hope. It’s particularly promising that women’s roles in government and women’s rights has been such a present issue in discussion of post-revolution Tunisian governance. (This also could be an opportunity to showcase the fact that Islam and decent, humane governance in which genders find equality under the law are not antithetical concepts.)

[Photo: Salah Habibi/AFP]

Tunisian election graffiti and cartoons. 1. Election graffiti in Sidi Bouzid, home of Mohammed Bouazizi. AP. 2. Cartoons drawn by Tunisian schoolchildren encouraging people to vote. AFP. 3. Election posters seen around the city of Tunis. Ezequiel Scagnetti/European Parliament/Flickr

These elections are a moment of victory for my son who died defending dignity and liberty. Nothing would have happened if my son had not reacted against voicelessness and a lack of respect…. He is no longer the son of Tunisia, he is the son of the whole world.

Manoubia Bouazizi, Mohammed Bouazizi’s mother, in a Reuters interview on Saturday. Today, there are number of photos of her lined up to vote in Tunisia’s first competitive elections since Ben Ali’s ouster.

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Tarek gasmi, a banker, and Lalhar Belkhir, a civil servant, sit on av Habib Bourghiba after voting in Tunisia’s first free elections.

The Guardian, besides live-blogging the event, has dedicated an entire tumblr to the first competitive elections for post-Ben Ali Tunisia!

Also be sure to follow the hashtag #tnelec on Tumblr and Twitter!

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As the Tunisian election approaches, artists and citizen action groups are putting a lot of effort into get out the vote videos. Some are fairly cliché get out the vote videos (although, as Max Fisher at the Atlantic points out, that in itself is its own kind of impressive), and others are musical. I have a particular fondness for the music video Enti Essout put together by Tunisian singers. There’s also an awesome get out the vote ad by the Association of Tunisian Women directed at encouraging women to use these elections to stand up for their own rights in the post-revolutionary society.

This one, however, is in my opinion, the best one out there. It’s brief, kind of chilling, and very affecting. In the video a huge poster of Ben Ali appears in La Goulette in Tunis, where people begin to mill around it, shocked, afraid and confused until a group of them finally decides simply to pull it down. The message underneath reads, “Beware. Dictatorship can return. Vote on October 23rd.” Wow.

Read Max Fisher’s article on the Tunisian election videos at the Atlantic and a blog post about them here.

Morning Reading. Project on Middle East Democracy’s brief on the upcoming Tunisian election. This October 23rd, Tunisia will hold its first post-revolution competitive elections to vote for a national constitutional assembly. Read POMED’s brief on the electoral process, the process of transition to democratic rule, the set up of the national constitutional council and the political parties at play.

Omar Offendum, a Syrian-born rap artist living in America, whose songs have caught fire across the Middle East (particularly “#Jan25 Egypt” which you can listen to on TPN’s revolution music playlist) is interviewed by NBC about the role of rap music in the uprisings. The youth movement, he says, and the coming of age of a huge population of young people is “the wind in the sails of the revolution.”

Read the story on MSNBC about the place for rap and hip-hop in these revolutions.

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Despair, Disillusionment and Anger in Post-Revolution Tunisia. Tunisian Tumblr user ramix09 recently wrote into The Political Notebook to express his disappoint with the lack of progress in transitional Tunisia after their ouster of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. “[C]e qui ce passe en tunisie est une manipulation,” he wrote. What’s happening in Tunisia is a manipulation.

He’s not the only. Anger over stagnation in Tunisia has reached even the famous town of Sidi Bouzid, where the fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself in front of the town municipal offices in protest of his humiliation by a government official. That immolation was one of the major sparks of the region-wideArab Spring. The New York Times ran a story on the town a few days ago. The Bouazizi family has left, and the town is angry at them, some believing they have taken government money to live in wealth (they did not). They feel left behind, still without jobs or money and have taken down the picture of Mohammed that was displayed on the street where he was martyred. Last month the town erupted in protest and the ensuing clash with police left a fourteen-year-old boy, Thabit Hajlaoui, dead.

It is a combination of desire for greater political change, a feeling of being forgotten, and an economy that is still struggling that is driving the restlessness and disappointment felt by Tunisians. The Times quoted Mongi Boughzala, an economics professor at the University of Tunis as saying

There hasn’t been enough provided or offered. The few programs that came were late or insufficient. Young people expected something immediately. They expected that after taking this revolutionary step, there would be some return, in terms of jobs but also recognition.

ramix09 wrote to me that

et méme apres l arrivée du premier ministre béji caid essebssi rien a changer!! car le gouvernement est trop lent et il est entrain de protéger les personnages de l ancien régime de ben ali encore plus, la plupart des tunisiens ne sont pas inscrit dans les élections parce qu ils ne savent pas encore qui choisir est c’est vraiment dommage.

Trans. Even after the the arrival of PM Béji Caid Essebessi, nothing has changed! The government is too slow and is still protecting people from the old rule of Ben Ali. Most Tunisians don’t vote in the elections because they don’t yet know who to choose. It’s truly a shame.

Yesterday, Tunisians gathered in Tunis to protest the ties that the current government maintains with the old regime and the old politicians from Ben Ali’s Rally for Constitutional Democracy party. They shouted: “End it with the dictatorship” and “Not freedom nor return for the group of RCDists.” It was announced today that a former ally of the regime had evaded justice and been able to flee the country despite being charged with crimes. The Tunisians are justifiably angry that so few elements of the former government have been brought to justice and that many remain in positions of power over the transition process.

Photo: Protesters in Tunis on Monday. Credit: Fethi Belaid/AFP.

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The Prospects for Women in Politics in 2012: From the US to Afghanistan

Can we all stop acting like political Islam means that “Arabs can’t do democracy”?

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