Social movements are important everywhere, especially in the MENA region. Social movements bring communities together under a common cause, under a common identity. The drive for these also occur everywhere; however, many countries in the MENA region limit the possibility for movements to actually mobilize, to plan, or to spread.
Strict countries all throughout the MENA region have laws against any form of democratic change or movement. Magda touched on the law against women driving in Saudi Arabia. The government is quick to suppress any such movement, putting women in jail and fining them for such offenses (those punishments are, I'm sure, not the worst). There have been numerous occasions in which women gather and collectively protest and drive, defying the law and calling for democratic reform. This is a very radical example of how some MENA states suppress social movements, yet it does provide an idea as to how against democratic reform many countries are. Such domineering states do not want to lose their control over their population, and do not have a very developed civil society--or a very influential one.
No comments:
Post a Comment