This report addresses the Democracy Matters Initiative’s theme three: Strategies of Communication and Mobilization for Democratic Reform in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It is the result of a three-day hybrid convening held in Washington, D.C., where the Democracy Matters Initiative (DMI) Advisory Group members from across the MENA region gathered to assess challenges and develop strategies for expanding democratic constituencies, reclaiming civic space, and countering authoritarian narratives. The discussions focused on context-specific experiences and cross-regional lessons, particularly in light of increasing repression and shrinking space for dissent.
Introduction: The Closing Space for Democracy and Emerging Paths Forward
Democracy across the MENA region is in retreat. From Palestine to Lebanon, Tunisia to Egypt, the collapse of institutions, the fragmentation of civil society, and the rapid expansion of legal and digital repression point to an accelerating wave of authoritarian entrenchment. This surge is not occurring in isolation; it is fueled by Israeli impunity for war crimes, which has emboldened authoritarian actors across the region and revealed the fragility of international norms. Elite-led reform projects have largely failed to deliver change, and non-governmental organization-centric models have too often alienated the public, contributing to widespread distrust and disengagement. Yet amid this grim landscape, cracks remain. Economic grievances, digital resistance, and the resilience of grassroots organizing continue to offer real, grounded opportunities for collective mobilization. This moment – marked by both repression and rising resistance – may prove to be a historic turning point. If seized, it could open the door for a new democratic horizon, rooted not in imported models but in the lived realities and political imagination of the region’s peoples.
This paper draws on DMI’s many months of dialogue, strategy sessions, and collaboration across borders, bringing together human rights defenders, pro-democracy activists, technologists, and political organizers from within and beyond the MENA region. It maps the core challenges and identifies actionable strategies to expand democratic constituencies, reclaim narrative power, and confront authoritarianism with grounded, locally driven mobilization.
Dissecting the Barriers: How Authoritarianism Blocks Mobilization
I. Structural Repression
DMI Advisory Group members emphasized that regimes across the MENA region have adopted increasingly opaque legal and institutional tools to entrench authoritarian rule and prevent democratic mobilization. In the case of Palestine and Israel, strategic litigation has been deployed to institutionalize apartheid rather than uphold justice. Legal instruments such as the 2003 Family Reunification Law serve explicit demographic goals aimed at fragmenting Palestinian families and undermining their collective rights. These laws are repeatedly renewed, highlighting the deliberate use of the legal system to sustain discrimination.
In Tunisia, Article 24 of the 2022 Cybercrime Decree has become emblematic of the region-wide trend of using digital laws to suppress dissent. The provision imposes harsh prison terms — 5 to 10 years — for vaguely defined offenses like spreading “fake news,” effectively chilling free speech. It mirrors legislation seen in the Gulf states and other autocratic contexts, where cybercrime frameworks are imported wholesale and adapted to criminalize online dissent.
In Lebanon and Egypt, repression operates through a combination of legal ambiguity and systemic decay. In Egypt, reprisals including arbitrary detention, torture, and surveillance, are routine. In Lebanon, the collapse of public institutions has created an environment of chronic instability, allowing political elites to act with impunity. In both cases, political exile has become a survival strategy for many activists.
In the Gulf region, especially Saudi Arabia and other the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, broad counterterrorism and cybercrime laws have erased the line between criticism and criminality. Peaceful expression online or human rights documentation can be prosecuted as terrorism. Without judicial independence, regimes rely on forced confessions, secret trials, and citizenship revocation as instruments of political control. Exit bans and the kafala system (the legal framework that regulates migrant labor in the Middle East) further trap activists and workers within a framework of state surveillance and dependency.
II. Civil Society Under Strain: Disconnected and Resource Competition
The DMI Advisory Group members’ discussions noted that civil society in the MENA region is facing a legitimacy and coordination crisis. In Palestine, local organizations are increasingly constrained by the Palestinian Authority’s censorship and donor-driven depoliticization. Activists report being forced to dilute political messages, avoid critical terminology, and steer clear of historical frameworks central to the Palestinian struggle, such as the right of return or references to historic Palestine.
In Lebanon, the promise of the 2019 uprising was derailed by economic collapse and elite reassertion. Many of the country’s most effective organizers have since been forced into exile, leaving behind a fragmented movement lacking coherent political direction. Across the region, civil society organizations (CSOs) operate in a competitive funding environment that fosters rivalry rather than collaboration. Donor frameworks often reward institutional capacity over impact, sidelining grassroots innovation and adaptability.
Despite these limitations, diaspora networks — formed out of necessity — have become key nodes of resistance. Often excluded from formal funding channels, these actors have led some of the most agile and effective campaigns, especially in digital advocacy and emergency response. Their transnational reach and ability to quickly mobilize across borders challenge both entrenched authoritarian regimes and the inaction of the international community system. Still, their role remains underrecognized, and their mobilization sustainability is constantly at risk.
III. The Capture of National Economies and Authoritarian Development Models
DMI Advisory Group members who participated in the convening underscored that the consolidation of authoritarian rule in the MENA region is inseparable from the capture and manipulation of national economies. In Egypt, the military’s dominance over key economic sectors — from infrastructure to basic goods — has institutionalized wealth transfer from the lower and middle classes to a military elite. This model not only deepens inequality, but also de-prioritizes education, healthcare, and long-term development in favor of short-term control.
In Palestine, the occupation economy has created profound dependency. Palestinians are often forced into the very labor markets that sustain settlement expansion and military infrastructure. Even highly educated Palestinians face systemic exclusion unless they suppress their identity to navigate Israeli-controlled economic structures. This dynamic erodes autonomy and normalizes dispossession.
Lebanon represents another model of economic collapse engineered through elite looting. The country’s banking system was used to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few, leaving everyday citizens to bear the costs of hyperinflation, decimated savings, and the erosion of public services.
Meanwhile, Gulf monarchies are using their immense sovereign wealth funds to construct “future economies” centered around Artificial Intelligence (AI), fintech, and smart infrastructure. These partnerships with Western tech firms present a sanitized vision of progress while concealing the expansion of digital authoritarianism. AI technologies are deployed for surveillance and population control, and without meaningful democratic oversight, these investments entrench unaccountable rule. The result is a techno-authoritarian ecosystem that is globally integrated, yet politically repressive and shielded from accountability by economic privilege and strategic alliances with the West.
Routes for Democratic Mobilization: Anchoring Strategy in Local Realities
DMI Advisory Group members identified a range of strategies emerging across the region to rebuild democratic momentum in deeply repressive environments. These strategies prioritize rootedness over rhetoric, including daily realities, shared grievances, and context-specific tools for organizing.
I. Reclaiming the Narrative: Rooted Storytelling and Political Education
DMI Advisory Group members emphasized that authoritarian regimes in the region rely on narrative control as a key tactic of repression, and that reclaiming historical memory and language is central to building political clarity and mobilizing collective agency.
DMI Advisory Group members noted that in Palestine, efforts to center the Nakba in political discourse and to reframe Israel as a settler-colonial state were seen as vital for reclaiming narrative power and challenging depoliticizing donor frameworks. In Tunisia, participants underscored the importance of storytelling that depicts everyday repression — not just high-profile arrests, but repression that targets ordinary citizens — as a way to connect with the broader public, rather than relying on abstract legal arguments. Legal repression is most powerful when it becomes mundane.
In Lebanon, advisors observed that shared economic grievances, the loss of social guarantees, and the symbolic collapse of state services have opened space for a new political lexicon that transcends sectarian lines. Advisors called for renewed investment in accessible political education rooted in everyday life, from land dispossession to housing struggles to school access, and emphasized the vital role of local historians, cultural producers, and grassroots educators in translating structural conditions into language and stories that resonate with lived experience.
II. Issue-Based and Tactical Coalitions
Participants reflected that broad ideological unity is often unrealistic—but shared material interests offer concrete paths forward. In Tunisia, coalitions have emerged around repealing cybercrime laws. In Palestine, local networks mobilize to protect the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and defend access to land. In Egypt, advisors pointed to the growing centrality of the military in the economy, particularly in land, infrastructure, and resource management, as a potential axis for future organizing, particularly where it intersects with environmental degradation and economic injustice. Advisory Group members highlighted the need to support modular coalitions—short-term, flexible alliances built around specific demands like freedom of expression or housing justice. These coalitions should be able to convene outside elite-led spaces, with platforms that empower smaller, grassroots actors to participate without being overshadowed or displaced.
III. From Echo Chambers to Grounded Movements
Advisory Group members warned that civil society remains overly concentrated in elite urban environments and risks speaking only to itself. While online organizing creates the illusion of wide reach, many campaigns fail to penetrate rural areas or engage with the working-class and informal labor sectors. Participants stressed the importance of launching vernacular-language campaigns and of engaging through trusted social institutions — such as religious networks, student unions, or labor collectives — that already hold legitimacy among the constituencies most impacted by repression. These efforts must be grounded in long-term trust-building, not just mobilization in moments of crisis.
Freeing the Digital Space: A Battlefield for Democratic Mobilization
DMI Advisory Group members emphasized that across the MENA region, authoritarian regimes are tightening their grip not only through conventional tools of repression but also by expanding control over the digital sphere. What was once a relatively open space for dissent, organizing, and narrative contestation, is now the frontline of surveillance and legal censorship.
I. Digital Repression is Political Repression
Participants noted that cybercrime laws across Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Jordan are not isolated incidents but part of a regional trend of authoritarian legal harmonization. These laws are intentionally vague, targeting alleged “fake news,” “insults to the state,” or “disruption of public order,” and are routinely used to prosecute online speech. DMI Advisory Group members flagged Tunisia’s Article 24 as a particularly alarming example, criminalizing expression with prison terms of up to 10 years and creating a chilling effect on public discourse.
In the Gulf states, advisors highlighted how regimes are leveraging their economic power to host global AI and cloud infrastructure. By localizing servers and data storage, these states gain more direct control over digital communications while shielding themselves from international scrutiny and regulatory oversight. This techno-sovereignty model bypasses global accountability norms and embeds surveillance deeper into daily life.
In the context of Israel and Palestine, DMI Advisory Group members reported that digital repression is tied directly to the criminalization of Palestinian identity and history. Courts have upheld the surveillance and censorship of Palestinian digital content, including the use of algorithms to suppress political speech and the legal prosecution of common terms such as “Shaheed,” or martyr. DMI Advisory Group members warned that platform policies, particularly Meta’s moderation practices, often align with state narratives, silencing dissent under the guise of content regulation.
II. Defending the Last Civic Space: The Internet
DMI Advisory Group members described digital space as one of the final civic arenas still accessible to independent actors in many parts of the region, especially where physical organizing is impossible due to risk or exile. However, this space is under coordinated assault. Several governments have passed or proposed laws requiring global platforms to open local offices, which would compel them to hand over user data under domestic jurisdiction. Participants also discussed the criminalization of specific phrases, such as “from the river to the sea,” and the growing pressure on platforms to suppress political language deemed unacceptable by authoritarian regimes.
Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram were cited repeatedly as a primary battleground. DMI Advisory Group members described how the company’s automated systems disproportionately remove content from MENA activists, particularly Palestinians, often without due process or transparency. This has eroded trust and raised urgent questions about corporate complicity in human rights violations.
Despite these threats, DMI Advisory Group members affirmed that the internet remains a key space for organizing, especially for youth, exiled communities, and movements excluded from traditional civil society infrastructures. Participants stressed that any democratic strategy must include a digital rights dimension, both to defend access and to reclaim narrative power.
III. Action-Oriented Recommendations
Participants emphasized the urgency of building coordinated and sustained responses to digital repression. They highlighted the need to strengthen regional coalitions like the MENA Alliance for Digital Rights, which serve as crucial alliance for potential advocacy, legal monitoring, and engagement with global tech firms. DMI Advisory Group members advocated for launching targeted campaigns to repeal repressive laws, beginning with Tunisia’s Article 24, through a combination of cross-border legal pressure, narrative work, and strategic digital storytelling.
There was strong consensus that international frameworks, such as the European Union Digital Services Act and broader human rights mechanisms, must be used more effectively to hold platforms accountable for censorship and complicity. At the local level, participants stressed the importance of expanding digital literacy, secure communication practices, and legal training, particularly among youth organizers, journalists, and those working outside traditional CSO structures.
Diaspora actors, especially students, tech professionals, and creatives, were identified as essential allies. With access to international platforms and fewer direct risks of state repression, they are uniquely positioned to mobilize solidarity, support secure infrastructure, and challenge the normalization of censorship from beyond authoritarian borders.
The Role of the International Community: Support Without Silencing
DMI Advisory Group members stressed that international actors, including donors, governments, tech platforms, and international organizations, must reimagine their engagement with civic actors in the MENA region. While external funding and visibility can offer vital lifelines, advisors warned that many existing forms of support have actively depoliticized movements, undermined legitimacy, and exposed activists to new forms of risk.
As one participant put it, “We are not just service providers — we are part of a political struggle.” DMI Advisory Group members urged donors to stop conditioning funds on de-politicized language or restricted frameworks. These conditions not only erase the historical and structural roots of repression but also limit the ability of civil society to speak with moral and political clarity. In particular, Palestinian Advisory Group members noted that international funding often requires the abandonment of terms like “settler colonialism” or “right of return,” effectively stripping local movements of their core narratives.
Participants emphasized that democracy support must not be reduced to election monitoring or short-term service delivery. Instead, international actors should invest in long-term, rights-based organizing — even when politically inconvenient. DMI Advisory Group members called for diplomatic and financial support for community-based work, cultural organizing, and transnational solidarity networks that are often excluded from traditional funding streams.
The convening also highlighted the complicity of tech companies and arms suppliers in enabling authoritarian repression. Participants pointed to Meta’s censorship of Palestinian content and the role of Western surveillance technology in entrenching state control. They recommended that international legal tools — such as the EU Digital Services Act — be used more assertively to hold companies accountable.
Finally, DMI Advisory Group members drew attention to the urgent need for protection mechanisms for exiled and at-risk organizers. Participants called for fast-track visas, emergency relocation schemes, and public diplomatic support. As one participant noted, “Visibility can be a shield. Silence is what kills us.”
Recommendations: Mobilizing for a Democratic Future
The MENA region stands at a decisive crossroads. As authoritarianism intensifies — bolstered by impunity, economic capture, and digital repression — civil society faces unprecedented threats. Yet the resilience and innovation of grassroots actors, youth-led networks, and transnational coalitions reveal that the struggle for democracy is far from over.
Communication and mobilization are not just tools for resistance; they are the terrain on which the next phase of democratic life will be built. Reclaiming that terrain requires strategic investment, cross-border solidarity, and a commitment to grounded, locally driven solutions. The insights and strategies shared by DMI Advisory Group members throughout this report point to urgent and actionable priorities for donors, regional civic actors, digital rights advocates, and allies committed to defending and expanding democratic space in the MENA region:
- Reclaim the Narrative: Invest in political education and storytelling that centers lived experience, historical memory, and moral clarity over legal abstraction. Support local cultural producers and grassroots educators.
- Strengthen Tactical Coalitions: Support flexible, issue-based alliances around freedom of expression, housing, education, and digital rights. Ensure grassroots actors have the resources and platforms to convene outside elite-led institutions.
- Ground Movements in Real Constituencies: Extend organizing beyond urban centers by prioritizing working-class, rural, and informal sector engagement. Partner with existing social institutions such as student unions, labor collectives, and faith-based groups.
- Defend and Reclaim Digital Space: Repeal repressive cybercrime laws. Use global legal frameworks to hold platforms accountable and equip local actors with digital security tools and legal knowledge.
- Engage the Diaspora: Leverage the relative freedom and reach of students, technologists, and creatives living abroad to support secure communication, narrative amplification, and international pressure.
- Hold the International Community Accountable: Demand that international donors support political integrity and resist depoliticizing frameworks. Protect exiled and at-risk activists through emergency visas, safety networks, and diplomatic visibility.
