The Glue of a Mosaic: State, Citizenship and Feminist Political Imaginations in Syria (2011-2012)

Abstract

This essay proposes a retrospective examination of the political imaginations and practices deployed during the first phase of the civil uprising in Syria by three prominent activists, Fadwa Suleyman, Rima Dali and Samar Yazbek on the axes of their activism for the "revolution". After sketching the contours of both Al-Asad's politics of symbols foregrounding an idea of statehood and the uprising strategies used to subvert such symbols, the essay seeks to answer to the question: how has the revolutionary struggle been transformative of a existing regime citizenship in Syria? I argue that Fadwa Suleyman, Samar Yazbek and Rima Dali acted as a sort of “social glue” conveying the idea of social cohesion within the complex milieu characterizing Syrian society . By foreclosing a new re-conceptualization of state and citizenship, the three activist articulated languages marked by deeply relational feminism , politics of affect against the dominant discourses of belligerence, hatred and division. Overall, the essay points to how their very existence and struggle embodied central fears and struggles emerged from the uprising.