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ABSTRACT
Background Current Western discourses on women's movements in Saudi Arabia proffer an understanding that is adverse to history and sidelines the region's local knowledges, replacing such knowledges with a techno-utopian assumption that technology would produce better social or political conditions, and exhibit a pattern of disembodiment.
Analysis This article endeavours to disturb ahistorical, monolithic, and disembodied accounts of Saudi women's movements through three interventions: the historicization of the Saudi women's activism and feminist movements; the recognition of the heterogeneity of Saudi women's movements; and finally, the acknowledgement of the corporeality of Saudi women's resistance.
Conclusion and implications These interventions facilitate a better, more nuanced, and more contextual understanding of revolutionary and feminist practices, not only in Saudi Arabia, but also elsewhere in the world.
Keywords Saudi Arabia; #Women2Drive; Feminism; Technological utopianism; Driving; Embodiment
RÉSUMÉ
Contexte Les discours occidentaux actuels dépeignent les mouvements féministes en Arabie saoudite d'une maniere qui est contraire ă l'histoire et qui marginalise les savoirs locaux de la région. Ces discours occidentaux remplacent les savoirs locaux par une approche technoutopique selon laquelle la technologie réaliserait de meilleures conditions sociales ou politiques. Ces discours manifestent en outre une tendance vers la désincarnation.
Analyse Cet article met en question les comptes rendus ahistoriques, monolithiques et désincarnés sur les mouvements féministes saoudiens en soulignant : l'historicisation du militantisme des femmes saoudiennes et des mouvements féministes dans le pays; la reconnaissance de l'hétérogénéité des mouvements féministes saoudiens; et finalement la corporalité de la résistance par les femmes saoudiennes.
Conclusion et implications Ces mises au point permettent une meilleure comprehension, mieux contextualisée et plus nuancée, de pratiques révolutionnaires et feministes, non seulement en Arabie saoudite mais aussi ailleurs dans le monde.
Mots clés Arabie saoudite; #Women2Drive; Féminisme; Utopie technologique; Conduite automobile; Incarnation
Introduction
In a royal decree issued on September 26, 2017, the Saudi King Salman announced on state television that he would lift the ban on women driving, granting women the right to get behind the wheel starting from June 2018 (Kalin & Bayoumy, 2017). The decree came after a series of activist efforts and campaigns to end the ban, which gained momentum in 2011. As mass protests in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were launched in an event popularly called the...