The current generation of Arab feminists is young, cyber-active and artistic,and vocally attacks social taboos. Their agendas are headed by issues of publicand private gender-based violence, legal discrimination and human rights violations.

Despite their creative, visible and effective resistance, feminists today, like previous generations, still come from middle-class, educated, hetero-cis-normative and urban backgrounds. They rarely include rural, poor, refugee,working-class or queer women.

Their agenda is also seldom intersectional. It privileges patriarchal culture as the sole source of women’s oppression – despite the evident impact of war and conflict, occupation, authoritarianism, international intervention and the increasing adoption of neoliberal economics that amplifies the effects of patriarchy. To move forward, Iargue, Arab feminists need to expand their solidarities beyond gender andpatriarchy and devise a critique of the neoliberal state and economy.

In this report, Ibtesam Al Atiyat explores what drives Arab feminists, then examines feminist strategies and concludes with a critique of the movement and thoughts about a possible way forward.