During protest, a couple of maids rebel (9)
I believe the answer is:
dissident
'rebel' is the definition.
(I know that rebel can be written as dissident)
'during protest a couple of maids' is the wordplay.
'during' is an insertion indicator.
'protest' becomes 'dissent' (synonyms).
'a couple of maids' becomes 'id' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dissent' going around 'id' is 'DISSIDENT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dissident that I've seen before include "Insets did for one who opposes authority" , "One opposing official policy" , "Protester" , "Person opposing official policy" , "Opposer of official line" .)