Reflections on Feminist Interventions within the 2015 Anticorruption Protests in Lebanon

Abstract: This essay reflects upon the themes of collaborative research, intersectional feminist activism, and social movements against corruption and sectarianism in the context of Lebanon. The authors focus on the summer of 2015 when protesters filled the streets in response to the government’s mismanagement of garbage in what they called the “You Stink” movement. Feminists, primarily through the formation the “Feminist Bloc,” joined in the protests and presented nuanced frameworks for understanding the problem and mobilizing against the state with a gendered lens. In the pages that follow, the authors historicize the conditions that inspired feminist participation in these protests in order to present the perspectives of a few feminist activists voicing their own analysis of this period. In addition, they reflect upon what it means to write and research collaboratively, between the United States (Nadine) and Lebanon (Deema).