The Myth of Middle East Exceptionalism
Unfinished Social Movements

Mojtaba Mahdavi (Edited by), Peyman Vahabzadeh (Contributions by), Abigail B. Bakan (Contributions by), Yasmeen Abu-Laban (Contributions by), Navid Pourmokhtari (Contributions by), Juan Cole (Contributions by), Mariam Georgis (Contributions by), Tariq Ali (Contributions by), Bessma Momani (Contributions by), Melissa Finn (Contributions by), Michael Frishkopf (Contributions by), Guilnard Moufarrej (Contributions by), George Mürer (Contributions by), Carolyn Ramzy (Contributions by), Jonathan Shannon (Contributions by), Nermeen Youssef (Contributions by), Iman Mersal (Contributions by), Ramin Jahanbegloo (Contributions by), Roozbeh Safshekan Esfahani (Contributions by), Paul Rowe (Contributions by), Amina Wadud (Contributions by), Poyraz Kolluoglu (Contributions by), Victoria Tahmasebi-Birgani (Contributions by), Nermin Allam (Contributions by), Mark Muhannad Ayyash (Contributions by), Khaled Abou El Fadl (Afterword by)

9780815637998

Hardback, published 28 February 2023

360 pages, 4 colour illustrations, 1 b&w illustration
25.4 x 17.7 x 3 cm, 0.272 kg

More than a decade after the birth of contemporary social movements in the Middle East and North Africa scholars are asking what these movements have achieved and how we should evaluate their lasting legacies. The quiet encroachments of MENA counterrevolutionary forces in the post-Arab Spring era have contributed to the revival of an outdated Orientalist discourse of Middle East exceptionalism, implying that the region’s culture is exceptionally immune to democratic movements, values, and institutions. This volume, inspired by critical post-colonial/decolonial studies, and interdisciplinary perspectives of social movement theories, gender studies, Islamic studies, and critical race theory, challenges and demystifies the myth of "MENA Exceptionalism".

Composted of three sections, the book first places MENA in the larger global context and sheds light on the impact of geopolitics on the current crises, showing how a postcolonial critique better explains the crisis of democratic social movements and the resilience of authoritarianism. The second section focuses on the unfinished projects of contemporary MENA social movements and their quest for freedom, social justice, and human dignity. Contributors examine specific cases of post-Islamist movements, the Arab youth, student, and other popular non-violent movements.

In the final section, the book problematizes the exceptionalist idea of gender passivity and women’s exclusion, which reduces the reality of gender injustice to some eternal and essentialized Muslim/MENA mindset. Contributors address this theory by placing gender as an independent category of thought and action, demonstrating the quest for gender justice movements in MENA, and providing contexts to the cases of gender injustice to challenge simplistic, ahistorical and culturalist assumptions.