The past few weeks have represented a dream come true for the women’s rights movement. Across Egypt, women and girls united and stood as one alongside their husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons in the country’s fight for democracy. As the world watched the celebrations in Egypt, news analysts began discussing the country’s future, debating whether a true democracy will have an opportunity to emerge in the coming months. Thus far mainstream media has failed to point out both the integral role of these brave women in the protests as well as the incredible opportunity the Egyptian revolution presents for realizing women’s rights not only in Egypt, but also in other countries in the Middle East.
A few months ago, I had the opportunity to befriend an incredible woman from Egypt named Ms. Fatma Emam Mohamed Mokhtar, who is a Research Associate for the Nazra Association for Feminist Studies based in Cairo. Fatma is a passionate, young woman in her late twenties, who has struggled to realize her identity in the midst of gender inequalities that are entrenched in this country’s public and private spheres. Despite being raised by a traditional Nubian, Islamic mother that strongly opposed Fatma’s participation in the protests, Fatma found the courage to join her fellow Egyptians in Tahrir Square. On her first day of joining the protests, she was wary of identifying with any sub-group, focused instead on supporting the great movement for a democracy in her country. But after some time she was truly amazed by the general unity that was demonstrated between all Egyptian women, regardless of their political or religious beliefs. This is not what she had expected.
This uprising unintentionally created a public space for all Egyptian men and women to come together and hear each other with open minds because they were unified behind a common purpose. The kind of revolution that resulted, where the government was overthrown not by a military coup or a political or religious ideology, but by a people that were united in their thirst for freedom and equal opportunities, this kind of revolution presents the foundation from which women’s rights in Egypt can be realized in an organic way, from the bottom up. Egypt’s new government has the potential for involving women at the grassroots level in an honest conversation about their country’s future but in the coming months this conversation must involve both men and women. Without undermining the unified force that overthrew the regime, it is imperative that Egyptian women play a key role by voicing their opinions and shaping legitimate political parties with meaningful solutions for improving gender disparities. The firecracker that set off the uprising was large numbers of unemployed or underemployed youth, frustrated with the status quo. If the male Egyptian youth are looking to create a more robust economy for their future, equal opportunities that allow women to fulfill their potential and contribute to a thriving economy is essential.
A debate between overlapping individual rights and religious and cultural norms is surely to arise at home and in public life. The women’s rights movement within Egypt is complicated. There are religious Muslim women who believe there should be a completely secular legal system and religious Muslim women who believe the Sharia legal code, the system of laws based on the Koran that determine women’s personal status rights, should continue to be applicable to family law cases. In Tahrir Square, there were women with head scarves standing with members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muslim women without head scarves standing on their own, and Muslim women like Fatma, standing with head scarves but unaffiliated with any political party or ideology. It has only been one week since the revolution, but as they begin organizing around pressing issues, the old debates that not only divide men and women, but also women from women, are already returning.
According to many western scholars and policy makers, Fatma represents the next generation of Muslim feminists in Egypt who are integrating and harmonizing Islam with progressive feminist ideologies. In college, she was greatly influenced by the Arab feminist Fatima Mersini, whose criticism of religion opened the door for Fatma to begin questioning current Islamic jurisprudence. Ms. Mersini describes how men in Arab society supplement personal status Sharia laws with customary privileges that favor men while subjugating women, causing a view of themselves as lesser beings and discouraging full participation in public life.[1] Both Ms. Mersini and Fatma argue that a correct interpretation of the Koran empowers women and values their contribution to society as equally as men.
Currently, Fatma is working with the, “Going Visual” unit of the Nazra Association for Feminist Studies, in order to develop advertisements that depict women on the streets doing what is only socially acceptable for men to do. For example, there are snippets of women smoking hookahs and getting their hair cut in public by street barbers. They are meant to be provocative and humorous at once, with the aim of planting seedlings of change in the minds of both Egyptian men and women, leading them to question mainstream Islamic identity. Forcing Fatma’s generation to examine how and why they identify with the Islamic faith is crucial to Muslim women’s rights as well as Egypt’s advancement.
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