Transcending shame through rebellion: The modern Arab woman, sexual suppression, and the will to break free.

Shaw, SH ORCID: 0000-0002-3589-2411 and Silverio, SA ORCID: 0000-0001-7177-3471 (2021) Transcending shame through rebellion: The modern Arab woman, sexual suppression, and the will to break free. In: Mayer, C, Vanderheiden, E and Wong, PTP, (eds.) Shame 4.0: Investigating an Emotion in Digital Worlds and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Springer, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 475-494. ISBN 978-3-030-59526-5

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Abstract

Shame has been often been argued as a culturally bound emotion which can affect a country’s citizens to varying degrees. Arab societies are often re-garded as being heteronormative, masculinist, and patriarchal. These cultures are, themselves in turn often synonymous with shame narratives associated with the suppression of women and sexuality. Arab women have therefore been gazed upon as objects or chattel among Arab societies and Arab men, leading to heavy critique being delivered by the Western World against the lack of emancipation and sexual freedom Arab women are seemingly able to have agency over. Having been supressed and also having been viewed as suppressed subjects of society, we may question how authentically Arab women may lead their lives, and truly fulfil their sexual desires. The Arab World has, however, recently experienced huge political, economic, and so-cial upheaval, most notably recognisable as the ‘Arab Spring’. Decades of po-litical stagnation caused by petulant and immovable dictatorships came to an end across much of the Arab World, fuelled by violent uprisings by the pub-lic. Generally, it was younger members of these societies who grew frustrated with the lack of future thinking by their governments. They communicated their dismay and organised themselves for demonstrations via social media, whilst also using it as a platform to reach the Western World’s mass media. After the uprisings, new governments were formed across much of the Arab World, but Arab women found themselves with little extra freedom, but a greater hunger to rebel. This chapter will explore the reclamation of sexuality by Arab women and how their rebellion against centuries of suppression is tackling the culture of shame in which they continue to exist.

Item Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	CHASE sent 12/10 REMOVE 26/10 Author to email for AAM 1/10/26
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Arab Culture; Cyber Shame; Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR); Gender; Meaning; Moral Rebellion; Sexual Liberation; Shame; Social Justice Strategies; Women's Studies; 4405 Gender Studies; 44 Human Society; 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Publisher:	Springer
Date Deposited:	12 Oct 2026 09:37
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2026 09:38
DOI or ID number:	10.1007/978-3-030-59527-2_22
Editors:	Mayer, C, Vanderheiden, E and Wong, PTP
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/29589

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