The concept of "intifada" – the Arab word that literally means "the act of shaking off" but is more commonly defined as uprising – was first associated with the Palestinian people’s attempt to "shake off" the Israeli occupation. Palestinian women played an active part in the first intifada, which began in the late 1980s. It was natural for them to speak out and join forces with Palestinian men to fight for the liberation of Palestine. They did so at a time when, for most Palestinian women, social status and rights were nonexistent.

Today, for these same women, the concept of intifada has a different meaning. This time, their rebellion is directed not only against the occupation forces, but also against the patriarchy and the religious and traditional establishment that for years has instilled darkness, terror and fear in the lives of millions of women in the Arab world.

"The uprising of women in the Arab world" is the name of a Facebook page that was launched about a year ago. It calls for liberty, security, independence and equal rights for Arab women all over the world. At the beginning of this month, the page’s administrators called for all women, all over the world, to show solidarity with the page’s feminist agenda and send photographs and messages accordingly. Supportive responses quickly poured in, and dozens of messages from women all over the Arab world called for liberation from fathers, brothers, clerics and the oppressive male establishment.

The women of Palestine are also participating in this Facebook "revolution." Bushra Abdul Rahman, among the Palestinians expelled from the villages of Ikrit and Biram in 1948, writes: “I am in favor of a women’s intifada in the Arab world because a woman has no authority over her life. She is passed from her father's authority to her lover's authority until she is conquered by her husband. I am fed up with the masculine, social and religious occupation, and with the Israeli occupation. I am furious with all authority and establishment.”

Men, too, have written messages of support, speaking out against the male oppression that they suffer as well. Muhammad from Oman sent a message, rare and courageous in its character, attacking the male oppression he suffers because of “the woman who lives inside him.”

This is an extraordinary outcry, being made for the first time on Facebook timelines, has resonated powerfully, breaking the silence of dozens of women. Thanks to this outcry, subjects are being discussed that had been silenced until now or been considered taboo or held up to the test of criticism in Arab society. One such example is the “law of shame,” which exists in countries including Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco, that exonerates rapists who agree to marry their victims.

A massive protest also arose when Mohammed Saad al-Azhari, one of the members of the committee drafting Egypt's new constitution, called several months ago for marriage age for girls to be lowered from 18 to 9 on the grounds that this would reduce the incidence of rape and improper sexual relations, which violate Islamic law. As soon as Azhari shared his harebrained ideas, a wave of protest flooded the Internet, forcing Arab media of all stripes into a debate about his sinister statements.

Just as the popular uprisings in Egypt and in Israel erupted on Facebook and broke down barriers, the time has come for the feminist revolution to take to the street and tear down the walls built by the male dictator.

I hope that this spring-like gust of a feminist revolution in the Arab world will reach us, the women of Palestine and Israel, and inspire and embolden us to suppress the evil, rotten tradition, which has pushed women into domestic spaces while excluding them from the public and political domain. I hope this revolution stops the culture of spilling women’s blood in the name of family honor; calls for sexual and personal freedom; and recognizes the varied sexual tendencies of both men and women. Only then will the occupation truly end.

Yalla, intifada!