The uprisings that shook the Middle East this year have been a focus of relentless debate. ‘Revolutionary Arab women’ – activists, bloggers and academics – took to the streets and fought both for their country and their rights, capturing the western media’s attention and begging the question ‘what does the future hold for these women of the Arab Spring?’ 

Last night’s Frontline Club event, #FCBBCA: Women of the revolution, in association with BBC Arabic, explored the roles women played in the revolutions and tried to shed light on what lies in store for them.

The panel consisted of three completely different women, united by their desire for change: Mervat Mhani, member of Libyan NGO The Free Generation Movement; Maryam Alkhawaja, Bahraini human rights activist and head of foreign relations at the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights; and Sussan Tahmasebi, a women’s rights and civil society activist from Iran, and founding member of the One Million Signatures Campaign.

The debate was chaired by Lindsey Hilsum, Channel 4 News’ International Editor. Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkul Karman, Yemeni journalist and founder of Women Journalists Without Chains, was unable to attend the event. 

Although each of the panellist’s contributions to the uprisings were radically different, they were all adamant that women had a key role to play in the future of the Middle East, and were not going to stand back now.

Mhani, a Libyan mother of two who was dubbed an ‘accidental activist’ by Hilsum, described her experiences of wreaking civil disorder, which eventually led to her arrest by Gaddafi’s security forces. Sincere and softly spoken, she apologised to the audience for her nervousness while addressing them:

“I’ve faced Gaddafi’s brigades and interrogation, but this is a lot more difficult,”she joked. 

But despite her shy demeanour, her story demonstrated what a fierce fighter she is.

“Before the revolution I lived a normal life," she said. "When there were uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, I was following very closely. We were wondering whether it would happen in Libya. We had so much fear in us that we didn’t think it was going to happen – I never believed it would.”

But when the Libyan people began to mobilise on social networking sites to protest against the 42 year-long oppressive regime of Muammar Gaddafi, Mhani, like many others, grasped the opportunity to speak out: 

“No Libyan wanted to stay home. We didn’t want to stand for the killing, or the murders, or the regime any more.

“It was very difficult. They started shooting at protesters in Tripoli – there was indiscriminate killing. Protesting wasn’t an option any more – going out was basically suicide.”

The crackdown on protesters forced her and her family to think of alternative, nonviolent ways to do their bit for their country – from her brother returning to Libya from living in Cardiff and starting up The Free Generation Movement – an NGO working towards the development and progression of Libyan society – to committing acts of civil disobedience, and being sure that the world was aware of Gaddafi’s atrocities.

“I hung flags for independence, smuggled reporters from the Rixos hotel, and talked to the international community,”she said.

“The internet was cut, so my brothers and cousins stole a satellite from a government building and tweeted out to the rest of the world. We tried our best – we never carried guns, we were never armed.”

But she was arrested by Gaddafi’s security forces after she was interviewed by Reuters and BBC journalists .

“Someone must have seen the footage and could determine where our location was. Gaddafi’s platoons came to my parents’ house, stormed in, and turned it upside down," she said. “I was one of the lucky ones – I was released at midnight the same day. A lot of people we know just disappeared.”

Despite the relentless threats and attacks on her and her family – her 19 year old cousin was killed by Gaddafi’s forces in August – she remained determined to fight.

She knows there is a difficult road ahead, but Mhani is optimistic about the future of Libya and the role women have to play in it.

“With the NTC [National Transitional Council] having one woman, it’s still early days, I believe. But we’re not going to stand back and not take a role – no way.”

“We tried to do our best, and here we are – and thank God, we’re free.”

Maryam Al-Khawaja from the Bahrain Center for Human Rights comes from a family of activists, many of whom have been on the receiving end of the police brutality in the Kingdom.

So much so that she joked that “Bahrain should adopt family cells in prisons, so family members could spend some time together.”

Her sister Zainab, aka @angryarabia, was arrested on 15 December  during a non-violent sit-in west of Manama. She is one of tens of thousands of women of the revolution.

“Bahrain revolutions is at least 50 per cent made-up and led by women,” says Maryam Al-Khawaja, “It has been breaking a stereotype of Muslim women, according to which they need to have a certain personality if they dress a certain way.”

Al-Khawaja described seeing a video of a traditionally dressed Muslim woman, in the early days of the Bahrain revolution, spraying a graffiti which fully illustrated the steely determination behind the abaya.

“Even if men stop, women will continue.”

Al-Khawajawarned that the revolution in Bahrain was far from over, despite some seemingly positive developments.

Bahraini government set-up an Independent Commission of Inquiry, which was supposed to investigate human rights violations. However, “it is dangerous precedent,” said Al-Khawaja:

“We have an authoritarian regime setting up their own Commission of Inquiry. They will use this report to sweep under the carpet all the human rights violations that they have committed.

 “I don’t think we would have had the same reaction had Mubarak visited London in January 2011. King Hamad and his son came to London a few days ago. His son still has the allegations of torture against him.

 “And yet, there was no huge outcry from the international community. All because of this, so called, human rights report.”

Al-Khawaja was also critical of the media coverage of Bahrain because even well-minded journalists often refer to the uprising there as a “Shia revolution.”

“People came out demanding dignity, human rights and freedom against an oppressive regime. It has nothing to do with them being Shia or Sunni.

Iran is another country where women have been no strangers to revolutions. It also acts as a warning how they can be let down by the exact causes they are so passionately fighting for.

The women’s contribution to the Iranian revolution of 1979, which saw the overthrowing of the Shah, was “rewarded” by curbs on their rights and the interpretation of Sharia law was adopted.

Sussan Tahmasebi worked at grassroot levels for 11 years in her native Iran on promoting women’s rights and strengthening of the civil society.

She is a founding member of the award-winning One Million Signatures Campaign, which collects signatures of Iranians who support an end to gender-biased laws in the country.

Tahmasebi stressed that women in Iran are better educated than men and the average age of marriage was 25. Women are doctors, lawyers, teachers – active participants in the civil society – all of which defies Western stereotypes of women in the Middle East.

“Of the background of the repressive laws that had been adopted 30 years ago, you have a very strong society with women’s presence. Iran has one of the strongest women’s movements in the region.”

During her work in Iran, but also throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Tahmasebi noticed that the greatest challenge for women who advocate for their rights is the “discourse of culture and religion versus human rights.”

“We must remember that human rights and Islam are not mutually exclusive.

“We need to really advocate for a civil law, which takes into consideration universal human rights standards. Because they are universal. They are not only Western. They are just as much Islamic as they are Christian.”

Tahmasebi talked of the danger of women and their rights being sidelined once the political revolutions in the Arab world are over.

She said that the Western world cited “cultural reasons” in their frequently hands-off approach to women’s rights. However, the risk is that the Arab world will fail the democracy test.

“No democracy is going to be a democracy when 50 per cent of the population have half of the rights of the other 50 per cent”

When asked about the political rise of the Islamist parties in post-revolution Arab world, Tahmasebi said:

 “It is still better than the dictatorships we had before. But, what makes me nervous is that some of these Islamic parties are not clear on the specifics. We need to ask questions like What do you think about polygamy? Can you see women in high positions? We need to hold these people accountable.

“These countries have a golden opportunity to to draft constitutions. They need to draft laws that they can defend to their daughters, their children, in 30 years time.”