Beyond the 20th February Movement : Youth, Gender and the Dynamics of Opposition in the Moroccan Spring

Abstract

This dissertation paper which entitled: Youth, Gender and the Moroccan Spring: Beyond the 20th February Movement, attempts to give an encapsulating view of how the uprisings in the Arab world had unfolded. It particularly showcases the role played by two vital categories such as youth and women within the revolutions and the extent to which the 20th February Movement in Morocco had contributed to the uprisings. By practically tackling the role of the 20th February Movement within the Moroccan context, the paper analyzes and explores the evolution of the so called Arab Spring and its repercussions and impact on the Moroccan social, economic and political context. The dissertation is divided into two parts, the first one of which gives a theoretical background of the insurgence of the so called Arab Spring. While it endeavors to detect and dissect the factors that led to these uprisings, it also reads into the various contexts of some Arab countries basically Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and compares the degree to which the contention and the political claims were either similar or divergent. The work also looks into the role played by youth and women in these various contexts and the mechanisms used by political parties and groups for the mobilization of these categories. More significantly, the practical part of the dissertation digs deeper into the example of Morocco through the case of the 20th February Movement. It is in this part that we will not only highlight the example of this social and political movement, but also through questionnaires and interviews that we will assess the youth and gender dynamisms that were at work during what could adequately be called “the Moroccan Spring”.