Fifteen years ago, people across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) took to the streets to demand “bread, freedom, and dignity.” It was not the first time that protesters in the region had organized around socioeconomic rights and it would not be the last. Today, these demands remain unresolved.
Across many MENA countries, living conditions have deteriorated as people face high costs of living, stubbornly high unemployment rates, rising food insecurity, and increasing air and water pollution. Such challenges threaten to worsen as a result of the current conflicts in the region. Yet, 15 years after the Arab Uprisings, governments continue to slash food and energy subsidies, prioritize paying state debt instead of investing in social spending, and fail to provide adequate support and social protection to their populations, all of which have led to worsening health and education outcomes. People across the region have tried to take to the streets and demand that states deliver on their socioeconomic rights. For instance, communities in Gabès in Tunisia facing environmental pollution have convened large protests, and textile workers in Egypt have organized strikes for better work conditions and pay. All too often, however, governments fail to meet the moment, instead forcibly displacing populations for megaprojects, jailing activists, and passing laws that restrict the right to unionize.
As part of TIMEP’s special programming “The Arab Uprisings 15 Years On: More Than A Moment,” and as the world marked Labor Day, on Tuesday, May 26, from 10:00 to 11:30 AM EST The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) hosted “Bread, Freedom, and Dignity”: Socioeconomic Rights 15 Years On, featuring Nada Nashat, Joseph Daher, and Sahar Mechmech, moderated by Timothy E. Kaldas. Speakers explored key questions: Fifteen years since the Arab Uprisings, what have been the greatest successes and obstacles in organizing around socioeconomic demands in the MENA region? How are workers, unions, and civil society groups organizing under increasingly restrictive conditions and what lessons can be drawn? What does organizing look like as war and conflict intensify in parts of the region? What does the future of “bread, freedom, and dignity” look like for the MENA region?
Watch the discussion:
Speaker profiles:
Nada Nashat
Nada Nashat is the head of the Women’s Public Participation Program at the Center for Egyptian Women’s Legal Assistance (CEWLA) based in Giza, Egypt. The program works on promoting economic and social rights, supporting the feminist movement, analyzing the effect of climate change from a gender perspective, women, peace and security agenda, and international advocacy. She has been CEWLA’s advocacy coordinator for the past 10 years. As a guest speaker, Nada has given lectures on the issue of women’s rights in Egypt at different universities, including at Harvard, the State University of New York, Columbia University, Northeastern University, and the American University in Cairo (AUC). Nada has published research articles on women’s rights with Al Shorouk newspaper, Musawah international movement, and Fredrisch Ebert Stiftung. Nada holds a Bachelors’ degree in Physics, and a Bachelors’ in Law. In 2025, Nada obtained her Master’s degree in Gender and Development from Cairo University, focusing on justice and accountability.
Joseph Daher
Joseph Daher is a Swiss-Syrian academic and expert on the political economy of the Middle East. He received his PhD in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (2015) and his PhD in Political Science from the University of Lausanne (2018), Switzerland. He is currently an associate researcher at the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies. He is the author of several books, including Hezbollah: The Political Economy of Lebanon’s Party of God (Pluto Press, 2016), Syria After the Uprising (Pluto Press, 2019), and Palestine and Marxism (Resistance Books, 2024). He has taught at several universities, including the University of Lausanne, University Paris Dauphine, and the University of Ghent, and was an Associate Professor at the European University Institute in Florence, where he participated in the project “Wartime and Post-Conflict in Syria” (WPCS) and coordinated the project “Syrian Trajectories: Challenges and Opportunities for Peacebuilding.”
Sahar Mechmech
Sahar Mechmech is the Inclusive Economies Manager at TIMEP. She holds an MA in International Relations from Syracuse University, and a Master of Management of Non-Profit Organizations from Tunis Business School. She has worked as a consultant, contributor, and policy analyst with various actors in Tunisia and the MENA region including Oxfam, Al Bawsala, and Aswat Nissa. She specializes in issues of economic justice as it intersects with inequality, gender, and climate.
Timothy E. Kaldas
ModeratorTimothy E. Kaldas is the Deputy Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. He is also an adjunct professor of international relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona where he is pursuing his PhD. His current research interests focus on the political economies of MENA countries, regime competition and survival strategies and Egypt’s foreign policy. He lived in Cairo, Egypt for 12 years from 2008 to 2020 where he worked in several fields including as a visiting professor of politics at Nile University, a wedding photographer, an independent risk consultant, a consultant at UN Migration, and Director of Communications at the Munathara Initiative. His writing has been published by Mada Masr, Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, CNN, World Politics Review and a number of other publications and institutions. He studied at the George Washington University, the London School of Economics and Political Science, Georgetown University and the American University of Cairo.