Blog 4: Egypt's women insist on their rights

Even though Egypt's women played an important role in the country's '”Arab Spring' revolution” they are finding that they have to keep fighting for their rights in the post-Mubarak era. The revolution was the largest demonstration in Egypt, in February 2011, that lead to the fall of the Mubarak regime. The fall would have been unthinkable without the courageous and decisive involvement of women. They were crucial in preparing for the revolution, among them Israa Abdel Fattah, the now world famous Internet activist and founder of the "April 6 Youth Movement" who had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her role in the revolution. The movement actually grew out of the workers' rights struggle in Mahala in the Nile delta in April 2008 that issued the first calls for protests. Pictures went around the world of female activists, young and old, and side-by-side with male protesters, risking their lives for a better Egypt. Abdel Fattah remembers the "Egyptian utopia", 18 days of revolution when the differences between men and women, between Christians and Muslims and Islamists and liberals became invisible. "We used to all think: Egyptians are uncivilized, all the time they harass women. But after the revolution we realized that all this bad behavior had gone away, as soon as the Mubarak regime was gone. His corrupt regime had turned people bad and made them corrupt. No women got harassed anymore”, Israa said. Unfortunately, not long after the uprising, women started becoming targets of conservatives and the military. They were quickly exposed to pressure from several different sides. The military, which ruled until July 2012, initially and intentionally ignored them, while radical Salafists have massively attacked their activities. Later, they became the target of brutal attacks by the military. Women all of a sudden we were being told to go home. After all the effort they had put into the fall of the Mubarak regime, they went right back to being unjustly treated by the country. 

Dalia Ziada, executive director of the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies in Cairo and co-founder of the new Justic Party, believes that the heart of the problem is that Egypt has no constitution that ensures fundamental rights, like equality for all citizens. That's why "the fight for basic rights will continue" she said. She thinks it will take time and really hopes there won't be any more violence. “The constitution is a critical issue and we have to ensure that it will be written reasonably." It is ridiculous how the women of the country protested, and put their lives at risk for their country. They were courageous and decisive, and the Mubarak regime would still be unjustly ruling today if it were not for the women. I would think they would receive some sort of accreditation for their effort. Instead, they are told to go home! They were even attacked. I hope that the country sees how unjust they are being, and recognizes the women for all they have done for Egypt’s people. 

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16252990,00.html