Arab Spring Dreams brings together personal essays by young activists and dissidents from across the Middle East and North Africa whose struggles for individual freedom and social change predate and illuminate the Arab Spring. The contributors describe life under restrictive laws, political repression and powerful cultural conventions, addressing experiences such as religious discrimination, restrictions on education, teenage marriage, premarital relationships, women's rights and the struggle for political freedom. Their accounts show how demands for dignity, liberty and reform had been developing among a younger generation long before the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere drew worldwide attention. The contributors also consider how earlier campaigns for social change, particularly the American civil rights movement, might offer lessons for challenging injustice in their own societies. Edited by Nasser Weddady and Sohrab Ahmari, with a foreword by Gloria Steinem, the collection combines personal testimony with reflections on human rights, activism and the political and social future of the region.

Nasser Weddady (Editor) Sohrab Ahmari (Editor) Gloria Steinem (Foreword)

Arab Spring Dreams: The Next Generation Speaks Out for Freedom and Justice from North Africa to Iran