Abstract
North African women in general and Moroccan women in particular are no longer absent from the public sphere. They are activists “claiming equal rights and full citizenship” (Arfaoui 2014). Secular women’s organizations have made demands of their respective governments and put pressure on their parliaments or on the UN Commission on the Status of Women for fundamental changes in gender roles. The most remarkable change consists of women’s different achievements in legal rights and public life. In this respect, Tunisia has taken the lead, owing to its larger middle class, and Morocco is at the head of another substantive development. Using the protest strategies borrowed from human rights organizations, secular feminist activists continue the fight against violence and discrimination against women. Women’s activism has transformed gender roles and has led to a change in their status with regard to socio-political institutions and to their active political participation. Further measures in favor of protecting women’s rights are needed to guarantee their empowerment and contribution to development and democratization in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.
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Ennaji, M. (2020). Women’s Activism in North Africa: A Historical and Socio-Political Approach. In: Darhour, H., Dahlerup, D. (eds) Double-Edged Politics on Women’s Rights in the MENA Region. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27735-2_6
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