New Opposition in the Middle East

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Contentious Politics and Middle Eastern Oppositions After the Uprisings

   • Dara Conduit, Shahram Akbarzadeh

   Pages 1-14

3. The Women’s Movement and State Responses to Contentious Campaigns in Iran

   • Rebecca Barlow

   Pages 15-40

4. Pulling and Gouging: The Sadrist Line’s Adaptable and Evolving Repertoire of Contention

   • Damian Doyle

   Pages 41-69

5. Opposition Party Political Dynamics in Egypt from the 2011 Revolution to Sisi

   • Vincent Durac

   Pages 71-96

6. The Rise and Fall of Bahrain’s Al-Wefaq Society: De-democratisation and Crackdown in a Troubled Gulf State

   • Kylie Moore-Gilbert

   Pages 97-117

7. The Iranian Reform Movement Since 2009

   • Dara Conduit, Shahram Akbarzadeh

   Pages 119-149

8. Surviving the Syrian Uprising: The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood

   • Hanlie Booysen

   Pages 151-175

9. Nahda and Tunisian Islamic Activism

   • Fabio Merone, Ester Sigillò, Damiano De Facci

   Pages 177-201

10. Conclusion

    • Shahram Akbarzadeh, Dara Conduit

    Pages 203-207

11. Back Matter

    Pages 209-216

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This book uses a Contentious Politics lens to examine patterns of contestation since 2009 and 2011 among the Middle East's most important opposition actors. The volume is comprised of seven chapters that ask questions in relation to the responsiveness of opposition groups to their political environments, the long-term legacies of authoritarianism, and whether the post-2009/2011 political environment is better or worse for Middle Eastern oppositions. It interrogates the ways in which oppositions have morphed in relation to this changed operating environment, subjectively interpreting the costs and benefits of contestation in order to maximise political opportunities. To some oppositions, changes in the power balance between regime structures and opposition agents led to unprecedented opportunity for political action, while for others, structures were galvanised to restrict opposition activities. In total, the volume shows that even though the Arab Uprisings and Green Movement achieved few of their overt goals, the events unleashed smaller shifts across the region that have led to a fundamental change in the politics of contestation amongst the region’s oppositions. These patterns echo experiences in other parts of the world, including the coloured revolutions in post-Soviet states, and the political environment in Chile after Pinochet.

• Contentious Politics and Middle Eastern oppositions
• Women’s movement in Iran
• Responses to contentious campaigns in Iran
• Arab Uprisings and opposition in Saudi Arabia
• The Sadrist Line’s Adaptable and Evolving Repertoire
• Opposition revolution in Egypt
• Dismantling liberalised autocracy in Bahrain
• The Iranian Reform movement
• Syrian Uprising
• Syrian Muslim Brotherhood
• Tunisian opposition since the Arab Spring

• Middle East Studies Forum, Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia

  Dara Conduit, Shahram Akbarzadeh

Dara Conduit is an Associate Research Fellow at the Middle East Studies Forum at the Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University working on Iran and Syria. Her work has been published in the British Journal of Middle East Studies, the Middle East Journal, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism and International Community Law Review. Ms. Conduit holds a PhD from Monash University, a M. Litt from the University of St. Andrews, was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Cambridge in 2015 and has provided advice to the UN OHCHR’s Working Group on Mercenaries. In 2016, she co-edited the Palgrave Macmillan volume, Iran in the World: President Rouhani’s Foreign Policy with Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh.


Shahram Akbarzadeh is Research Professor of Middle East & Central Asian Politics at the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University, Australia. He has an active research interest in the politics of Central Asia, Islam, Muslims in Australia and the Middle East. Shahram is author of Uzbekistan and the United States (2005), US Foreign Policy in the Middle East (2008 with Kylie Baxter), Muslim Active Citizenship in the West (2014 with Mario Peucker), and Politics and International Relations of the Middle East: Crisis Zone (2018 with Kylie Baxter). He is the founding Editor of the Islamic Studies Series, published by Melbourne University Press, and a regular public commentator. Shahram is a member of the Editorial Board of three leading refereed journals: Global Change, Peace & Security, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, the Journal of Asian Security & International Affairs.

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