Negotiating politics and gender norms: Student activists in Egyptian universities

Based on interviews and trajectories of female student activists in Egyptian universities, this paper analyzes how engaging in a student organization, be it an explicitly political one like an activist group or a partisan organization, or a less politicized one such as simulation games (such as Model United Nations), initiates a negotiation not only of traditional gender roles in activism but also of the dominant norms of femininity and patriarchal expectations from women. I call it negotiation as, while the literature on the Middle East focuses on drastic visible challenges to the patriarchy such as the political expression through naked female bodies, in the trajectories observed, the challenge is more subtle, and rather than an explicit rupture it takes the form of negotiating of the restrictions imposed on young women. This negotiation can take different manifestations. For example, for Basma, in order to be able to participate with an activist group in her university, she needed to negotiate the curfew imposed by her parents to return home before a certain hour. For others it can be even a more subtle pushing of boundaries such as Mariam who, with her colleagues from the political party, started feeling comfortable frequenting public cafés which are typically male dominated spaces. For some the challenge can focus on bodily norms and expectations of clothing and appearance, such as Sara whose engagement in the student union in her faculty was so time consuming to the point that reports a “complete change of wardrobe” to wear comfortable and practical clothing, and Riham who found that since she started engaging at the MUN, she has become “more serious” and started to “develop interests beyond what color to dye my hair this month”, perceived by her as a typically mundane female interest. At the intersection of the biographical impact of activism and the study political activism and gender roles, this paper aims to emphasize the role of activist groups in the politicization of such negotiation of norms. Even though in all cases, the change is attributed to the experience of engagement, women who were part of explicitly political student groups were more likely to frame their challenge in political terms such as Basma who describes her negotiation of the curfew as a “struggle” and rebellion, and situates her own trajectory as part of a broader problem in society. In such cases, the negotiation of gender norms can also be a negotiation of new ways to politicize one’s life and choices.