Paper short abstract:

This paper explores Egyptian non-elite and elite female youths as political actors - including their emotions, thoughts and modes of actions - after the Egyptian revolution.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores Egyptian non-elite and elite female youths as political actors - including their emotions, thoughts and modes of actions - after the Egyptian revolution. Theoretically, it will examine how (embodied) agency is formulated in Egypt's transition in relation to how it was - the present - the imagined future. There is a wide range of positions represented by different actors, and attitudes towards change may well reflect (re)actions to 'progressive politics'. The proposed paper focuses upon the way in which different categories of youths in Cairo understand and respond to Egypt's complex changes, including their perception of democracy, gender equality and human rights, and it looks particularly at how these actors contest, subvert or embrace the transition. Theoretically, it will add to a growing field of agency and embodiment theory within anthropology. The research is expected to throw light on the complexities of rapid transformations of societies and embodied agency.