Seeking Legitimacy: Why Arab Autocracies Adopt Women's Rights by Aili Mari Tripp ISBN 9781108442848, 1108442846 instant download

Seeking Legitimacy: Why Arab Autocracies Adopt Women's Rights by Aili Mari Tripp ISBN 9781108442848, 1108442846 instant download

Aili Mari Tripp explains why autocratic leaders in Morocco, Tunisia, and
Algeria have embraced more extensive legal reforms of women’s rights
than their Middle Eastern counterparts. The study challenges existing
accounts that rely primarily on religiosity to explain the adoption of
women’s rights in Muslim-majority countries.
Based on extensive fieldwork in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia and an
original database of gender-based reforms in the Middle East and North
Africa, this accessible study analyzes how women’s rights are used both
instrumentally and symbolically to advance the political goals of
authoritarian regimes as leverage in attempts to sideline religious
extremists. It shows how Islamist political parties in the Maghreb have
been forced to dramatically change their positions on women’s rights to
ensure political survival. In an original contribution to the study of
women’s rights in the Middle East and North Africa, Tripp reveals how
women’s rights movements have capitalized on moments of political
turmoil to defend and advance their cause.