 Thank you very much Gilbert, and I'm very pleased to be here and I Thank my friend Gilbert for inviting me to be here with you I'm going to actually read the Paper that I've produced for this particular talk when you get to my age It's you lose your words very easily. So to be on the safe side. I decided actually To to read my paper Few people would consider the changes in Regimes in the Arab countries as the birth of a new order that will transform aspect of the Societies that bred the revolts regime changes carried through a revolution are just the first stage of a lengthy process whose ultimate outcome is defined among other factors and if The intervention of foreign powers is not an issue by the strategies adopted in the post revolution period most notably the outcome very based on whether or not efforts are made to Control or expand the revolutionary demands and whether political Participation of people is encouraged promoted or inhibited The political elite who takes up power in aftermath of a revolution usually want to consolidate its power and Restrain the opposition the democratic forces that revolted against deprivation Inequality and tyranny want to see revolutionary demands met and promises delivered Right now. We are witnessing this phenomenon in relation to the uprisings that have come to be collectively known as Arab Spring Sadly the aftermath of the original Change-seeking forces Are not very promising at this point Most notably the swift turn in favor of Islamist parties that has occurred in the wake of these uprisings for example in Egypt and Tunisia While not unexpected is worrisome indeed for a variety of reasons the establishment of full-fledged Islamic State Allah Iran may not be in order But the very experience of Iran warns us of the serious challenges ahead for the democratic forces The social and political Consequences of the 1979 revolution in Iran a political milieu of which I was apart Have no doubt influences influenced my grim outlook On one hand it has been very hard not to be positively affected by the uprisings in the Arab countries However, the very past experience has made me cautious in my reaction to revolutionary euphoria a colleague of mine a historian Recently told me that the problem with scholars outside the field of history is that you don't have a Long-term understanding of political events that might be true But just consider how many times people in my country of birth Iran Have revolted against a tyrannical ruler only later to fall under the spell of yet another self-serving corrupt autocrat in the Century alone Iranian people took part in several major nationalist and regional socialist movements joined in two major revolutions anti-dictatorial revolutions and forced four kings into exile the most distracting and devastating anti of course Consequence of reversal of the revolution was of course the 1979 Revolution where the overthrow of a of the monarchy resulted in the establishment of an archaic right-negating misogynist State theocracy This outcome bore enormous cost for women who had supported the revolution in millions in the millions and in different forms For women in particular a revolution who's mobilizing demands for freedom democracy and justice Turned into a huge prison and they're the self-appointed guardians of Sharia in fact the repeated defeats of progressive social and political movements in Iran Throughout the 20th century has been profound for Iranian women The most basic demands of activists of women's rights to have rights to claim rights to use Hanoi aren's profound concept are still those articulated in early 1900s that Obviously have remained and fulfilled the Iranian revolution and its consequences have been defined a defining event for the region and indeed for the whole World for this reason it is quite appropriate to examine the experiences of the revolution for the particularly for democratic forces For example, why and how did Iranian women after regime change in 1979? so easily lose the modest legal gains and the tiny shares of social resources that were limited rewards of over a century of a struggle for rights and Why and what are the whether there is actually some similar Fate waiting Arab women after the uprisings or the Arab Springs and Will the another question that bothers me is will the Secular left and liberal forces that revolted against dictatorship in on a platform of democracy social justice and dignity Support the struggle for gender democracy in the Arab countries These are significant questions particularly in light of the sneaky movements evident in Tunisia and Egypt That we that are in the direction of curbing the activism of women as well as Undemining their existing legal and social rights For Iranian women what we are witnessing in relation to Tunisia and Egypt is distressed distressed fully familiar We worried from the start about the situations emerging in Arab countries Self-identified Muslim human rights lawyer Shirin Abadi, which I understand has been a speaker in the same program here Express these concerns in March 2012 when she called upon Arab women to learn from the Experiences of women in Iran and warned them against making the same mistakes So did Algerian scholars and women's rights activists including Maria Heli Lukas and Karima Benoun and others from the events of the early 1990s in Algeria They knew only too well the atrocities of which militant Islamists are capable in the name of Islamic justice as well as the brutal Brutalities of the army in their countries We understood very well the hidden meaning of President Morsi's Statement after the victory in the election that the Muslim Brotherhood's success reflected the second conquest of Egypt by Islam The developments that have taken place in the region so far uphold our misgivings for example consider that after the Devastating bloody uprisings in Libya the first revolutionary statement Of the interim government as announced by Mustafa Abdul Jalil was a promise to lift the ban on polygamy and to follow the Sharia in legal matters and Who knows what would be the response of the elite in power To Salafist campaign for gender segregation in education and in public places in Egypt the Similar events are taking place the new constitution hastily put together by the assemblies heavily stacked Brotherhood and Salafi members and then voted on the rush on a rush referendum in which only 32 percent of the electorate participated is stress the ruling of the Sharia as the basis of legislation The document mentions women's rights only in the context of family and utilizes the insinuating language of protection of their dignity and morality in a way remarkably similar to Iranian Constitution Fear now looms over the heads of women who thought that by participating day and night Alongside men in the Tahir is a square protest They had gained respect as well as recognition as citizens with equal rights with men Now they fear rollbacks of the reforms to family law passed in 2005 the Islamist push for Abolishing the minimum age for marriage for girls and so on and so forth Events in Tunisia point in the same direction So far we have seen the inclusion of a statement in the existing Constitution that describes women as complimenting men which is seen by many as Step into delineate places of women in Tunisia and public life Debates on television over returning polygamy to Tunisia in order supposedly to respond to demographic imbalance hard-line Salafist attacking and Left-winning and liberal students on university campuses the moral censorship of artistic activities and violent attacks on journalists and activists that recently actually culminated into the assassination of Shokri Belayt Left-leaning activists in Tunisia For many of us who have lived and survived the establishment of an Islamic regime in Iran These actions while not surprising are nonetheless distressing Iranian women from all walks of life also participated in the 1979 revolution More importantly secular left and liberal women believers and non-believers alike Wage the first mass protests against Ayatollah Khomeini's demand for the rebelling of women in public places a directive that occurred just a few weeks after the 1979 revolution Ironically on the eve of women international women's rights celebration of 1979 We rightly saw Ayatollah's a statement as the opening of the floodgates to other policies to to follow and We were right The spontaneous insurrection of women with no support from any left or liberal organizations and parties led to massive Gatherings in front the offices of the Provisionary government followed by numerous sit-ins Strikes and work stoppages in ministries universities and girls high school These activities lasted two whole weeks despite the continued attack of self-style his walleye ganks on on protesters The strength of the women's movement against re veiling forced a temporary retreat on the Regime on the clerical state. However, it was a temporary and minor success only The hijab became mandatory several months later after the bloody suppression of the left Anti-government forces in universities the regime's invasion of Kurdistan and Turkmen Sahra And the closure of all universities and the expulsion of leftist Professors and students and their deploy of the Islamic cultural revolution All liberal daily newspapers were shut down on the Ayatollah's direct instruction to the gangs too And I quote his words break the pens of the journalists This new atmosphere of repression at the advances of the Islamists would have required the formation of a coalition and the mobilization of middle classes along with The working classes who had participated in the uprisings in various ways hoping for the betterment of their lives What was needed was to take seriously the alarming signs of the rising tide Tide of authoritarianism in religious car and to form the broadest possible United Front against the Islamist ideological and organizational onslaught Drawing together liberal minded men and women as well as Gender-conscious women and an alliance among opposition forces could have become a political outlet for and preserve the early dynamism of Iranian women's Insurrection in defense of women's rights individual liberties and social and political democracy Nothing that has happened since Changed this view that a few of us within the leadership of Etad melees and our national union of women persistently argued against the populist position of Some of the women who acted as mediators between our organization and the fedai organization That was the largest political left organization at the time in the end the absence of the full support and assistance of the community of secular intellectuals And the left theoretical confusions and silence or at best flimsy and mild criticism of the Islamic regime's attacks on democratic freedoms and in particular on women's rights facilitated the processes that made Ayatollah the unchallengeable and uncompromising leader of the revolution Women activists were rendered defenseless in the face of the political avalanche that had befallen Iran the state-run media Propaganda eyes that the royalists and supporters of the US had Infiltrated the women's movement a good part of the left also began to articulate the discourse that the issues of Women's rights were secondary to other more important issues that Iran was facing Khomeini's support for of the Muslim students takeover of American embassy The hostage so-called hostage crisis fooled many Particularly those among the left that the regime was anti-imperialist The Iran Iraq war made the situation even worse and in the process silenced women's voices against the Islamist gender agenda and assisted in the rolling back of the modest legal gains achieved by women and their the Shah's regime as well as the introduction of unimaginable new restrictions on women's social rights and mobility The women's movement was not blameless in this process at the outset We had failed to listen carefully to Khomeini's rhetorical pronouncements that women and men are equal in the eyes of God The meaning of this statement that the new government would provide women with all rights denied to them under the Shah's regime Within the confines of the Sharia was crystal clear However, the dominance of populist anti-imperialist tendencies on or unrealistic Expectations from the revolution within the ranks of the most active gender conscious sections of the female population that is urban educated middle-class women prevented us from seeing through the revolutionary promises and the Islamist medieval agenda wrapped in nationalist God Second, we have taken for granted our existing rights and personal liberties We did not make any connection with women's experiences in anti-colonial Movements in Egypt in Algeria in Palestine and in other places Nor did we try to learn from the experiences of pioneers of women's rights in our own country Iran Who's reward for participating in early 20th century? constitutional revolution was to Deny them the right to vote in the country's first constitution along with children the insane and criminals Also, we were either unaware or did not appreciate the intense debates and struggles That had been integral in the process of winning minimal gains for women in personal status law during the 1960s and 1970s worse a good part of the opposition either chose silence or joined in the regime's hostile Discourse against the social and legal reforms of the previous regime as Corrupting influences of the West they miss their ultimate goal and Consequences of this propaganda that was to discredit Activists of women's rights and their demands This one-sided perception is now echoed in Egypt as Women's rights activists hoda el saddha pointed out in conversation with Denise Kandioti One of the key obstacles faced by activists of women rights in Egypt is and I quote a prevalent public perception that associates women's rights Activists and activities with the ex first lady Susan Mubarak and her entourage that is with corrupt regime policies The public perception is already being politically manipulated to Resigned laws and legislative procedures that were passed in the last ten years She says to improve the legal position of women particularly personal in personal Status law these laws are deliberately being discredited as Susan's laws she says in Iran the new regimes formidable and systemic Suppression of the women's movement was also accompanied by dismantling the limited legal reforms of previous decades as dictated by foreigners and Unislamic and benefiting only upper and upper middle class women hence the annulment of the Family Protection Act that was enacted in the early late 1960s and Banning women from the bench This followed by other draconian Measures which returned women's half citizenship status are based on the sharia-based civil and criminal codes This was only too late for women's activists to learn how women's rights are tied in double knot when favorable social and legal reforms are introduced by an unpopular authoritarian regime only Then did they appreciate how profound would be the losses or gains for women from shifts in political power in terms of legal protection and access to resources Let me Emphasize that none of what has been said is meant to suggest that the struggles of people in Arab countries to achieve social justice democracy and dignity are Already lost because of the Islamic character of the new regimes First as should be obvious the plight of people in the region cannot be reduced to Islam or even to the rise of Islamism for that matter that is to say that the phenomenon of present-day Islamism is not the cause but the results of a set of Policies pushed in the region and obediently carried out by corrupt local tyrants Decades of neoliberal Economic policy state retraction from social welfare services privatization and break up and distribution of public assets among the regime's cronies Enriched a small minority is squeezing the rest of the population government corruption huge income gaps poverty and employment suppression of political freedom free expression and open debate and consistent containment of democratic alternatives have been with some variations pattern almost everywhere throughout the region the universal resentment of their western powers for their Pursuit of their own geopolitical interest and economic interest as well as their military Adventures and double standards particularly in relation to Israel Palestine problems All added to the people's discontent all of these circumstances discredited and made a mockery of the very concept of western democracy and human rights discourse and Helped Islamists to appear as champions of national dignity and justice Decades of suppression of the left that Weakened this section of the population and its mobilizing Possibilities made masks the only venue for mobilizing this content a Circumstance that assisted in the growth of Islamist parties and in their organization of their supporters the election results in Aftermath of the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia in fact Confirms this reality that the left could not possibly compete with with the brotherhood and Annahta Iran's humane East Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front Morocco's Justice and Development Party and many other brands of Islamism all grew and flourished and as a result of this economic and political mess Depriving the masses of their political education and taking away their sense of dignity economic security and hope made them impressionable and receptive to the idea that Islam is the only viable alternative and Only hope for changing the orders that from which they were suffering This is particularly true when jobs and medical and other welfare services are Also offered as the invisible aid of God, of course with dollars pouring in from cynical regional oil powers as an army of the underclass is also ready to execute Invented religious moral prescriptions which focus on controlling women's body and sexuality everywhere Granted that Islamists do not constitute an Andifferentiated mass no doubt differences do exist among Egypt's Muslim brotherhood and Annahta with Al-Qaeda and Taliban criminals in Afghanistan and sorrow Sharia in Tunisia Lashkar Islam in SWAT northern Pakistan and many other brands of Militant Islamism However, when it comes to the issues related to family women and sexuality differences among these groups are matters of degrees Needless to say that the force of their political and ideological Power is defined by the level of social and economic Advances in the societies in which they operate and the strength of counter hegemonic forces However, the Islamist focus on the bodies and moral contacts of women and male defined purity and honor of women Signified that given the opportunity They would violently block all possible public spaces from the secular activist women's rights Activists and at best they try to control these activities within the confines of Sharia Hence everywhere. I would argue everywhere Islamist political gains are accompanied by losses for women For this reason, it is not helpful to exaggerate The differences among the Islamists or worse ignore the fact that with the rising influence of Islamism Since the mid 1970s the gendered character of the practices associated with the state and society Relationship has transformed Moreover the regions patriarchal and neo patriarchal ideologies and institutions Take as their most passionately articulated mission that of restoring conservative Religious doctrine and teachings on the status of women Indeed contempt for women's intelligence and emotional and moral stability is the marker of religious prescriptions and the moral regime of various brands of fundamentalism be they Christian fundamentalism Jewish fundamentalism Hindu fundamentalism or Islamic fundamentalism Hence it would be misleading to argue as some do that Islamist parties in Egypt Tunisia and elsewhere are the same as Christian Democrats in Germany and Sweden or that Islamists today are inclusive respectful democratic alterations and flexible in the interpretation of Sharia as some journalists are arguing the measure of this Enviable moderation and democratic brand of Islamism is of course whether or not an Islamic party is hostile to the West Egypt's brotherhood for example has a scored high in this regard and its assessment benefited from the mediation that it had between US and Israel and Hamas during the This last recent invasion of Gaza by Israeli forces The willful clouding of Islamist persistently followed agenda of reshaping the rights and live lives of their female citizens Should not surprise us even though the defense of women's rights was the excuse for invading Afghanistan and Iraq who does not know that the oppression of Muslim women at the hands of Muslim men Is a demonizing tool in the hands of Western? Imperialism to justify military adventures in the region Still it is a stunning that American and British governments are now full force in the business of Promoting moderate Islamism for the region in the hope of controlling the rising tide of resistance against their Neoclonial and neoliberal economic policies in the region They continue the Cold War strategy of identifying the secular left and nationalist forces in the region as enemies and Saudi Arabia and Qatari back of Bahabis as reliable partners in Afghanistan, Yemen Bahrain Egypt and everywhere Even more disturbing is the unjustified Advocacy that radical Islamist groups sometimes receive from a portion of the left and anti imperialist anti war activists in the West Hailing their political and moral challenges that Islamist pose to Western hegemony and its liberal values their gendered practices sometimes even their Cruelty against women do not seem to generate much concern let alone open condemnation the rational sometimes is that populations suffering from poverty and employment and Neocolonial aggression should not be polarized by raising gender related questions Such a rational fails to acknowledge that women represent the overwhelming majority of the armies of the poor Unemployed and exploited in these societies in addition to being daily targets of misogynist humiliation and violence This type of reasoning made the Egyptian journalist Mona Tahavi that this is just one example the target of criticism for her concerns expressed against the policies against women held by the Brotherhood, even though she was equally condemning the actions of the army in Egypt Other times the reality of anti-Muslim Islamophobia and racism in the West is Invoked to silence criticism of Islamist gender practices This was a case recently when a Palestinian hip-hop group was denounced for a music video it produced About the honor killing the critics argued that the group had presented Palestinians as uncivilized Blaming the community and devaluing its culture and that it had followed the script of an international campaign Against what they the critics identified as so-called honor killing the point That is overlooked here is the question of balance that is to say social realities are Multidimensional and integrated and we do not have to choose between forces of Oppression in an effort to determine whether one is more detrimental than others to Peaceful and dignified life for women Something that David the standard has called the terrible award of Oppression not withstanding all of this all that has been said I don't think anyone can truly anticipate the direction that the Arab Spring is going to take in their future For one thing the societies that have gone through revolutionary upheavals in the last two years Now face a new order whose parameters Complexities and contradictions are not yet sorted out It is possible and one should certainly remain hopeful that the unfinished Revolutions in the region will produce results more favorable to the democratic forces that started the uprisings Aside from the existence of a vibrant civil society That refused to pack it in and go home certain differences between the revolutionary processes in Iran As opposed to Tunisia and Egypt in particular May positively influence the turn of the events and return the tide of Islamic authoritarianism to begin with Evolutions in Arab countries that succeeded the regime change Were aborted through the advice and active assistance of foreign powers Ben Ali's and Mubarak's Early exit was designed to prevent total breakdown of the whole system and to keep the military and security forces intact Unlike what that which happened in Iran The Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Nahda did succeed in winning the elections and in the case of Egypt the presidency as well However, since the whole system had not collapsed They could not take over the armed forces and were content with making deals even though recent a statement by the Minister of Defense that the army would not sit by Idol if the country's future is in danger makes one wonder how long these deals will last the left and in particular the liberal oppositions such as The NSF National Salvation Front Also are very much active Such was not the case in Iran Where many members of the leading industrial and business classes in the country as well as some of the top generals and bureaucrats Actually departed long before the Shah's Fate had been decided What we see in Arab countries is the continued political instability and clashes With the property and business classes also engaged in this struggle for a share of the power However, the existence of diverse interests in the post uprising Millio may offer an opportunity Opportunity to democratic forces change seeking and employed youth women's rights activists trade unions and the poor and middle classes to regroup and reshape themselves and Seize the opportunity to communicate to the people their alternative vision and Strategies for change and to stop the Islamist ideological and political onslaught second other important Factors are at play particularly two differences between the experience of Iran and the new revolutionary Countries in the region that needs a special attention first both Tunisia and Egypt escaped the immediate bloody episodes of post-revolutionary post-revolution Iran in which had witnessed the effective slaughter of hundreds of the former regime's Figures army generals ministers members of the former parliament's top bureaucrats Even lower ranked army officers and security police within the first weeks of and months of the revolution this butchery Generated a lasting rage among sections of the population who were affiliated with the victims Or simply were hoping for a fair and open trial of the suspects individuals Their ruthless killings continued later after the Iran Iraq war Also before his death Khomeini ordered the massacre of several thousands of political prisoners Followed by kidnapping and assassination known as chain killings of prominent figures inside and outside Iran What were the consequences of this bloodshed it was that for The first one was that they desensitized people against violence a problem that has deeply infested Iranian Society and it is a major social concern right now in Iran and the source of fear for ordinary citizens The bloodshed also demoralized and frightened others who had enthusiastically participated in pre-revolution Street demonstrations and who were disappointed at the outcome, but became fearful of or paralyzed by the brutality of the new regime Second important factor is that contrary to the case of Iran the uprisings in the Arab countries Did not rely on anti-western and anti-imperialist discourse discourse to mobilize people's support Neither was the establishment of an Islamic State or the rule of Sharia demand at no points It was a demand what united the various forces that produced The revolution was a shared imperative to replace the existing regimes with an accountable state that had the good of people in mind and Could bring an end to the political and financial crisis in these countries Some would the stretch this point to argue that the uprisings demands Match the modernist Islamic thought Hence they insist that revolutions in the Arab world namely in Egypt and Tunisia were Islamic revolutions and the post developments are as they should have been In fact, I would argue that Given that the demands of the revolution in none of the Arab countries included the rule of Sharia or Return to more Islamic practices one can reasonably say that they were popular uprisings for With overwhelmingly Muslim participants, but with distinctly secular demands it then follows that the That the governing Islamists are not able to manipulate people's religious emotions and label the oppositions challenges as an Islamic as Their counterparts did in Iran Neither do they have a charismatic leader comparable to Ayatollah Khomeini with an ideological blueprint for the kind of Islamic regime that he wanted To replace the monarchy the light the faql or the supremacy of the jurist with a Remarkable talent in reaching out to people and manipulate their religious emotions and get away with an imaginable use of violence against the opposition in addition the relatively late entry of both and nahda and Muslim Brotherhood into the mass protest Two years ago denied them any claim against other forces that they initiated the uprising and therefore have the legitimate reason to rule All these factors should assist the opposition to keep its focus on the very issue that prompted the revolts the military Dictatorship the high unemployment of youth who constitute the 50 or in some places 65% of the total population in Arab countries the low wages police harassment Brazen state corruption and the concentration of wealth businesses and job opportunities in the hands of those connected with the regime The left liberal Intellectuals who started the protest in Iran Against the Shah's regime had similar grievances however The inability of the regime to respond to their demands effectively and promptly coupled with the devious skills of Khomeini and his associates to rally people around the idea of foreign threat and imperialists invasion Successfully diverted attention Temporarily at least from the original economic and political demands of the revolution Ayatollah Khomeini's response to the hundreds of thousands of people who were driven to poverty in the aftermath of the revolution and who were hoping for delivery of False promises pre-revolutionary promises was that the people revolted for Islam Not for economic rewards. His famous words. I quote that economics is for donkeys not for believers Clearly shows that what we were Actually dealing with what conclusions can be drawn from all all of this Surely the signs are Many for the hard challenges ahead for the peoples of the Arab countries and particularly for the opposition in which women are a part But we also see many signs That Islamists are losing their grip on the people in every Muslim country that has tasted a dose of Islamist violence and are fed up with their Illusionary plans to restore Islamic values that have nothing to do with the genuine concerns of people The continued resistance against ruling Islamist parties in Tunisia and Egypt aside people are storm people is storming the headquarters of Islamic Islamist militia in Libya following the killing of the US ambassador protest rallies in Pakistan following the shooting of Mala Yusuf Zay the Girl young girl who was shot by Al Qaeda or jihadist the massacre of the flu shot technicians in Pakistan Massive street demonstrations against Jama'at Islami now in Bangladesh all speak to one fact that while men and women Number among those on the side of the Islamist There are at least as many women and men who oppose the rise of Islamist brand of religious right in their countries and that the majority of people don't feel they need the Salafist or Taliban or other offshoots of Al Qaeda to tell them how to be good Muslims Rana Jawad's reported from Libya in September that an astonishing number of people told her that the mere existence of Islamist parties is an offensive concept Surely the case of Iran following the establishment of the Islamist Regime in the country has made people in the region aware of the fact that when it comes to the issues of freedom dignity and social justice a Religious estate is no alternative to a pseudo secular authoritarian state And that when religious conservatism is combined With sexism Classism and ethnic and religious discrimination as well as neoliberal economic policies in the region The battle for achieving democratic rights and social justice becomes even more precarious. I Started with a rather grim outlook, but I want to end with some hope and optimism Perhaps this reflects the Gramscian concept of optimism of the heart and pessimism of the intelligent But resistance of Intellectuals workers youth and women's groups against the ruling Islamist the military and the businesses and property classes in Revolutionary Arab countries show that the prospects of a more democratic future for people and more of Specifically for women is not totally lost in the face of post uprising developments right now we see The formation of major political coalitions in Egypt and Tunisia Libya and other Arab countries by change seeking individuals and political parties the left the liberals religious minorities youth trade unions and other organized sections of the civil society They are determined to protect the existing rights and civil legal Institutions and to push for materialization of the democratic demands of the uprisings just as an example in this respect Mentions can be made of the coalition of 33 women's rights organizations in Egypt that came together around the issue of women That issues that women wanted to be included in the constitution such as a law Against sexual harassment the women activists have been instrumental in raising public consciousness through street demonstrations and role plays on subways for example in Cairo on the question of sexual harassment of women that is a pervasive Problem in in Egypt and they see the sexual harassment only not only from the coming from the ordinary men But also as a veiled policy to drive women out of the public spaces The birth of another coalition the democratic revolutionary coalition Consisting of 10 left-leaning Parties and movements is another constructive move by the opposition as they have realized that Egypt is going through a dangerous phase that demands the unity of all national forces and not just the left as well as of course the other coalitions of for example national salvation front and other Parties that are opposing Morsy's policies What we we see the same determination from Tunisia and women and their organizations The coalition for women of Tunisia made up of 15 registered NGOs was announced in September based on the shared ideal of gender Equality as a dimension of human rights and to protect the existing rights that are in danger similar steps even though in a smaller scale was taken in Libya More conservative Libya through launching the Libyan women forum that represents eight women's rights groups immediately following the election results in 2011 and they have the objective of advocating Libyan women's rights embedded in the Constitution by the way the Constitution was Writing of the Constitution was recently announced to be postponed because of the turmoil in the country these are significant developments and their success have Defining impacts on future political directions in the region including in Syria and in Iran Surely a lasting and deeper social and cultural makeover of these societies and the transformation of gender Relations and sexual roles within them requires a radical revolution in thought To use a Gramscian concept the experiences of Iranian women Actually during the last three decades however has taught us that not only the fragility of legal and social reforms and their enacted under authoritarian regime but also that women rise to the challenges face gendered limitations head-on and Respond creatively to policies expressly designed to enforce domesticity and made notion male notion of Muslim womenhood in Fact throughout the Middle East and North Africa Women are raising their voices against the excesses of Islamist ideologues and functionaries in making the life options of women narrower and Social and economic cultural spaces more masculine They have succeeded in placing the issues of women's rights and their legal and social demands firmly at the heart of political discourses about democracy in the region as never before the voice of women is gradually being heard and Removing their structures on relations of power and earn privileges and social and economic Justice they they are arguing must include gender democracy and justice in any plan for the future