Inside Tunisia's al-Nahda

In the wake of the Arab uprisings al-Nahda voted to transform itself into a political party that would for the first time withdraw from a preaching project built around religious social and cultural activism. This turn to the political was not a Tunisian exception but reflects an urgent debate within Islamist movements as they struggle to adjust to a rapidly changing political environment. This book re-orientates how we think about Islamist movements. Drawing on extensive fieldwork with grassroots activists of Tunisia''s al-Nahda Rory McCarthy focuses on the lived experience of activism to offer a challenging new perspective on one of the Middle East''s most successful Islamist projects. Original evidence explains how al-Nahda survived two decades of brutal repression in prison and in social exclusion and reveals what price the movement paid for a new strategy of pragmatism and reform during the Tunisian transition away from authoritarianism.