Arab Spring

The Arab revolutions changed the lives of a whole generation. But it also had an impact on those who were children in 2011. How are they still being impacted by this moment? A conversation between two witnesses.

In an excerpt from his essay “I, ,the fag'”, Syrian author Raeef al-Shalabi reflects on an inner struggle that helped to position himself as a gay man and ultimately to think about human rights in a new way.

“We live between great countries and superpowers. We laugh and cry, fear and suffer.” In recounting seven punches in the face, Avo Kaprealian's essay tells the story of Armenians in Syria that begins and ends with an exodus.

In a brilliant and personal essay on the history of Bidoon literature, Mona Kareem shows why literature cannot be thought along national lines.

“Mid-October, 2019. The mood across the country was like the opening passage to a novel that promises to turn sad. But on the 17th of that month, something unexpected began, setting the course for a very different story” - Abraham Zeitoun remembers.

“Once I started to write myself, I began to realize how this powerful act of self-expression was the counter opposite of the seclusion, alienation, and repression that mandatory veiling had imposed on me” says Iranian author Ava Homa. In her article, she points out various forms of protest with which women in Iran fight for freedoms and participation – one of them is writing.

The day when nobody wanted to hear about “reforms” anymore: For decades the Assad regime had completely taken over Syrian lives, when finally in 2011 they stood up and showed that they won’t be silenced anymore. Ameenah A. Sawwan narrates about their arduous path towards a better future.

“The Libyan revolution is the most successful of the failed and the most failed of the successful revolutions,” says Ghady Kafala and writes about trying to position oneself in a thoroughly ambivalent situation.

In February 2011, a protest movement built in Iraq but it was not until the October 2019 protests that the country marked a turning point, writes Ahmed Saadawi. In his essay, he examines the interaction/interplay between progressive and populist forces, starting with the protests against Saddam Hussein in Southern Iraq in 1991 until the recent uprisings.

On February 10, 2019, Bouteflika announced his fifth presidential candidacy, and six days later protests erupted in Algeria: the Revolution of Smiles. The protagonists of Salah Badis' short story meet in front of a dysfunctional ATM in one of Algiers' richest neighborhoods, and a conversation between strangers unfolds.

In the face of the terrible war and famine in Yemen, Bushra al-Maktari struggles to recall the hopeful beginnings of the revolution. Still, her spiritual retrospective zooms in on a concept that is also central to the Yemeni revolution: dignity.

January 25th marks the beginning of the Egyptian revolution of 2011, which has been followed by a counter-revolution that continues to this day. More and more political and cultural actors end up in prison or flee into exile. As part of our series “Reminiscence of the future”, Alia Mossallam illuminates the inner spaces of the revolution, where fear and courage, kindness and monstrosity are inherently close to one another.

Our trilingual scroll story project: Three stories from Egypt, Syria and Tunisia show that 10 years after they began, the revolutions continue - despite the immense strain and sometimes violent setbacks from the old forces. After all, giving up means dying. 

Tunisia is often deemed the main success story of the “Arab Spring” after long-term dictator Ben Ali was ousted ten years ago. But in the first contribution of our series “Reminiscence of the future”, Rim Benrjeb writes about a revolutionary spirit that is in danger of falling asleep, patriarchal and state violence, and the impossibility of discussing all of this with one's own father.