The Arab Spring and women's movements in the Middle East: The case of Tunusia

This thesis approaches to women's movements as social movements that aim to transform the current values, norms and identity structures of societies. It also examines how these movements affect or contribute to the women's demand of "equal citizenship". At this juncture, periods wherein societal dynamics have changed are very important and the study analyzes the three important milestones of the history of the Middle East. These are the postcolonial period, the post September 11 period and the post Arab Spring period. This thesis focuses specifically on the Tunisian women's movement and contributes to the literature by pointing to the effects of the "Arab Spring" - an important social and political transformation- on the Tunisian women's movement. Furthermore, this study attempts to make predictions by drawing a parallelism between the post colonial period and the post "Arab Spring" era in Tunusia, regarding to women's access to their personal rights and the improvement of current women's rights. The study reveals that Tunisian women who took their place in the front lines during historical struggles, have to continue struggling to obtain and maintain their rights; even if not at the same level of world standarts, their struggles helped to improve women's rights; and the recognition of these rights by society may take a long time.