Navigating Human Rights, Feminism, and History: Egyptian Feminist Activists' Demands for Constitutional Equality, 2012–2014

Abstract:This article analyzes the efforts of Egyptian feminist activists to insert gender equality in the country's post-revolutionary constitutions in 2012 and 2014. While the literature on women's political role during this period provides insights into exclusionary gender practices and conditions for bargaining power structures, this study contributes with a conceptual analysis of how feminist activists construed constitutional gender equality. The study is based on interviews with, and written statements by, activists engaged in the constitutional process. The article argues that these activists viewed the constitution as a central instrument in the struggle for gender equality and demanded a gender equality model beyond the sameness/difference paradigm. Instead, they argued for a substantive notion of gender equality that reflected women's situated experiences while they, at the same time, navigated the legacies of Egypt's earlier constitutions.