Women in Egypt : views and ideas

On Wednesday 17 of February 2010, I attended a talk of my best friend and co worker Mozn Hassan
The talk was organized by the Egyptian American friendship Association, sponsored by the US embassy in Cairo. This talk was on feminist movement and women rights issues in Egypt.

Four panelists talked, Mona Ali el Deen, women rights activist and trainer, Dalia Zaida a blogger women rights activist and director of the Islamic American Congress office in North Africa, Nehad Abo el Omsan women rights activist and lawyer and director of Egyptian center of women rights and my dear Mozn Hassan, women rights activist, promising young scholar and chairperson of our NGO Nazra for feminist studies.

The talk was informative and contained wide range of views, they talked about the achievements and challenges facing the feminist movement in Egypt.

Two points ringed my bells, one by Mozn about the relation between the feminist movement and the social change movements and the other by Dalia about the genderless cyberspace.


Mozn said that feminist and women rights movement should be associated and linked to the societal reform movements, I think that women rights are never a priority in any societal change movement. Women are not on the agenda , that's why feminist should have their own agenda, establish their support networks and formulate their strategies, I do not mean to be isolated but they should pave their own way.

The other point was raised by Dalia, about the free genderless cyberspace. I reject this argument, cyberspace inherited the patriarchal sentiments of real society. Women are censored and harassed in the virtual space as well. I remember the Egyptian lesbian anonymous blogger that had tons of negative comments on her posts denouncing what she is articulating only because she dared to discuss her sexuality and also Manal Bahey el Deen the high profiled blogger who had hard times when she talked about an incident of sexual harassment she faced.

The talk was very feminist and the floor feedback was very patrichal with some exceptions of good souls

Look, Listen and Learn

My English book when I was in my primary school was called “Look, Listen and Learn” it was a very sweet and informative book. It taught us life skills not only foreign language. I think it affected my life because I am looking to the facts and realities and trying to question them, then change them, I am listening to people stories and I am trying to know the morale of each story to guide me in my way. And finally I am always learning.

I added a new L word, which is love, although I was not happy in my love life, however I have always believed that love is not only between a man and a women, it has many variations and one of its best variation is love between friends, and this is the motive of writing this post to celebrate valentine or the OSAP day, Organization of Saps, spinsters in Turkish. I formed this organization with my best friends Asli and Ece, to celebrate being independent, mature, well educated, professional and single women.

I still believe that I am complete, even if Mr. Right is not next to me; my photo is perfect and pretty although I am alone. I know that love is an added value to everyone life, but I will not pause my life to search for it, I will never cry for it as a lost blessing, I will enjoy the other blessing in my life till it come to make my life more beautiful, he is a valued contribution but not my pillar.

I am happy by myself, I am happy alone it’s true, I am happy by my self but I am happier with you

Fatma

Politics of Veiling and Revealing

Women’s body is obsession and battle field of any patriarchal society. Women either forced to be veiled and be covered, in this case they are portrayed as source of temptation, or they will be manipulated to reveal their beauty to be deemed desired and emancipated.

Enforcing obligatory veil or banning veil or Hijab is a policy applied by the state to penetrate the private sphere of its citizens. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan are forcing women to abide by certain dress code, these states consider Hijab part of the Islamic teachings and women must follow it. These states consider itself the enforcer of Allah laws and the individual can not oppose its regulations.

Other states like Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey, UK and France ban certain so called religious dress codes, like Niqab or Burqa.

What women want??!! This is the question that invaded my mind, there is no single rights answer, women in the North are not like women in the South and there are many variations of women needs and choices. Another question is why the morality and beauty of women is related to its dress and how much they are covering or revealing.

I have been always critical to the policies of obligatory veil which deem women source of sexual chaos that need to be tamed and covered , these policies also consider men as perverts that perceive women only as sexual objects and they can not control their desires.

I also disagree with the policies of banning certain dress codes like Niqab or Burqa the full body veil. I think it is a personal freedom to reveal or cover your body and I do not accept the argument that this is emancipation of women from the shackles s of outdated traditions.

I still remember my first course of political sciences in Cairo University when Dr Ibrahim Arafaat said that one of the features of totalitarian state is penetrating the private life of its citizens, like the former USSR, ironically I think Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, France and UK are belonging to this category.

I hope one day women will choose their outfits without thinking of the legal dress code or the social moral judgments.I just can not understand the dogmatic absolutist attitude of the states when they claim that it knows the complete truth and can lead its citizens to the only best way. I hope a day will come when all forms of power like force, manipulation and coercion will not shape women’s life.

Women, Sexuality and name calling.

I have always being questioning why the people obsessed with sexuality; I know that is a very vital part of our human nature. Why all the degrading swears are related to the sexually oppressed persons, whether it is a female in heterosexual relation or gays in homosexual relation (this is the mainstream patriarchal vision of roles in sexual relation). Why is important to act sexually in a socially approved manner, although sexuality is so private and it is confined in the private sphere and why gender roles in sexual relations are prescribed by the society and it is very challenging to resist this pre-made roles or figures.

A recent accident influenced my thought. I was going to the office early in the morning in a rush hour of crowded Cairo. I was crossing the road slowly in a green light; a man in fancy car was horning to me to cross faster to let him pass although his light was red. I just thought that he is violating my right so I walked slowly on purpose. He called me "Labwa" the lioness. I was angry and almost said a nasty word. But the policeman intervened and told him it is her right to walk in the green light, and watch your mouth. I looked to the man in a very rough way and left peacefully physically, and emotionally hurt, for committing no guilt. I just claimed my right n the street.

"Labwa" is a nasty word, because it means that a woman is sexually very active and if one partner is not fulfilling for her, so she might engage polygamous relation, she is breadwinner, she hunts the animals, while the lazy male lion is enjoying sun and flexing his muscles. And she is the main care giver; she is taking care of the babies. So the moral of the story in a nutshell is do not be economically independent, do not be sexually proactive and do not express your desires to your partner and do not search for satisfaction if your partner is not fulfilling you (I do not believe in open inclusive relationships and I believe in monogamous relationships, however I see people still have the right to adopt the kind of relation which suits them).
So although the man told me "Labwa" to insult me, however I was quite proud to called "Labwa" because it denotes that I am an independent women, I do not gain my legitimacy and agency from being attached to a certain man and I am the one to judge how much I am satisfied or not in my relation and I have the right to exist from and relation and seek satisfaction with another partner, if not fulfilled.

This is a humble attempt to deconstruct the name calling, social stigma and its relation with women and sexuality. I am sure that there is literature on this topic; however I think we need to highlight such questions and create new answer sensitive to our current lived reality, to add our own contribution to the feminist thought. We need to construct feminist epistemology to confront with the mainstream common patriarchal cultural norms on sexuality and its accepted or rejected gender roles and figures I think we need to rethink the rationale of name calling and why do we attach social stigma to the oppressed: sexually, economically and ethnically.

To be followed with other posts, about the change of accepting homosexual relations and sex workers. And body issues and politics of veiling and revealing in the contemporary Egyptian society.

Personal note: I am astonished that I am discussing this in public. I am adopting a new strategy to get the private public. Bare in mind that comments are monitored on this blog. Offensive unconstructive comments are not welcomed. So save my time and yours.

I dedicate this post to two of my dearest friends Maria, who suffered once from my obsession by, swears and Mozn for bearing me as a very disturbed and nagging friend for more than 7 years. Thanks ladies!!!

Stay tuned!!

Fatma

Green versus Black

Iran is passing through a very critical moment of its history, the credibility of the so called Islamic republic is questioned. Despotism, sexism and tyranny are no more accepted or tolerated. The green movement and presidential elections aftermaths revealed the ugly face of the Black Islam adopted by the black turbaned Ayotallah.

In a very informative and impressing talk, Prof. Ziba Mir Hosseini, a distinguished Iranian Anthropologist and one of my great mentors, elaborated on her paper "Broken Taboos in Post-Election Iran"

In a talk hosted by the distinguished Egyptian feminist think tank Women and Memory Forum www.wmf.org.eg , Ziba shared with us her analysis on the Green movement and the change happening currently in the Iran. She started with a very catchy idea, the Green versus the Black. by Green she meant the reformist, democratic, inclusive and feminist voices of the Iranian opposition versus the Black rigid, dogmatic and sexist voices of the official so called Islamic regime. The Green movement made remarkable changes, the first is the unification of the feminist movement under one platform, fighting for women rights. the sharp polarization between the faith based feminists and secular feminists which was a persistent feature of the Iranian feminist movement since 1979 ended under the severe misogynist attacks of the Iranian regime. Ziba said: " in April 2009, 42 women’s groups and 700 individuals, including both secular feminists and religious women from the reformist parties, came together to form a coalition called the Women’s Convergence. Without supporting any individual candidate, the coalition posed pointed questions to the field". the convergence demanded the ratification of the international women rights bill Convention of Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women CEDAW and revision of discriminatory articles 19, 20, 21 and 115 of the constitution.

The second landmark was infringing the concept of the so called Islamic republic which protect the honor of its citizens. The black atrocity of the protester Taraneh Mousavi, who was detained, reportedly raped and murdered in prison, and her body burned and discarded, discarded the credibility of the regime, who have been forcing rigid sexual and moral code of conduct on its citizens. The obligatory Hijab was taken off to intimidate the Green protesters. Taraneh was an alarm and example to the destiny of any outspoken women who dare to challenge the regime. The sexual assaults was not directed to women, men were victims as well " One of Karroubi’s witnesses, a male rape victim, refers to his decision to disclose what happened to him as “committing social suicide,” which speaks to the power of the taboo -- but then, once a taboo is broken, it loses its power". In addition to that the media apparatus of the regime spread a photo of the student leader Majid Tavakoli wearing traditional Hijab chador, to humiliate him, however a campaign was launched on the social network Facebook, calling men to post their photos wearing Hijab in solidarity with Majid. These incidents reminded me with the usage of sexual assaults as a tool against dissidents, it was used in Egypt in the referendum day in May 2005.

The third novelty was the role of women in the Green movement. It started with the appearance of Zahra Rahnavard at the side of -- and even holding hands with -- her husband, the candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and the other Iranian women, that the analysts said that the Green movement is feminine, it is based on the ethics of care offered by women. It is note worthy to say that women have been in the public sphere, however they were always subordinate or second level officials entrenching the regime discourse.

Finally, the passion and love were released and taken publicly, different wives on political prisoners wrote love letters to their husbands expressing their pain and loss. Women sexuality and passion were finally acceptable and not stigmatized. And this is a huge change in a Middle Eastern Muslim society, where love is confined in bedrooms.

Women are showing that they are capable of bearing the pain and giving birth to beauty and justice. The struggle of Iranian women is, was and will shape the history of women endeavor in the Middle East. They are breaking taboos, confronting with fundamentalism and seeking equality.

In solidarity

Fatma

Expiring date

I had a long weekend this week, 3 days yeeeeey.

So I tried to finish some of my pending tasks especially in the housework. I decided to rearrange my closet, to see what I already have and what I need. This task revealed two things broke my heart .

That almost half of my skin care and hair care things( creams, scrubs ….) are expired and that I gained huge amount of flesh.
I am a skin care maniac, I have always cared for keep my skin scented and soft, I know that I have only one body and I want celebrate this blessing. I treasured my birthdays gifts: perfumes, masks and creams. I have being using them since I was 14years old or even younger, however I preferred to keep the some of them to utilize them when I have a stable relationship. I have this fantasy that I want to enjoy my beauty with my lover. Keeping them untouched made them expire.
These products did not have my patience. They did not wait for too long as I waited for Mr. Right. And he did not come yet. that does not mean that I was not in relations or that I did not fall in love, but the perfect match is still not there yet.
The expiring date reminded me that my clock is ticking and I am almost thirty years old, thanks to God I achieved nice things in my academic life and my career, however I am always whining because of lack of luck with men. I do not feel that my life is incomplete, I feel that I need a partner to share the memories with me, to be there when I am in pain or joy, he missed the graduation of BA and MA, he missed my first flight abroad and he missed thousands and thousands of events. when he will show up to see what I am doing and enjoy it with me.

Closet rearrangement also made me notice that I gained huge amount of weight, I am wearing 3 extra sizes than what I used to wear in 2007, my best shape ever after coming back to Egypt from Belgium. I always had this body image thing, how fat I am, how is my figure, Am I proportioned or not? I have been athletic when I was a teenager, and I stopped playing sports because High school diploma fever.
Stooping sports pressured me to watch my diet and to take care of how much fats I put to my hips through my lips. Currently I am trying to reduce my weight through a nice diet, not very harsh one to avoid depression and hair fall. And definitely I will NEVER visit a nutrition doctor, they made me feel horrible.
I am sad, I hate being in denial, I cherish my femininity , although I have issues with expressing in public. I am aware that I am getting old and I am accumulating wisdom, experience and knowledge however, I am waiting for time to put his fingerprints on me, like wrinkles for example. I will still wait for my perfect match, I will not trade my principles or lower my standards for anyone or any reason.

Note: I was hesitant to write about this in these sad days in Egypt, but I felt that I can share my feelings with you and that is not consider disrespect the grief of Nag' Hamdi clashes, people born and die and life continues .

Following an enemy

I am always questioning the motives forcing- I hope force is the adequate verb- Muslim women to join radical Islamist movements.
why would women engage a movement that sees them as sexual object needs to be tamed and covered. why do women agree to be identified as traps of the devil. Why do women accept to be called adulterer, if she wears perfume. why she trades her personal well for the obedience of the leader and the group, not only Allah. Why women march in masses supporting Umma (the nation) calls, but they never march for their own demands. Why do women constitute the wide base of support to the Islamist movement, but they are never allowed to join the elite of the movement as a person, only as a wife of X or a daughter of Y.
There are many arguments explaining the reason behind women's participation in Islamists movement. I reject the argument of false conciseness, which says that those women were fooled or mislead through many factors like socialization. So they will choose alternatives against their own interests. I reject this argument because it does not respect the personal choice of these women and perceive them as submissive creatures, who have no critical minds or well to question the illusions.
I agree with the argument of the Turkish scholar Deniz Kandyoti that women are forced that do a patriarchal bargain to give up their rights as individuals and women, to gain acceptance and agency. Those women adopt the same norms and discourse of the movement. They entrench the gender roles and images adopted by the movement. They know their limits and they never cross it. Kandyoti argument is opposite to Saba Mahmoud argument which claims that women create new form of agency and empowerment through engaging Islamist movement.
I believe that Islamist movements use women to gain support, to sustain societal statuesque and advocate for their ideas. I still remember how Muslim Brotherhood MB dealt with women in the movement or sisters, how they nominated two women in the parliamentary elections of 2000 and 2005 in Egypt, when all the political actors criticized them for excluding women from political arena. The two female candidtes of MB are Gihan el Halfawy in Alexandria in 2000, she is wife of prominent MB figure and Makarem el Deery in Cairo, Helipolis in 2005. she is a widow of prominent MB figure as well , they both failed and did not make to the parliament. It is obvious that both are related to prominent brothers and they are not real figures in the movement. In addition to that el Deery in one of her press statements affirmed that she took the permission of her eldest son before running for office and she commented saying that there are no powerful sisters in the movement as the icon Zeinab el Ghazaly. Also many critiques pointed that el Deery campaign manager was more powerful and charismatic than el Deery her self.

MB affirmed women inability to run for president office. And recently MB in its comments on the political momentum inside the movement after long period of stagnation, declared that women will not hold any senior position in the movement. MB pretext was protecting the sisters from any governmental backlash. MB is not the only example of opportunism of Islamist movements and their exploitation of women. what I hate most is that they claim that they can guide them to the only right path and they convince women that in order to be pious Muslim, they have to give up their rights as women and individuals.
Finally I will conclude by saying women are not herd who need to be shepherded, women will never follow an enemy.

photo found at:
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/