Progressive politics in the Middle East and North Africa: analysing the notions of modernity and backwardness through context

This chapter aims to discuss the notion of progressive politics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) by taking the Arab Uprisings and the decade after as a paradigmatic timeframe to analyse the multiple meanings and uses of the term ‘progressive’, as well as the political processes around it. It is divided into three sections. The first explores the main revolutionary processes that occurred in the MENA region during 2010–11 and the subsequent counter-revolutions attempting to reverse or suppress the initial revolutionary changes. In doing so it analyses how these events connect to the notion of progressive politics in the region. The second section illustrates how the failure of the traditional left as an ideological force led to progressive claims of younger generations taking the lead in the revolutionary process. This failure paved the way for the success of new Islamic movements. The third section explores the controversial evolution in ‘progressive’ terms of those Islamist actors that re-emerged in the region after the fall of authoritarian regimes. The conclusions summarise the main points raised in the chapter and critically discuss the complex category of ‘progressivism’ when it comes to its application to non-Western contexts.