أجساد المنظمة النسوية الدولية "فيمن" في الثورات العربية: ثورة الجسد أو إعادة تثبيت النمط

The emergence of the feminist organization FEMEN has sparked significant debate and discussions in its homeland of Ukraine, in Western Europe, and later in the Arab and Islamic world. Some view FEMEN as representing a new wave of feminism aligned with the era of visual culture, imagery, and technology. Others see it as an expression of the existential alienation of the modern era under globalization and neoliberalism, wherein the market economy exerts control over feminist movements through organizations like FEMEN.
This debate intensifies in the Middle East, where it intersects with the fraught historical relationship between East and West, particularly within the context of the "Arab Spring." FEMEN's attempts to impose a Western feminist model on Eastern women under the guise of liberation have raised questions about cultural imperialism.
FEMEN activists advocate for nudity as a form of expression in their fight for women's rights and resistance against patriarchy worldwide. Their provocative protests, termed "peaceful terrorism," foreground the body as both a tool and subject of protest. This approach has polarized public opinion into two opposing camps: one that views the use of the naked body in protests as a means of re-signifying it to empower marginalized groups, and another that sees it as a reproduction of gendered systems, reducing the body to a commodity within the market economy and consumer society.
FEMEN's activism has also opened up taboo topics in the Arab world -such as sex, religion, and politics- at a particularly volatile moment. Responses to FEMEN's protests have varied widely, shaped by cultural contexts and debates over freedoms, their limits within society, and their relationship with religion, tradition, and law. These debates further extend into issues of national identity and local and global Islamophobia.
To analyze Arab societies' perceptions of FEMEN protests, this study draws on media articles, interviews, and television programs that cover the organization. It qualitatively selects press materials to examine representations of FEMEN activists' bodies in Arab discourse. By analyzing these representations and the activists' performances, the study investigates whether the protests reinforce traditional gender roles or revolutionize the portrayal of the female body.
Although responses to FEMEN's activities in the Arab world -specifically in Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco- share similarities, this study focuses on the Tunisian case. Tunisia's unique historical, cultural, and social trajectory, especially concerning gender and its democratic transition, provides a distinctive backdrop for FEMEN's activities.
This research examines the interactions prompted by FEMEN's presence in the Arab revolutions, positioning the body as a lens for understanding protest dynamics. Through an analysis of media discourses and provocative incidents associated with FEMEN, the study seeks to contextualize the phenomenon within the Arab world's contemporary socio-political landscape.