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Egypt`s revolution means nothing if its women are not free
Jumanah Younis
A mob of men attacking an International Women>s Day demo
should not
be allowed to happen in the new EgyptAn International Women>s
Day demonstration in Cairo>s Tahir Square
turned violent when a group of men attacked it. Photograph:
Str/AP
A demonstration commemorating International Women>s Day
was
attacked on Tuesday afternoon in Cairo>s Tahrir Square. More
than 200 men charged on the women forcing some to the ground,
dragging
others out of the crowd, groping and sexually harassing them as
police
and military figures stood by and failed to act.
It was a shocking wake-up call. Even in Tahrir Square, the
symbol of
Egypt>s newfound freedom, it seems that it>s going to take
much more
than a revolution to overhaul the deep-seated misogyny that some
Egyptian men so freely and openly impose on the country>s female
population.
The female demonstrators myself among them had been
protesting
against Egypt>s chronic sexual harassment problem, against
the many
barriers women face in public life, and against the pervasive
conservatism
that curtails the freedom of women in society at large. The
women chanted
slogans that had been used in the revolution itself, calling for
freedom,
justice and equality. But their demonstration quickly attracted
a counter-
protest.The women>s chants calling for an Egypt for all
Egyptians were
drowned out by retaliations such as No to freedom! shouted by
the
opposing group. The men charged at the female protesters, who
had been
standing on a raised platform in the middle of Tahrir Square,
and shouted:
Get out of here.
-
Many women were dragged away individually by small groups of
men
who attacked them. I remained on the platform with five other
women.
A small circle of sympathetic men held hands around us to
protect us
from the crowd, which swelled on all sides.
Against the charge of the counter-demonstrators, the circle
quickly
caved. Several women fell to the ground and a number of attempts
were
made by the attacking group to steal belongings.
As I struggled to stay upright, a hand grabbed my behind and
others
pulled at my clothes. When, a few minutes later, I found the
other
women I was with, one told me that a man had put his hand down
her
top, while another woman had been pushed to the ground and
held
down by a man on top of her. The police continued to direct
traffic
around the square as the incident was taking place.
Such outrageous displays of contempt for women cannot be
allowed
to persist in the new Egypt. Time and time again so-called
women>s
issues have been relegated to the bottom of the agenda: we
must
end corruption first, we must have political freedom first, etc,
etc. On
Tuesday, Egyptian women said: Now is the time. There is no
freedom
for men without freedom and equality for women.
This is not a free society if a woman cannot walk down the
street
without fear of being harassed, attacked, or even molested.
Women have
a right to participate in Egyptian society as equals and this
revolution
will have achieved nothing if it does not recognise the basic
right of the
Egyptian women to exist, to demonstrate, to work, to live and
walk the
streets with dignity.
-
Egypt>s revolution through
the eyes of five womenBill Law
The Egyptian revolution did not occur out of the blue.
Activists, male and
female, have for years been pushing for change.
Here, five women who helped to shape and define the revolution -
a
young blogger, the daughter of a powerful Muslim Brother, a
Coptic
Christian doctor, a persecuted democracy activist and a labour
organiser
- explain what it means to them.
Dalia Ziada fears that some of the gains of Tahrir Square are
already
being lost Dalia Ziada: When I first met Dalia she was a
wide-eyed cyber
activist determined to use her blogs to secure rights for all
Egyptians but
especially for women. Now, three years on, she is a veteran
blogosphere
campaigner.
But it was when she was in Tahrir Square standing shoulder to
shoulder
with a poor, uneducated woman that she realised she was part
of
something bigger. I asked this woman why she had come and she
said >for change>, and
then I knew the revolution had begun.
But disillusionment has set in. During the revolution, it
didn>t matter if
you were young or old, a man or a woman. The only thing that
mattered
was that you were Egyptian. Now we are back to our differences,
you are a man, you are a woman,
we are told we should not be mingling, and not talk about
everything
as before. It brings disappointment and fear to my heart,
actually.
-
, demonstrated daily on Tahrir Square Zaahra al-Shatter: The
last time I
saw Zaahra, a mother of three, was in March 2008 .A school
administrator, she had just seen her father and husband - both
members of the then banned Muslim Brotherhood - seized in a
night
raid. She was resolute in her determination to fight for their
release,
petitioning the government relentlessly, and appealing to the
media.
Now they are out, she has shifted her energies to education:
The
greatest thing about this revolution is that it has given the
children of
Egypt hope and freedom.She says she is encouraging the children
to think in a different way, to
do different projects, to believe in different values. It is
very important.
Dr Mona Mina still fights for better health provision, as well
as the
political revolution Mona Mina: Mona Mina, a Christian, is the
leader
of an organisation called Doctors Without Rights.
For years she has fought for better pay and working conditions
for
doctors. Under President Mubarak, repression and corruption
made
that an unwinnable fight.
Now she is seizing the opportunity. She was at Tahrir Square,
but she
worries that the revolution could be stolen, that the old ways
will simply
find new ways to reassert themselves.
The feeling of liberation has started, but it is not complete
yet. It>s the
first step in a long road, there are still many things that need
to happen
for real liberation.And she says that she and the other Tahrir
Square protesters will, if
necessary, shed blood to keep the revolution alive.
Gameela Ismail will run for parliament this time Gameela
Ismail:
Gameela Ismail was a popular television presenter, when she and
her
then husband Ayman Nour openly challenged Hosni Mubarak.
-
Ayman Nour ran for president and lost. He was stripped of
parliamentary immunity and thrown in jail. The couple>s bank
accounts were frozen. Gameela was sacked from
her job and subjected to years of harassment as she campaigned
for his
release. She is proud of what Egyptians have accomplished,
comparing it to the
fall of the Berlin Wall. We made a revolution on our own - the
people
of Egypt owe no-one. And now, for the first time, it>s our
country, not their [the regime>s]
country.
Walking in the streets now is completely different to before,
the feeling
that for the first time the street is yours, the neighbourhood
is yours,
the country is yours.
Gameela is running for parliament in the elections scheduled for
later
this year. Ayesha Abdul Aziz hopes to continue her fight for
better schools and
hospitals in parliament Ayesha Abdul Aziz: Ayesha is a farmer in
the
Nile Delta and a labour organiser. In her household unmarried
Ayesha
sits at the head of the table. In this and in so many other ways
she is
different from most rural women.
In 2008, she led a strike to win equal pay for female tobacco
factory
workers.
She won that fight against the odds. But last year she lost an
attempt
win a seat in parliament, in blatantly rigged elections.
She will run again in the elections scheduled for later this
year. Win or
lose, she will fight for better schools, better hospitals, for
decent roads
and clean water.
-
I am a woman and thank God I know my rights.
But she does not think that a woman will ever become president
of
Egypt.No, no, no, that is not an issue for me. Egypt is so
tough, it really
needs a man to run it.
-
New song of Egypt>s elite
nawal sadwi
What makes revolutionary thought unique is its clarity and
dignity,
and its clear grasp of freedom and justice: simple, clear words
that are
understood without the need for any help from elite writers or
thinkers.
In the columns of many of Egypt>s national newspapers, the
same face-
lifted, hair-dyed dignitaries who spent years justifying and
beautifying
the corruption of past rulers still write regularly. They now
praise
Egypt>s revolutionaries just as they once praised Hosni
Mubarak and
his ministers.Their words jumble everything, until the truth
disappears the simple,
plain truth that the law and the constitution must be fair, and
must be
applied equally to everyone; that a leader should not be spared
a just trial,
nor punishment if he is found guilty of killing demonstrators or
stealing
money, or corruption, or any other charge.
Mubarak has now been indicted, but the trial is being constantly
delayed
for health reasons, or political or other reasons. There is
pressure from
both inside and outside the country to spare him. Some people
the
elite thinkers who write in newspapers want to empty the
revolution of
its significance. They want to turn it into a song that we
listen to yearly
on 25 January, just as we listen to I love you Egypt songs
during processions of national hypocrisy.
All their writings sound the same, revolving around the same
concealed
idea, as if they meet at night and agree upon it. Oh, pure youth
of the
revolution, they say, you are noble; you rise above revenge. You
are the
youth of a pure revolution, not like the French revolution that
executed
King Louis XVI and his family. Your white revolution shed no
blood.
-
Their tears pour with the flowing ink of their pens. But they
did not
shed tears for the youth who were killed and wounded on the
streets
and in Tahrir Square. They did not cry for the youth who lost
their
eyesight to the snipers> rubber bullets, or for the people of
Egypt who
have suffered hunger, unemployment, and abuse in prisons. They
only
shed tears for leaders who have spilled blood and taken
money.
In their desire to protect fallen leaders from the people>s
trials, they
say that God alone can punish and reward. To all the youth of
the
revolution, trust God and do not listen to the words of infidels
who are
calling for punishment.
But how can there be justice without a trial? Why are they
afraid of a
trial if they are innocent and if their defendant is innocent?
Mubarak
was the one who gave orders to ministers and to some of our
elite
writers, too, as he distributed rewards and positions among
them. None
of them ever opened their mouth except to shower Mister
President
with compliments, or to show their loyalty to him by following
his
orders. None of them ever met the president without emerging
from
the meeting waxing lyrical about their unique and
unprecedented
encounter.
They tell the youth that everyone makes mistakes. You are young
and
pure and romantic, they say. You haven>t experienced life;
but we
are old and have struggled with life; we have all lived through
the past regime, we all adapted to it, we the big writers. We had
limits that we
could not step over or else we would have been dragged to jail
or exiled,
and our children would have starved. Oh, youth of the
revolution, you
have to rise above this desire to punish or you risk losing the
noble
spirit of the revolution. It is enough that the stolen money is
returned
through the courts; we can spare Mubarak and his family from
the
humiliation of a trial, and he can leave Egypt.
-
This is the new song that the Egyptian elite is singing today.
To this
day, its members occupy the thrones of culture, information,
writing
and art. You could almost sense from them that the trial will
not
take place and if it did, it would be a sham, and it would end
with
acquittal and a safe passage outside the country. I hope I am
wrong
for the sake of protecting Egypt from another burning
revolution.
-
she wont win, but Bothaina Kamel is
vital to Egypts futureJoseph Mayton
Egypt>s female presidential candidate Bothaina Kamel is key
to Egypt>s
future.CAIRO: When Egypts Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
)SCAF(
held a Facebook poll to see who the frontrunner for the
presidency would
be in April, they left off one candidate: Bothaina Kamel. In
Egypts male-
dominated political sphere it is understandable, even accepted.
Women
in politics are looked down upon and few Egyptians would
seriously
consider voting for the talk show host turned presidential
candidate.
When Kamel announced on the micro-blogging website Twitter
earlier
this year that she intended to run in the next presidential
campaign,
nobody took notice. Bikyamasr.coms Manar Ammar broke the story
to
little fanfare. In fact, it wasnt until Kamel took to the
streets and began
voicing her platform of social justice that the media began to
take her
candidacy seriously. It is the unfortunate state of women in
Egyptian
society, but at least now, her voice is being heard, even as the
vast
majority of the country shuns even the idea of a woman in
power.
Egypt has long struggled with women in politics. Following the
January
25 revolution, many believed it could mark the renaissance for
womens
rights in a country that has done little to tackle the
widespread problem
of sexual harassment and the lack of womens empowerment.
Instead, the
country has seen a reversal of the few gains made in recent
years.
The military has abandoned a womens quota in parliament,
meaning
that come November, the likelihood of have a female MP is
growing
slimmer and slimmer. The Egyptian Center for Womens Rights in
late
July attempted to push the interim government and the ruling
SCAF
-
to install female governors. They were rebuked, with the
government
citing security concerns and placing all men in the countrys
governorates.When the military developed a constitution
committee to develop
changes to Egypts constitution, there were no women on the
panel,
despite female lawyers and politicians in the country.
Among the pro-change protesters, womens rights have been
silenced.
They argue that to push for womens rights would be a
single-issue that
does not embrace the overall goal of the revolution. Even some
women
agree, saying that the country needs universal human rights and
must
avoid the discriminatory idea of womens rights as a unique
goal.
But in a society where women have had little ability to enter
politics,
or have their voices heard, and live on a daily basis with the
comments,
groping and assaults, some form of affirmative action is
needed.
Without it, women could be faced with even more disadvantages as
the
men take hold of Egypts future.
In comes Bothaina Kamel, arguably the only visible female leader
in
current Egypt. For many, she isnt qualified to be president.
Then again,
in a country ruled for over half a century by dictators, who is
qualified?
There are viable candidates in the country, Mohamed ElBaradei,
the
former International Atomic Energy Agency )IAEA( chief and
darling
of the Western media, former Arab League Secretary-General
Amr
Moussa, former Muslim Brotherhood top official Abdel Moneim
Aboul
Fotouh and a handful of others, but none of them have done more
than
talk.
Kamel, however has taken her message of social justice into the
streets,
rural areas and to the people themselves in a move reminiscent
of
American President Barack Obamas grassroots mobilization that
set
him on a path to the White House in 2008.
-
. She is doing more than the other candidates combined.
Unfortunately it isnt translating into larger support. Her
Facebook fan page has roughly 1,000 supporters, while
ElBaradeis 250,000. Comments on articles in the Arabic
press have been virulently antagonistic, with many claiming
the role of a woman is in the house and a woman can
never be president according to Islam.
It hasnt stopped Kamel from pursuing her campaign and
her belief in a better Egypt. It is sad that not more women
are being galvanized by her efforts. The conservatism that
has seeped into Egypt over the past two decades has taken
its toll, with many of the countrys female population
seemingly having bought into the idea that Islam forbids
women in power positions.On Friday July 29, some one million
conservative Salafists
converged on Cairo in a show of force, calling on Egypt
to be an Islamic state. Among them were women, fully
veiled and spouting the rhetoric of a conservative Egypt. It
struck fear in the dwindling pro-change supporters, who are
hopeful that a future democratic Egypt is mult-faceted and
open.Women in this country have been forced to watch from
the
sidelines for so long that it is hard to get them moving and
getting involved in politics, Mona Makram Ebeid, a former
MP appointed as part of the quota system in the 1990s told me a
year before the revolution. She added, however,
-
that Egyptian women are pushing toward joining social activity
and this is where their power lies.
Kamel obviously understands this and has taken her
message outside Cairo. She has earned the support
and backing of a number of online activists and
although the government and her opponents dont fear her, it is
her candidacy that still brings hope to
a country that appears broken and fractured. For
women, it has been that way for years.
