Sexual Violence and its Resistance in Post-revolutionary Egypt

At the intersection between authoritarianism and patriarchy

Abstract

This article argues that sexual violence in the context of post-revolutionary Egypt should be understood as a complex contextual political technique that lays different claims on the subject. This results in complex modalities of resistance that aim to oppose patriarchal structures as well as authoritarian structures. Post-revolutionary regime(s) have been appropriating and policing certain notions of masculinities and femininities, illustrating how authoritarian power structures intersect with patriarchal power structures. Different revolutionary strategies included a political intersectional approach by explicitly underlining the complicity of the regime in events of sexual violence. However, this political intersectional framework was absent in different reports or enactments of solidarity from the West, clinging onto gender as the sole perspective when discussing sexual violence. Isolating these collectives from the authoritarian context they were constituted by, risks re-articulating and re-affirming other oppressive authoritarian discourses.