In a nutshell, the "women's issues" in Egypt at the given moment (as well as in the past) are: representation and harrassment, in both regards it seems of importance not to loose the momentum that the revolution has brought with it. The NY Times published an excellent article yesterday, written by Sharon Otterman, titled „Women Fight to Maintain Their Role in the Building of a New Egypt“
A Women's revolution?
What in my eyes makes this article so excellent is that it draws together many of the relevant issues pertaining to women's rights and roles before, in and after the revolution. While the Western media's enthusiasm in depicting the Egyptian revolution as „a Women's revolution“ might have been exaggerated, (actually I am sure it was exaggerated) women's participation in the protests was considerable and constituted a remarkable transgression of gender norms.
The NY Times article estimates that about a quarter of the prostesters where female, and this number roughly corresponds to my own observations. Neither before nor after Mubarak's ouster have I seen a majority of women on the Midan Tahrir, yet they continuously constituted a percentage of the demonstrators which was striking. To judge what it means if only 1/4 of the protesters were women and if only 100 of them stayed at the Midan overnight, sleeping side by side with Egyptian men, you have to take into consideration what Egyptian streets usually looked like: Public space is heavily dominated by men, there are many places, streets, akhwas were you would hardly ever see a female Egyptian, and this is particularly true for the hours after nightfall. Without necessarily implying any difference in value, the understanding of complementary roles for men and women is widespread. Carrying protest signs around the streets of downtown for sure does not belong to the female's tasks in this classical conception of roles.
Failure to transform women's street power to institutional influence
Yet, so far the participation of women in the revolution has not translated into women's adequate representation in the ongoing political processes. As soon as the power to define Egypt's future (at least in parts) was transferred from the street to institutions again, the influence of women waned. As the NY Times article points out, the transitional institutions which are currently running the country and rewriting its constitution do not include a single female member. Is there much more to be said?
Ongoing activism to support women's influence
Several groups, which have formed spontaneously or look back on a long history of activism, are determined not let this opportunity for the advancement of the women's cause pass. Yesterday for example a public lecture and meeting was held at Cairo university to discuss feminist perspectives on constitutional change. For Tuesday, 8th of March a women's “Millionae” is planned, with the corresponding events and groups on facebook already created (in English as well as Arabic) and the Egyptian Daily AlMasr AlYoum announcing the event as well as outlining the lack of representation in the responsible bodies.
When I was handing out flyers for the Million women March during Firday's protests at Midan Tahrir many men (exclusively.) returned the flyer to me after having skimmed through it. Whether this was because they were not interested in supporting the cause or because they had been intending to be on the Midan on March 8th anyways, I leave to the speculation of the reader...
Fighting for the rights of Lara Logan?
Another planned event pertaining to sexual harrassment was met with considerable critique:
Karim Mohy, an Egyptian activist had planned to stage protests to demand justice for Lara Logan as part of the Friday demonstrations on 4 March. His attempt met with a lot of critique as reported by AlMasr AlYoum both from facebook users as well as members of an expat-mailing list called Cairoscholars (I had also observed the discussion myself as I am following the mailing list referred to in the respective article). Although the event never materialised Mohy's proposal as well as the assault on Lara Logan brought back the debate about sexual harrasment in Egypt in full force.
18 days without sexual harassment
During the protests, demonstrators and media had emphasized how sexual harrasment had disappeared. And indeed not only in the Midan did the number of incidents decline: when I arrived on the 8th of February in Cairo, I was astonished. For 4 days I remained totally undisturbed while walking the streets of Cairo. Not a single person shouted at me how beautiful I was or how much they wanted to fuck me (I don't want to infringe on anyone's sensibilities here, but sorry, that's reality). To be honest: his was wonderful. Yet at the same time neither did anyone shout “welcome to Egypt”. This was frightening. And thus I was really torn whether to appreciate or regret the new Egyptian silence. And this undecidedness lasts until now: after Mubarak's ouster life and verbal expressiveness returned to Egyptians (both men and women). And with the rising degree of freedom and relief also the degree of harassment rose again. As for my personal experience: we are not yet back to pre-revolution level yet we're not too far away either....and regarding this issue, the judgement of other women might be much more pessimistic than mine. An Egyptian female friend for example just two days ago reproached me for my lack of caution, because I was not trying the most I could to provide harassment-prone situations. Yet, from my understanding EVERY situation in Egypt is harassment-prone, so I don't really see a useful strategy other than maintaining my peace of mind...
Lara Logan being sexually assaulted amidst the celebrations
While for me the return of harassment was a slow process, it came as an instant turning point for the American journalist Lara Logan and thus also for the (Western) media. The attack that initially brought the topic of harassment back to the headlines happened right after Mubarak's ouster, amidst the celebrations in downtown. Eager to prevent damage to the reputation of the Egyptian revolution protestors and activists were quick to condemn the attack. Their statements could not halt the fear that things in Egypt are going back to normal - and normal means a shocking amount of sexual harrassment
Return to the normality of omnipresent sexual harrassment
An article on Bikyamasr, an Egyptian newssite gives some background information on the plague which has ridden Egypt for years, or shall we rather say "on the plague that Egyptian men bring about women"? (The question mark is not a mockery here, it is not a rhetoric question but a genuine one). Accordingly the author speaks of the return of harassment: „Sexual violence returns to Egypt spotlight“.
The same author, Joseph Mayton, also had some critical thoughts on the activists' reaction, pointing out that other than they portrayed this incidence was a rather normal thing to happen in Egypt. While being somewhat repretitive of the arguments in his other article, Mayton's stance is quite strong in his op-ed, and needs at least be considered. It's in line with many people's opinion, also the critique against Mohy's planned demonstrations for example was largely directed against treating Logan as a special case while the daily harassment and abuse of Egyptian women is ignored.
Remarkable silence of Arab media on the Logan case
A remarkable aspect of the Logan-issue is that both Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya largely ignored the incident, with Al Jazeera thereby giving away a lot of the credit it had gained for its coverage during the uprising. As the NY Times article states, to the day the details of the attack remain unclear, and Lara Logan does not seem willing to help end the speculation. Thus blogposts of observers' who contradict what has so far been known of the attack have remained unchallenged.
Irrespective of the details of the aussalt Logan suffered from, her case also shed light on a widely neglected issue, sexual violence against jouralists. To learn more, have a look at the statement on the topic of „Documenting sexual violence against journalists“ by the Committee to Protect Journalists, and a 2007 article by journalist Judith Madoff which had stirred considerable debate and was considered to have broken a taboo at that time.
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