VIRGIN POLITICS: AN IDEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF "VIRGINITY" IN THE EGYTPIAN VIRGINTY TESTS

In March 2011, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt's interim military government, violently interrupted protests from their civilian population. Litanies of allegations of abuse, torture, and murder arose. One particular abuse happened to seventeen female Egyptian protesters, virginity tests. This thesis analyzes the military's justification and Samira Ibrahim's discursive response to the virginity tests. I analyze the military's use of "virginity" in their justification for the virginity tests, through the theoretical framework of the ideograph. I argue that "virginity" functioned to stifle public dissent in Egypt. I utilize both a synchronic and diachronic analysis of the ideograph "virginity" in Egypt, and argue that it is structured in both a religious and patriarchal meta-discourse used to demarcate the role of the "good women." I also analyze Samira Ibrahim's response to the virginity tests and argue that her use of a rhetorically rich counter-cultural discourse interrupted the operationalization of "virginity" in the military's response. My thesis adds to previous research on the ideograph by evaluating how it operated in a contemporary revolutionary setting in Egypt. It also has implications for social conflict theory, technology, and identity studies.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Swanlek, Aaron George

• Egypt

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/38559

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/38559