Concluding Remarks: What’s Next?

Abstract

The concluding chapter summarizes the most important findings of the book, draws some broad lessons from them, and discusses possible future venues of investigation and new research directions in the area of Arab women’s activism and struggles for gender equality. In particular, it highlights in what ways, and to what extent, the discussions in the book have exposed the multidimensional nature of Arab women’s political, social, and legal struggles, during different historical phases, stretching before, during, and after the Arab Spring movements. In doing so, it especially summarizes how Arab women’s movements and organizations have been able to weave their political agenda for democratic reform with their social agenda for sociocultural reform. The conclusion also highlights in what ways, and to what extent, Arab women’s movements and organizations have been a decisive force in driving the social and political transitions of the Arab Spring, how their activism preceded, paved the way for, and enabled the Arab Spring movements, and how they continue to strive for sociopolitical transformation and reform to this day. Finally, the conclusion takes stock of recent gendered activism(s) and struggles across the Arab region, and pays special attention to their achievements and potentials, as well as their constraints and limitations, in the three parallel political, social, and legal domains. In doing so, it forecasts some of the future prospects and directions in this highly dynamic and evolving region, and the equally shifting and transformative forms of struggle, which Arab women are constantly engaging in.