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filmmakers who have produced films that have been widely seen and discussed across the country. The debate is now open and ongoing. It is exposing the security sector and creating resentment within its ranks at being put in the forefront of the government’s struggle against citizens, and it is forcing the government to investigate some of the most embarrassing cases of human rights violations. Although this is a process of trial and error, societies are gradually developing strategies that amount to the beginning of what can be called a home-grown agenda for reforming the most opaque institutions of authoritarianism.
Gender Programs Gender is arguably the area that has received the greatest attention and the most generous funding from foreign partners. Yet most programs have been focused on a small group of women in each country, often from the elite and connected with or co-opted by the first ladies. Although these programs have the blessing of the governments, they are not always successful in fostering significant change, since they rarely challenge the social order. Experience shows that female academics from the elite and scholars in general have rarely proposed alternative, more socially grounded visions of gender issues distinct from those offered by Western institutions. The case of the Khul’a law enacted in 2002 in Egypt is one of the most telling examples of a successful home-grown strategy. The legislation was the result of a quiet 15-year struggle by a group of widely respected female and male jurists, sociologists, and civil society representatives who worked closely with religious scholars from the conservative Islamic institution Al Azhar to reach agreement on the interpretation of an old principle enshrined in Islamic sacred texts. The law amounted to a silent revolution in Egyptian society, as it allowed tens of thousands of women to obtain divorces and custody of their children, after decades of unsuccessful procedures in courts. The law was far from ideal, and the process for reaching this outcome was lengthy, but it seemed that this was the price for building a consensus and legitimacy allowing the law to be enforced. It was done by working from within society, integrating social realities and beliefs, working from Islamic sacred texts, and bringing along key actors such as the religious establishment. A second area in need of revisiting within many donor-driven programs on gender is that these programs tend to be designed to eschew political issues, and they often promote certain rights for women specifically without integrating the larger social and political context. Although every woman in the Arab world will agree that her status as a woman needs to be improved and her rights protected, many of the most popular figures among Arab women are those active in the larger struggles for the civil and political rights of citizens. These women are members of political parties or social movements. They have constituencies and credibility to preserve, and they are often reluctant to be associated with donors’ strategies, which they see as potentially weakening their own strategy—one that seeks to challenge the government in a bolder fashion. Again, we see the need to trust societies to produce their own leaders and strategies.