boston.com Passport
By Fatema Haji-Taki
May 5, 2009
IFRANE, Morocco -- For the past five days, a group of Moroccan students and young-adult activists from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria have been working intensely together in workshops building bridges among themselves and improving skills for creating interfaith community programs in their own countries.
From working to ease interfaith tensions in Egypt and Yemen to advancing women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, these activists are dedicated to sharing their expertise and acquiring new skills on how to effectively plan events, launch campaigns, and secure funding for their field work to promote religious and political freedom in their countries. The workshops emphasize how to translate their online activism to real-world organizing and leadership skills that participants can put to work in practical ways in their home communities.
Ironically, some participants were unable to attend because their visa applications were not approved in time, or, in the case of a prominent Baha’i activist from Egypt, it became too dangerous for her to travel. The empty seats were a stark reminder of the lack of religious and political freedom in most Arab countries.
Jesse Sage, Nasser Weddady and Lauren Murphy from Hands Across the Middle East Support Alliance, a Boston-based nonprofit, and I organized and are facilitating the conference, “Interfaith Leadership Seminar: From the Virtual to the Real World,” at Al Akhawayn University, an English-language college in Ifrane.
Jewish in the Arab world
During the conference the participants met Moroccan Raphael Elmaleh, believed to be the only Jewish tour guide in the Arab world. He is also a founder of the only Jewish museum in the Arab world in Casablanca. Elmaleh’s passion in life is to research the Jewish heritage of Morocco and restore the synagogues and other sites that were left behind by the Jews more than 40 years ago.
“I’m proud to be a Jew in an Arab country,” he says. On Sunday, all the participants had a chance to visit Fez while he showed us the old Jewish Quarter and the cemeteries and the synagogues left behind. For many, this was the first time they had been exposed to the Jewish heritage in an Arab country. By the end of the day, the bond that he created with the rest of the group was heartening.
At first, he acknowledged he was nervous talking about his work to a group of Arab young people from across the Middle East whom he had never met before. But working with the group for two days has changed his mind and he is excited to talk about how Jews and Muslims coexisted peacefully in Morocco and what that means for the future. During dinner yesterday, all of the participants gave him a standing ovation for his dedication while the Moroccan students sang the national anthem. The expression on Elmaleh’s face was invaluable.
Freedom of the press in Yemen
Unfortunately, on Monday, we also learned that an independent newspaper run by one of the Yemeni participants, Abdullah Abdulwahab Naji Qaid, was shut down by Yemeni authorities. Abdullah is a founding member and the General Activity Supervisor of the al-Tagheer Organization for Rights and Freedom Defense, an NGO based in Yemen. He has previously participated in seminars on religious freedom which addressed discrimination against Yemen's Zaidi community.
(Fatema Haji-Taki/UUSC photo)
Yemeni journalist Abdullah Abdulwahab Naji Qaid
When the news broke, the mood among all of us turned solemn. It was a grave reminder of the difficult circumstances these activists work in and the challenges ahead of them after they return home. As the night wore on, the solidarity between all of us for Qaid’s work was palpable. Many are working to organize a campaign for him while others are planning to spread the word through Facebook, their blogs and other online networks.
As a non-Arab Muslim-American human rights activist, I am humbled by the work of my peers. Through the last few days, I’ve seen them work together, debate their differences, sing and dance together. They have created a support network for each other. They are all invested in each others’ success because they all are committed to religious and political freedom in the Arab world.
What they have experienced together as a team will stay with them for the rest of their lives. As they go back, they will face obstacles and there will be times when they will want to give up. My only hope is they will remember the solidarity they experienced this past week and keep soldiering on because they are the future leaders of the Arab world.
Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Egypt. Show all posts
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Egypt: Egypt launches campaign against the niqab
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent
Published: April 16, 2009, 19:23
Cairo: In a bid to curb the surge in donning the niqab (a full-face veil), among its female employees, the Ministry of Waqfs (Religious Endowments), has embarked on a controversial campaign to discourage wearing this garb.
"We are not asking the niqab wearers to take it off. The aim of our campaign, based on awareness-raising seminars, is to prove to them that the niqab was originally an Arabian costume in pre-Islamic times," said Selim Abdel Gelil, an aide to the Minister of Waqfs and the one responsible for the campaign.
The campaign got off the ground this week at the premises of the ministry in Cairo and is planned to cover other cities and provinces of this predominantly Muslim country, according to the same official.
"Islam requires women to be decently dressed without obliging them to cover their faces and hands," Abdel Gelil told Gulf News.
"A telling proof is that during the haj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia), women are not asked to put on the niqab."
Over recent years, the niqab, which covers the woman from head to toe, has become popular in Egypt. Shops, apparently cashing in on the revival of Islamism, have sprung up in working-class and fashionable areas to sell items for Muslim women.
"I don't see any good reason for this questionable attack against Muslim outfits, including the niqab," said a fully veiled woman employee at the Ministry of Waqfs, who gave her name only as Soad.
"This campaign is a waste of public money. What harm is there for wearing the niqab?" she added.
Soad, who said she has been wearing the niqab since getting married five years ago, urges the authorities to shift focus to scantily clad girls. "These girls deserve more attention than the niqab wearers because after all they are the ones who arouse men's desires."
As part of the campaign, the ministry will publish a book titled "Niqab a Habit, not a Worship" to be distributed for free to female attendees of the seminars.
"There will also be question-and-answer sessions in order to help correct misconceptions about the niqab," said Abdel Gelil.
"Wearing the niqab is not an obligatory duty based on Islamic Sharia (Law). I think Muslims make a big mistake by concentrating on appearances and superficial things, thereby giving a bad idea about Islam," Minister of Waqfs Hamdi Zaqzouq was recently quoted as saying in the local press.
He added that niqab-wearers at his ministry would not be assigned preaching missions.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health Dr Hatem Al Gabali has recently warned that female nurses wearing the niqab would be re-posted from hospitals to administrative jobs, saying the costume hampers them from efficiently serving patients.
Published: April 16, 2009, 19:23
Cairo: In a bid to curb the surge in donning the niqab (a full-face veil), among its female employees, the Ministry of Waqfs (Religious Endowments), has embarked on a controversial campaign to discourage wearing this garb.
"We are not asking the niqab wearers to take it off. The aim of our campaign, based on awareness-raising seminars, is to prove to them that the niqab was originally an Arabian costume in pre-Islamic times," said Selim Abdel Gelil, an aide to the Minister of Waqfs and the one responsible for the campaign.
The campaign got off the ground this week at the premises of the ministry in Cairo and is planned to cover other cities and provinces of this predominantly Muslim country, according to the same official.
"Islam requires women to be decently dressed without obliging them to cover their faces and hands," Abdel Gelil told Gulf News.
"A telling proof is that during the haj (Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia), women are not asked to put on the niqab."
Over recent years, the niqab, which covers the woman from head to toe, has become popular in Egypt. Shops, apparently cashing in on the revival of Islamism, have sprung up in working-class and fashionable areas to sell items for Muslim women.
"I don't see any good reason for this questionable attack against Muslim outfits, including the niqab," said a fully veiled woman employee at the Ministry of Waqfs, who gave her name only as Soad.
"This campaign is a waste of public money. What harm is there for wearing the niqab?" she added.
Soad, who said she has been wearing the niqab since getting married five years ago, urges the authorities to shift focus to scantily clad girls. "These girls deserve more attention than the niqab wearers because after all they are the ones who arouse men's desires."
As part of the campaign, the ministry will publish a book titled "Niqab a Habit, not a Worship" to be distributed for free to female attendees of the seminars.
"There will also be question-and-answer sessions in order to help correct misconceptions about the niqab," said Abdel Gelil.
"Wearing the niqab is not an obligatory duty based on Islamic Sharia (Law). I think Muslims make a big mistake by concentrating on appearances and superficial things, thereby giving a bad idea about Islam," Minister of Waqfs Hamdi Zaqzouq was recently quoted as saying in the local press.
He added that niqab-wearers at his ministry would not be assigned preaching missions.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health Dr Hatem Al Gabali has recently warned that female nurses wearing the niqab would be re-posted from hospitals to administrative jobs, saying the costume hampers them from efficiently serving patients.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Egypt: Egypt Wrestles With 'Female Genital Mutilation'
[Cairo, Egypt] In June 2007, 12-year-old Badour Shakour died as a result of a circumcision operation. The death sparked a battle within the country over the use of the controversial medical procedure.
Women’s and children’s rights groups were galvanized into action, pushing for more stringent penalties against those who carry out what is increasingly becoming known as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Shakour’s cause of death was an overdose of anesthetic, but her memory was the cause of an awakening that reached to the upper echelons of government.
In summer 2008, Egypt’s parliament passed a law that ostensibly bans the controversial procedure, not that it should have needed to legislate against FGM – it was already officially banned in the country during the mid-Nineties. But with doctors continuing to perform the procedure on girls as young as five, parliament felt it was necessary to intercede.
The new law stipulates a fine of 1,000–5,000 Egyptian pounds ($185–$900) and a prison term of anywhere between three months and two years if caught performing FGM.
A doctor could also lose his medical license. In the case of Shakour, the doctor who performed the procedure remains in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.
But despite the rising number of deaths and injuries that have resulted from FGM, including a young girl who was left struggling for her life in November after the procedure, many Egyptians are fighting against the ban.
A 2005 report by UNICEF contended that 97 percent of single Egyptian women between 15 and 49 have undergone some form of FGM, although other estimates put the number at 70 percent.
Member of Parliament Mohamed Al Omda, from a small opposition party, brought his three daughters to the floor of the People’s Assembly to protest the ban last year. One of his daughters carried a sign that read: “No to any attempt to forbid what is divinely allowed. No to any attempt to allow what is divinely forbidden.” Two of his three daughters are circumcised.
Many conservative Muslims in the country maintain that the practice is condoned in Islam. The country’s Muslim Brotherhood has come under fire over many of their members’ denunciations of the parliamentary bill. The powerful Islamic group and many Islamic scholars argue that the ban is akin to “imposing Western ideals” on Egyptian society, which they maintain is based in Shari’a (Islamic law).
"Religion does not prohibit or criminalize female circumcision," prominent Islamic scholar Mustafa Al Shaka said to the local press shortly after the bill was passed.
The Brotherhood told The Media Line that they were currently reviewing FGM in terms of its legitimacy within Islam and did not want to comment. Despite this assertion, last summer, their MPs – who won one-fifth of the People’s Assembly as independents – were the most ardent opponents of the bill.
Progressive Islamic scholar Gamal Al Banna – brother of late Brotherhood founder Hassan Al Banna – says there is simply no precedent in Islam for this kind of practice. He argues that it was imported into society as a means of forcing women into the background of everyday life.
“It didn’t exist in Islamic history and those who argue it is Islamic or part of the Shari’a are wrong,” the 87-year-old argued. “Religion does not subscribe to this kind of treatment that can cause death and other horrible results. It is un-Islamic.”
Al Azhar, the Sunni Islamic world’s leading religious authority, agrees with Al Banna. In 2007, the Council of Islamic Research issued a statement saying that FGM and cutting are “harmful, have no basis in core Islamic law and should not be practiced.”
But Egyptian society remains divided into opposing camps over the issue, says National Council for Motherhood and Childhood secretary-general Moushira Khattab. She believes that although the ban will remain permanent, it will take time to educate the population over the long-term effects of cutting a woman’s clitoris.
“Nobody is going to say no to something that has negative effects caused by the procedure and, in time, Egyptians will see this,” she begins. “So the punishments that are being handed out against those who conduct this practice are vitally necessary.”
UNICEF estimates that three million girls in Africa undergo FGM annually, including in Egypt. The practice is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989.
The practice remains common in Egypt, especially among the rural communities outside the capital Cairo and Alexandria. According to a 2005 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey, the majority of FGM procedures have been performed by trained medical personnel.
Human rights groups and doctors in the country argue that the involvement of medical workers in the procedure is a major reason the procedure continues.
“We have to work slowly and cannot expect everything to change with one law. Egyptians are stubborn and if they believe this is part of their religion, then it is very difficult to convince them otherwise, even if they are trained doctors,” said a female doctor at the country’s Doctor’s Syndicate, who asked not to be named, as the controversy continues inside its doors.
With children in danger, the doctor argues that Egyptians must move forward in order to limit these sorts of practices.
“We are struggling as a country, and until everyone is being educated, it is so difficult to achieve progress on anything, let alone FGM.”
Like so many controversial issues facing Egypt today, the seemingly endless battle between secularism and Islam continues to put opposing sides on the defensive. Al Banna believes that issues such as FGM will not be resolved within society until there is space for open debate on all things, including religion.
“We need to be able to debate religion freely, or else we will not be able to have people making their own decisions; instead they will follow their local sheikh as if he were the only source for reason,” he concludes.
SOURCE: The Media Line
AUTHOR: Joseph Mayton
DATE: 20/04/2009
Women’s and children’s rights groups were galvanized into action, pushing for more stringent penalties against those who carry out what is increasingly becoming known as female genital mutilation (FGM).
Shakour’s cause of death was an overdose of anesthetic, but her memory was the cause of an awakening that reached to the upper echelons of government.
In summer 2008, Egypt’s parliament passed a law that ostensibly bans the controversial procedure, not that it should have needed to legislate against FGM – it was already officially banned in the country during the mid-Nineties. But with doctors continuing to perform the procedure on girls as young as five, parliament felt it was necessary to intercede.
The new law stipulates a fine of 1,000–5,000 Egyptian pounds ($185–$900) and a prison term of anywhere between three months and two years if caught performing FGM.
A doctor could also lose his medical license. In the case of Shakour, the doctor who performed the procedure remains in prison after being convicted of manslaughter.
But despite the rising number of deaths and injuries that have resulted from FGM, including a young girl who was left struggling for her life in November after the procedure, many Egyptians are fighting against the ban.
A 2005 report by UNICEF contended that 97 percent of single Egyptian women between 15 and 49 have undergone some form of FGM, although other estimates put the number at 70 percent.
Member of Parliament Mohamed Al Omda, from a small opposition party, brought his three daughters to the floor of the People’s Assembly to protest the ban last year. One of his daughters carried a sign that read: “No to any attempt to forbid what is divinely allowed. No to any attempt to allow what is divinely forbidden.” Two of his three daughters are circumcised.
Many conservative Muslims in the country maintain that the practice is condoned in Islam. The country’s Muslim Brotherhood has come under fire over many of their members’ denunciations of the parliamentary bill. The powerful Islamic group and many Islamic scholars argue that the ban is akin to “imposing Western ideals” on Egyptian society, which they maintain is based in Shari’a (Islamic law).
"Religion does not prohibit or criminalize female circumcision," prominent Islamic scholar Mustafa Al Shaka said to the local press shortly after the bill was passed.
The Brotherhood told The Media Line that they were currently reviewing FGM in terms of its legitimacy within Islam and did not want to comment. Despite this assertion, last summer, their MPs – who won one-fifth of the People’s Assembly as independents – were the most ardent opponents of the bill.
Progressive Islamic scholar Gamal Al Banna – brother of late Brotherhood founder Hassan Al Banna – says there is simply no precedent in Islam for this kind of practice. He argues that it was imported into society as a means of forcing women into the background of everyday life.
“It didn’t exist in Islamic history and those who argue it is Islamic or part of the Shari’a are wrong,” the 87-year-old argued. “Religion does not subscribe to this kind of treatment that can cause death and other horrible results. It is un-Islamic.”
Al Azhar, the Sunni Islamic world’s leading religious authority, agrees with Al Banna. In 2007, the Council of Islamic Research issued a statement saying that FGM and cutting are “harmful, have no basis in core Islamic law and should not be practiced.”
But Egyptian society remains divided into opposing camps over the issue, says National Council for Motherhood and Childhood secretary-general Moushira Khattab. She believes that although the ban will remain permanent, it will take time to educate the population over the long-term effects of cutting a woman’s clitoris.
“Nobody is going to say no to something that has negative effects caused by the procedure and, in time, Egyptians will see this,” she begins. “So the punishments that are being handed out against those who conduct this practice are vitally necessary.”
UNICEF estimates that three million girls in Africa undergo FGM annually, including in Egypt. The practice is a violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989.
The practice remains common in Egypt, especially among the rural communities outside the capital Cairo and Alexandria. According to a 2005 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey, the majority of FGM procedures have been performed by trained medical personnel.
Human rights groups and doctors in the country argue that the involvement of medical workers in the procedure is a major reason the procedure continues.
“We have to work slowly and cannot expect everything to change with one law. Egyptians are stubborn and if they believe this is part of their religion, then it is very difficult to convince them otherwise, even if they are trained doctors,” said a female doctor at the country’s Doctor’s Syndicate, who asked not to be named, as the controversy continues inside its doors.
With children in danger, the doctor argues that Egyptians must move forward in order to limit these sorts of practices.
“We are struggling as a country, and until everyone is being educated, it is so difficult to achieve progress on anything, let alone FGM.”
Like so many controversial issues facing Egypt today, the seemingly endless battle between secularism and Islam continues to put opposing sides on the defensive. Al Banna believes that issues such as FGM will not be resolved within society until there is space for open debate on all things, including religion.
“We need to be able to debate religion freely, or else we will not be able to have people making their own decisions; instead they will follow their local sheikh as if he were the only source for reason,” he concludes.
SOURCE: The Media Line
AUTHOR: Joseph Mayton
DATE: 20/04/2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood Looks to Soften Stance on Women, Christians
The Media Line, Written by Joseph Mayton
[Cairo, Egypt] Party politics have always proven illusive for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. As a movement entangled in a tradition based on Islamic Shari’a, and founded as a pro-Palestinian, anti-American organization in the late 1920s, the more traditional factions within the modern structure are apprehensive of change.
But that appears to be changing as the movement’s leaders are currently discussing reforms to its platform that could see changes to the roles of women and Christians.
In October 2007, the banned Islamic group released its platform, surprising many over its conservative overtones, including barring women and Christians from holding the post of president.
At the time, the Brotherhood argued that Christians could not become president or prime minister because both posts have Islamic religious duties, so “non-Muslims are excused from holding this mission,” the 2007 version reads.
It also says the president cannot be a woman because the post's religious and military duties "contradict with her nature, social and other humanitarian roles."
While the document attempts moderation, arguing that there is "equality between men and women in terms of their human dignity," it also warns against "burdening women with duties against their nature or role in the family.”
In February, the Egyptian newspaper Dar El Sharouk published a report that the Brotherhood was expected to announce a number of reforms to the platform, including the controversial issues surrounding women and Christians.
Essam El Arian, a leading member within the Brotherhood, and seen as a moderate, told The Media Line (TML) that a final decision had yet to be taken and “discussions are currently underway.”
He did not say whether there would be changes.
“We are debating these issues right now and it will be some time before conclusions are taken,” he said.
It is a view shared by a senior figure in the brotherhood Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh. "We are still discussing these matters, he said. "The Brotherhood is a democratic institution and we take all care to keep these types of discussions serious in light of our structure. There is debate ongoing and when a concrete decision is made, it will be known to the public. All I can say is that these issues are currently being debated."
The report of alleged changes to the platform has lifted the spirits of the reform-minded Brotherhood bloggers who have long called for their elder leaders to move forward on changing the perception of the movement’s conservative nature.
One blogger, who asked not to be named due to the tension growing between the young bloggers – those young people who have continued to write on their blogs that the Brotherhood must reform itself if it is to create a true democratic movement – and the leadership, says that it is a “victory for the reformers and the bloggers.”
He argues that for the last few years, the blogging movement within the Brotherhood has continually called on its leadership to look at changing the status of women and Christians.
“These issues have always been contentious within the Brotherhood and with the outside community. It only makes sense that this is going to change. I hope that people see that the people calling for reform are doing what they can,” he adds.
Another blogger, Abdel-Rahman Ayyash, 18, writes, "I think that talking about this is a first step for the movement and especially for the young bloggers to know they are making a difference.
"It is hard to call for reform without the older generation getting upset, so we understand that this is a delicate process."
Arian and the moderate factions within the movement are unsure of when a decision will be made public as to the status of women and Christians, but the mood in opposition circles here is that the Brotherhood is recognizing that they need to change.
“It is time for them to look at dealing with these issues. When they first reported the platform, I was disappointed,” says Copt and opposition leader George Ishaq. “I had a great relationship with them [Brotherhood] and since the platform was published we have not been on good terms.”
Khalil Al Anani, a political analyst at the Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, believes that in the end, it is not necessarily what is written in a platform that is important. Rather, he considers that as a movement, its actual beliefs and views on women and Christians will have a major impact on how Egyptians and the world view the group.
“It is not confirmed yet if they [the Brotherhood] will remove these controversial aspects of the platform,” Anani says, adding that people should look beyond an actual draft platform and into the views of the movement.
“I think the problem is not whether they will remove these articles or not, but more what they actually think about women and Copts. That’s the point.”
The young bloggers have been pushing for real change within the movement in order to spur on democratic reform in the country. Much of the leadership has been strongly against such changes to the movement, but Anani says this is vital to the Brotherhood gaining support within the organization and among the skeptics.
“Regardless of whether they issue a new platform without these two main issues or not, the problem is the Brotherhood is facing a real crisis in understanding democratic values. One of these values is equality. They haven’t developed a progressive vision for equality of people regardless of their religious or ethnic background,” he continues.
Despite the large press that the reformers within the Brotherhood has been receiving of late, the realities within the movement, Anani argues, remain on the fringes of the mainstream debate.
“Unfortunately, the people who are behind this [platform] are the conservatives and the opinion of the reformers is still weak,” Anani adds.
Those within the leadership, such as Arian and deputy Mohamed Habib, may see reform as key to increasing the movement’s democratic appeal, but like many Islamic movements worldwide, the Brotherhood is faced with diverging opinions regarding future strategy.
“We can only hope that these small victories will create a more democratic ideology that will push forward reforms and make the Brotherhood a viable opposition movement for all Egyptians,” the unnamed blogger adds.
[Cairo, Egypt] Party politics have always proven illusive for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. As a movement entangled in a tradition based on Islamic Shari’a, and founded as a pro-Palestinian, anti-American organization in the late 1920s, the more traditional factions within the modern structure are apprehensive of change.
But that appears to be changing as the movement’s leaders are currently discussing reforms to its platform that could see changes to the roles of women and Christians.
In October 2007, the banned Islamic group released its platform, surprising many over its conservative overtones, including barring women and Christians from holding the post of president.
At the time, the Brotherhood argued that Christians could not become president or prime minister because both posts have Islamic religious duties, so “non-Muslims are excused from holding this mission,” the 2007 version reads.
It also says the president cannot be a woman because the post's religious and military duties "contradict with her nature, social and other humanitarian roles."
While the document attempts moderation, arguing that there is "equality between men and women in terms of their human dignity," it also warns against "burdening women with duties against their nature or role in the family.”
In February, the Egyptian newspaper Dar El Sharouk published a report that the Brotherhood was expected to announce a number of reforms to the platform, including the controversial issues surrounding women and Christians.
Essam El Arian, a leading member within the Brotherhood, and seen as a moderate, told The Media Line (TML) that a final decision had yet to be taken and “discussions are currently underway.”
He did not say whether there would be changes.
“We are debating these issues right now and it will be some time before conclusions are taken,” he said.
It is a view shared by a senior figure in the brotherhood Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh. "We are still discussing these matters, he said. "The Brotherhood is a democratic institution and we take all care to keep these types of discussions serious in light of our structure. There is debate ongoing and when a concrete decision is made, it will be known to the public. All I can say is that these issues are currently being debated."
The report of alleged changes to the platform has lifted the spirits of the reform-minded Brotherhood bloggers who have long called for their elder leaders to move forward on changing the perception of the movement’s conservative nature.
One blogger, who asked not to be named due to the tension growing between the young bloggers – those young people who have continued to write on their blogs that the Brotherhood must reform itself if it is to create a true democratic movement – and the leadership, says that it is a “victory for the reformers and the bloggers.”
He argues that for the last few years, the blogging movement within the Brotherhood has continually called on its leadership to look at changing the status of women and Christians.
“These issues have always been contentious within the Brotherhood and with the outside community. It only makes sense that this is going to change. I hope that people see that the people calling for reform are doing what they can,” he adds.
Another blogger, Abdel-Rahman Ayyash, 18, writes, "I think that talking about this is a first step for the movement and especially for the young bloggers to know they are making a difference.
"It is hard to call for reform without the older generation getting upset, so we understand that this is a delicate process."
Arian and the moderate factions within the movement are unsure of when a decision will be made public as to the status of women and Christians, but the mood in opposition circles here is that the Brotherhood is recognizing that they need to change.
“It is time for them to look at dealing with these issues. When they first reported the platform, I was disappointed,” says Copt and opposition leader George Ishaq. “I had a great relationship with them [Brotherhood] and since the platform was published we have not been on good terms.”
Khalil Al Anani, a political analyst at the Ahram Center for Strategic Studies in Cairo, believes that in the end, it is not necessarily what is written in a platform that is important. Rather, he considers that as a movement, its actual beliefs and views on women and Christians will have a major impact on how Egyptians and the world view the group.
“It is not confirmed yet if they [the Brotherhood] will remove these controversial aspects of the platform,” Anani says, adding that people should look beyond an actual draft platform and into the views of the movement.
“I think the problem is not whether they will remove these articles or not, but more what they actually think about women and Copts. That’s the point.”
The young bloggers have been pushing for real change within the movement in order to spur on democratic reform in the country. Much of the leadership has been strongly against such changes to the movement, but Anani says this is vital to the Brotherhood gaining support within the organization and among the skeptics.
“Regardless of whether they issue a new platform without these two main issues or not, the problem is the Brotherhood is facing a real crisis in understanding democratic values. One of these values is equality. They haven’t developed a progressive vision for equality of people regardless of their religious or ethnic background,” he continues.
Despite the large press that the reformers within the Brotherhood has been receiving of late, the realities within the movement, Anani argues, remain on the fringes of the mainstream debate.
“Unfortunately, the people who are behind this [platform] are the conservatives and the opinion of the reformers is still weak,” Anani adds.
Those within the leadership, such as Arian and deputy Mohamed Habib, may see reform as key to increasing the movement’s democratic appeal, but like many Islamic movements worldwide, the Brotherhood is faced with diverging opinions regarding future strategy.
“We can only hope that these small victories will create a more democratic ideology that will push forward reforms and make the Brotherhood a viable opposition movement for all Egyptians,” the unnamed blogger adds.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Egypt: Women break new ground at the mosque
CAIRO, Egypt -- Amira Khairy is mobbed by housewives kissing her cheeks in greeting as she arrives to give a lesson on reciting the Quran to women at the Al-Sedeeq mosque in a Cairo suburb. Students set up chairs for the class, and soon the hum of chanting female voices fills one of the building's larger chambers.
Up to a 1,000 women may show up for the Quran lessons or twice-weekly religious lectures by women. On any given day, several hundred women buzz around the mosque, organizing clothing drives, cooking meals for the poor or teaching women to read. Al-Sedeeq also has medical clinics and a day care center for children of women who do volunteer work at the mosque.
All the activities are organized by women _ not the mosque's male administrators. On one recent day, the only men seen in the building were workers doing renovations and worshippers who popped in to perform one of the five daily prayers required by Islam.
It's a startling sight in Egypt, where mosques have long been a man's realm. The few Egyptian women who appeared at mosques in the past had come to pray _ usually in small, partitioned-off corners _ or to make appeals at the shrines of holy figures, hoping for marriage, pregnancy or good grades for their children.
While men often socialize in mosques, women have traditionally been encouraged to practice their religion at home, where they can care for their children and husband.
"When I was young, we wouldn't even go to pray in the mosque," said Khairy, the teacher. "It was a place for us to tour on holidays, like visitors."
Now, with religiosity increasing in Egypt overall, more women want to engage in public prayer, increase their knowledge of Islam and do volunteer work in the community. Many Egyptian women already have had to balance their traditional place in the home with public roles at universities and jobs, so they tend to ask, "Why not a place in the mosque as well?"
These women aren't Western-style feminists seeking to change the faith's teachings on women. But their presence is challenging assumptions on women's place and turning some mosques into women-friendly social hubs.
While no statistics exist on the increasing number of Egyptian women praying outside the home, several religious scholars in Cairo say there's a clear trend of more women attending mosques and playing a greater religious role.
Khairy is typical of many of the new breed of religious women. She is in her 50s, studied engineering at university but rather than pursue a career, she married and stayed home to care for her children. About 10 years ago, she wanted to deepen her faith, so she and a group of women started meeting in each other's homes to memorize the Quran.
More women joined the study circle, and several years ago they began meeting at the newly built Al-Sedeeq mosque, near Cairo's international airport. They found a woman with an Islamic studies degree who volunteered to give lectures on how to pray and perform other rituals and on why women should wear the hijab, or head scarf.
As hundreds of women from across Cairo joined in, the charity projects multiplied. The women are now so organized that the volunteers wear a uniform _ white scarf and blue dress.
The Al-Sedeeq mosque's administrators expanded its women's section to accommodate the volunteers. But not all are so welcoming.
Egypt is one of the most progressive Middle East nations on the issue of women attending mosques. In the Persian Gulf, many mosques have no space dedicated to women, and more women can be seen at prayers or Friday sermons in Egypt than in many other Arab countries.
Still, Egyptian women are often told, even by some female Islamic thinkers, that they should stay at home.
"The best place for a woman to pray remains her house," said one of them, Souad Saleh, who teaches at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the pre-eminent Sunni Muslim institution for Islamic studies.
"It is better spiritually and generally more appropriate, since she will always be distracted by her children. There is really no need for women to go to the mosque," Saleh said.
Mosque administrators are universally male and many still are reluctant to allocate greater space to women, saying more men attend prayers. At most mosques, women must enter through side doors, and women's sections are not always air-conditioned or carpeted. Women often face complaints about the noise and distraction their children bring to the mosque.
But Abdel-Moeti Bayoumi, a theology professor at Al-Azhar University, says men must realize times are changing.
"I always tell men that the days of locking up women away from society and useful work or study is backward and dangerous," he said. "It is not permitted in Islam to prevent a woman from praying in the mosque."
Najah Naji, a 22-year-old woman who tries to visit different mosques around Cairo to pray and study, says she is often told the women's prayer section is closed or otherwise unavailable.
"Men feel like the leadership will be taken from underneath them," said Naji, who has memorized the Quran. "Even an educated man is raised with a mother who stayed at home and served his father, so he'd be worried I wouldn't be able to do the same for him. It's going to take a lot of time for that attitude to change."
The Al-Sedeeq mosque is one of the most dramatic examples of women taking a bigger role. More often, small groups of women make forays into modest neighborhood mosques.
At a tiny mosque tucked between apartment buildings near the Giza Pyramids on the outskirts of Greater Cairo, Hana Mohammed sits with a group of 12 older women. They cram into a small room every week to share stories, exchange news of grandchildren, vent about their lives at home and recite the Quran.
"The mosque is a softer place now that women have entered it," said Mohammed. "If a woman in need comes for help she'd never knock on the door if only men were inside."
Mohammed said she has taught women to read and to pray, as well as counseled young women about marriage.
"Women realized there was more to life than just cooking and taking care of a husband," said Mohammed. "Women wanted to understand how her faith really was a way of life _ why did she have to wear hijab, why were men allowed to marry four women."
Members of Mohammed's circle said a woman with several university degrees and a career shouldn't be told she can't enter a mosque. They said it's the education of women _ either in secular or religious studies _ that has emboldened them to demand change.
"Women started to force themselves on the mosque because they realized their faith allowed them to do so," said Mohammed. "It was a religious awakening. We understood we could do it, so we did."
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI
The Associated Press
Up to a 1,000 women may show up for the Quran lessons or twice-weekly religious lectures by women. On any given day, several hundred women buzz around the mosque, organizing clothing drives, cooking meals for the poor or teaching women to read. Al-Sedeeq also has medical clinics and a day care center for children of women who do volunteer work at the mosque.
All the activities are organized by women _ not the mosque's male administrators. On one recent day, the only men seen in the building were workers doing renovations and worshippers who popped in to perform one of the five daily prayers required by Islam.
It's a startling sight in Egypt, where mosques have long been a man's realm. The few Egyptian women who appeared at mosques in the past had come to pray _ usually in small, partitioned-off corners _ or to make appeals at the shrines of holy figures, hoping for marriage, pregnancy or good grades for their children.
While men often socialize in mosques, women have traditionally been encouraged to practice their religion at home, where they can care for their children and husband.
"When I was young, we wouldn't even go to pray in the mosque," said Khairy, the teacher. "It was a place for us to tour on holidays, like visitors."
Now, with religiosity increasing in Egypt overall, more women want to engage in public prayer, increase their knowledge of Islam and do volunteer work in the community. Many Egyptian women already have had to balance their traditional place in the home with public roles at universities and jobs, so they tend to ask, "Why not a place in the mosque as well?"
These women aren't Western-style feminists seeking to change the faith's teachings on women. But their presence is challenging assumptions on women's place and turning some mosques into women-friendly social hubs.
While no statistics exist on the increasing number of Egyptian women praying outside the home, several religious scholars in Cairo say there's a clear trend of more women attending mosques and playing a greater religious role.
Khairy is typical of many of the new breed of religious women. She is in her 50s, studied engineering at university but rather than pursue a career, she married and stayed home to care for her children. About 10 years ago, she wanted to deepen her faith, so she and a group of women started meeting in each other's homes to memorize the Quran.
More women joined the study circle, and several years ago they began meeting at the newly built Al-Sedeeq mosque, near Cairo's international airport. They found a woman with an Islamic studies degree who volunteered to give lectures on how to pray and perform other rituals and on why women should wear the hijab, or head scarf.
As hundreds of women from across Cairo joined in, the charity projects multiplied. The women are now so organized that the volunteers wear a uniform _ white scarf and blue dress.
The Al-Sedeeq mosque's administrators expanded its women's section to accommodate the volunteers. But not all are so welcoming.
Egypt is one of the most progressive Middle East nations on the issue of women attending mosques. In the Persian Gulf, many mosques have no space dedicated to women, and more women can be seen at prayers or Friday sermons in Egypt than in many other Arab countries.
Still, Egyptian women are often told, even by some female Islamic thinkers, that they should stay at home.
"The best place for a woman to pray remains her house," said one of them, Souad Saleh, who teaches at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, the pre-eminent Sunni Muslim institution for Islamic studies.
"It is better spiritually and generally more appropriate, since she will always be distracted by her children. There is really no need for women to go to the mosque," Saleh said.
Mosque administrators are universally male and many still are reluctant to allocate greater space to women, saying more men attend prayers. At most mosques, women must enter through side doors, and women's sections are not always air-conditioned or carpeted. Women often face complaints about the noise and distraction their children bring to the mosque.
But Abdel-Moeti Bayoumi, a theology professor at Al-Azhar University, says men must realize times are changing.
"I always tell men that the days of locking up women away from society and useful work or study is backward and dangerous," he said. "It is not permitted in Islam to prevent a woman from praying in the mosque."
Najah Naji, a 22-year-old woman who tries to visit different mosques around Cairo to pray and study, says she is often told the women's prayer section is closed or otherwise unavailable.
"Men feel like the leadership will be taken from underneath them," said Naji, who has memorized the Quran. "Even an educated man is raised with a mother who stayed at home and served his father, so he'd be worried I wouldn't be able to do the same for him. It's going to take a lot of time for that attitude to change."
The Al-Sedeeq mosque is one of the most dramatic examples of women taking a bigger role. More often, small groups of women make forays into modest neighborhood mosques.
At a tiny mosque tucked between apartment buildings near the Giza Pyramids on the outskirts of Greater Cairo, Hana Mohammed sits with a group of 12 older women. They cram into a small room every week to share stories, exchange news of grandchildren, vent about their lives at home and recite the Quran.
"The mosque is a softer place now that women have entered it," said Mohammed. "If a woman in need comes for help she'd never knock on the door if only men were inside."
Mohammed said she has taught women to read and to pray, as well as counseled young women about marriage.
"Women realized there was more to life than just cooking and taking care of a husband," said Mohammed. "Women wanted to understand how her faith really was a way of life _ why did she have to wear hijab, why were men allowed to marry four women."
Members of Mohammed's circle said a woman with several university degrees and a career shouldn't be told she can't enter a mosque. They said it's the education of women _ either in secular or religious studies _ that has emboldened them to demand change.
"Women started to force themselves on the mosque because they realized their faith allowed them to do so," said Mohammed. "It was a religious awakening. We understood we could do it, so we did."
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI
The Associated Press
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Egypt: Women enter Egyptian politics with help from church-sponsored program
CAIRO, Egypt (CNS) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., claimed she put 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling to women's electoral participation during the U.S. presidential primaries. In Egypt, the glass ceiling is much lower, yet a church-sponsored program is helping a handful of courageous women chip away at the restrictions of a political culture that would otherwise exclude them.
Fatheya Abdel-Rahman is one of the pioneers. Before she ran and won a seat on her local council in the Asyut region of Egypt, she didn't even know the local council existed. When she announced her candidacy for a council seat early this year, many in her village, including some of her relatives, criticized the 57-year-old for treading in territory where women are not supposed to trespass. But during her campaign she talked about everyday issues such as how local corruption was creating bread lines and letting the very poorest go hungry -- issues she said male candidates tended to ignore.
Her strategy worked. Abdel-Rahman was elected in April, and by September she made good on one campaign promise by inaugurating the village's only health clinic.
"Although I'm the first woman on the council, they have welcomed me. I have a voice," she told Catholic News Service. "I've got the respect today of people who used to mock me. There's a new vision in our community. Men and women come together in my house to talk about the future of the village."
Abdel-Rahman's political career was launched after she participated in political awareness training sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency.
For years CRS has worked with women in microfinance programs, and the agency decided to upgrade the empowerment of women from the economic to the political arena. Working with two local Egyptian groups for the last two years, CRS sponsored seminars on political awareness for women who participated in small-loan programs. The seminars focused on the nuts and bolts of democracy: how to register to vote, how to get a voter ID card, how to file for office, how to support each other during the campaign.
Eleven thousand women participated, and they selected women from their midst to pursue electoral office. Forty-eight actually initiated the process of registering their candidacy. Five of them made it on the ballot. Of those five, three won.
Laila Ahmed, project manager for CRS, said the meager number of women elected does not reflect the campaign's objectives.
"Our goal wasn't to get women elected. Our goal was to increase the participation of women, so that women leaders would emerge in the community and run, whether they won or not. We were lucky to have three winners in such a difficult environment," she said.
A U.S. government official whose agency has provided funding for the program said it is now widely accepted that if change is going to happen in poor communities, it will start with women.
"Many philosophers and political scientists say you judge the quality of a society by the quality of the life of its women. And when you raise the quality of life of its women you raise the quality of life for all," said Hilda Arellano, mission director of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Egypt, during a September ceremony honoring the newly elected women.
Earlier efforts to increase women's participation in Egyptian politics peaked in the '70s. In 1979, Egypt adopted a law guaranteeing women a quota of seats in the national legislature. Yet that was rescinded in 1986, and Egyptian lawmakers have rebuffed recent efforts to once again provide a minimum number of seats for women.
A more conservative cultural ethos is behind the resistance. The spread of Wahhabism, a conservative form of Islam that Egyptian migrant workers have brought home from Saudi Arabia, clearly has reduced the cultural space for women.
"In the past, women were more engaged in politics. But today, despite all the economic development in the country, some people are becoming more conservative and don't want women to participate," Hoda Sayed, another of the newly elected women councilors, told CNS.
Some women who tried to run for office received enthusiastic support from their families, Ahmed said, but others faced violent opposition.
"One husband threatened to beat his wife or burn down the house if she ran. Another came home with the papers to register her candidacy, but her husband ripped them up and said he would divorce her if she insisted. Some other women came up against competition from male members of their own clan, and tradition wouldn't allow them to compete against a relative in the election," Ahmed said.
She said the problem does not lie with Egypt's government.
"The government tries to encourage women to participate. The problem isn't the government; it's the people. The government isn't going to keep us from practicing democracy. The problem is that some men are difficult to persuade. Some of the women were prevented from running by the male clerks who receive the papers (they need) to file to run as a candidate. These men would keep asking for more papers, even though that's not legal," she said.
The women are setting all sorts of new trends. Sayed, a 34-year-old widow, also decided she wanted to go back to school to learn to read, so she started attending some of her children's classes.
"My kids were embarrassed at first to have their mother sitting with them but now they are all right with the idea. Now they help me prepare for exams," said Sayed, who is pushing the council to sponsor a literacy program in her village.
"Women make better politicians because we're closer to the people than men. We feel their suffering," said Abdel-Rahman.
Effectiveness could also be a campaign plank for Egyptian women.
"The men are watching us. When we opened the clinic, many people were surprised by the speed with which we got it approved and established. And so now they're asking why the men couldn't make it happen before," Abdel-Rahman said.
By Paul Jeffrey
Catholic News Service
Fatheya Abdel-Rahman is one of the pioneers. Before she ran and won a seat on her local council in the Asyut region of Egypt, she didn't even know the local council existed. When she announced her candidacy for a council seat early this year, many in her village, including some of her relatives, criticized the 57-year-old for treading in territory where women are not supposed to trespass. But during her campaign she talked about everyday issues such as how local corruption was creating bread lines and letting the very poorest go hungry -- issues she said male candidates tended to ignore.
Her strategy worked. Abdel-Rahman was elected in April, and by September she made good on one campaign promise by inaugurating the village's only health clinic.
"Although I'm the first woman on the council, they have welcomed me. I have a voice," she told Catholic News Service. "I've got the respect today of people who used to mock me. There's a new vision in our community. Men and women come together in my house to talk about the future of the village."
Abdel-Rahman's political career was launched after she participated in political awareness training sponsored by Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency.
For years CRS has worked with women in microfinance programs, and the agency decided to upgrade the empowerment of women from the economic to the political arena. Working with two local Egyptian groups for the last two years, CRS sponsored seminars on political awareness for women who participated in small-loan programs. The seminars focused on the nuts and bolts of democracy: how to register to vote, how to get a voter ID card, how to file for office, how to support each other during the campaign.
Eleven thousand women participated, and they selected women from their midst to pursue electoral office. Forty-eight actually initiated the process of registering their candidacy. Five of them made it on the ballot. Of those five, three won.
Laila Ahmed, project manager for CRS, said the meager number of women elected does not reflect the campaign's objectives.
"Our goal wasn't to get women elected. Our goal was to increase the participation of women, so that women leaders would emerge in the community and run, whether they won or not. We were lucky to have three winners in such a difficult environment," she said.
A U.S. government official whose agency has provided funding for the program said it is now widely accepted that if change is going to happen in poor communities, it will start with women.
"Many philosophers and political scientists say you judge the quality of a society by the quality of the life of its women. And when you raise the quality of life of its women you raise the quality of life for all," said Hilda Arellano, mission director of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Egypt, during a September ceremony honoring the newly elected women.
Earlier efforts to increase women's participation in Egyptian politics peaked in the '70s. In 1979, Egypt adopted a law guaranteeing women a quota of seats in the national legislature. Yet that was rescinded in 1986, and Egyptian lawmakers have rebuffed recent efforts to once again provide a minimum number of seats for women.
A more conservative cultural ethos is behind the resistance. The spread of Wahhabism, a conservative form of Islam that Egyptian migrant workers have brought home from Saudi Arabia, clearly has reduced the cultural space for women.
"In the past, women were more engaged in politics. But today, despite all the economic development in the country, some people are becoming more conservative and don't want women to participate," Hoda Sayed, another of the newly elected women councilors, told CNS.
Some women who tried to run for office received enthusiastic support from their families, Ahmed said, but others faced violent opposition.
"One husband threatened to beat his wife or burn down the house if she ran. Another came home with the papers to register her candidacy, but her husband ripped them up and said he would divorce her if she insisted. Some other women came up against competition from male members of their own clan, and tradition wouldn't allow them to compete against a relative in the election," Ahmed said.
She said the problem does not lie with Egypt's government.
"The government tries to encourage women to participate. The problem isn't the government; it's the people. The government isn't going to keep us from practicing democracy. The problem is that some men are difficult to persuade. Some of the women were prevented from running by the male clerks who receive the papers (they need) to file to run as a candidate. These men would keep asking for more papers, even though that's not legal," she said.
The women are setting all sorts of new trends. Sayed, a 34-year-old widow, also decided she wanted to go back to school to learn to read, so she started attending some of her children's classes.
"My kids were embarrassed at first to have their mother sitting with them but now they are all right with the idea. Now they help me prepare for exams," said Sayed, who is pushing the council to sponsor a literacy program in her village.
"Women make better politicians because we're closer to the people than men. We feel their suffering," said Abdel-Rahman.
Effectiveness could also be a campaign plank for Egyptian women.
"The men are watching us. When we opened the clinic, many people were surprised by the speed with which we got it approved and established. And so now they're asking why the men couldn't make it happen before," Abdel-Rahman said.
By Paul Jeffrey
Catholic News Service
Monday, December 1, 2008
Egypt: Dissident poet is allowed to speak, but Egypt's leaders aren't listening
Reporting from Cairo — Iman Bakry has a fortuneteller's voice, husky and cracked. It coaxes you into her colloquial poems, which once were about romance, but have since shifted to a cutting critique of President Hosni Mubarak's government and an Egypt plagued by self-doubt, repression, corruption and a dangerous divide between rich and poor.
Iman Bakry has risen to national prominence with her politically barbed verse about repression, corruption and poverty, appealing to the intellectual as well as the illiterate.
"I see a storm coming," begins a stanza in one of her poems.
Bakry is a media-savvy wordsmith who has risen to national prominence through television appearances and public readings. Her politically barbed verse articulates the frustrations and false dreams that have embittered a cynical public and laced the air with hints of rebellion. Opposition forces are often silenced and intimidated by the authoritarian government, but Bakry senses the anger welling.
"The explosion is already happening," she said in an interview in her Cairo apartment. "There's demonstrations, political activism, labor strikes, protests over clean water and bread shortages. All this signals the collapse of the whole society. We are walking to hell, toward a very dark future."
A former Arabic language teacher, Bakry has a curious relationship with the government she pillories. Until recently she headed the publishing department of the Egyptian Cultural Ministry. She resigned after complaining that her superiors resisted new writers and new ideas. She also sensed that some within the ruling National Democratic Party were fed up with her criticism of Mubarak's 27-year rule.
But Bakry has not been censored. She publishes and speaks when she wishes; she gets invited onto state-owned TV. And that, she said, illustrates the irritating, beguiling power of a police state that creates the veneer of democracy by tolerating a degree of freedom of expression.
Some dissident bloggers and political opponents are jailed. However, there is no reliable pattern of whom the government targets. The state allows certain artists such as Bakry, regarded by officials as passionate but harmless to national security, to write about whatever they choose, even if it causes a few politicians to wince. She skewers the state but does not directly call for unrest or overthrowing the government.
"Yes we can say it. The only problem is the regime doesn't listen to what we say," said Bakry. "The people listen to me instead of telling political jokes. My poetry allows them to vent, but as far as the government is concerned, neither I nor any other poet has much of an impact."
Nonetheless, her jabs are thrown with wily force. One of her poems, "Hello, Our Masters," attacks the ruling party's 2005 rewriting of the constitution to make it easier for Mubarak's son, Gamal, a 45-year-old businessman with no government experience, to succeed him. In the poem, Mubarak is a manipulating patriarch grooming the way for his child:
They are going to promote kindergarten students.
Heredity (succession) will become fashionable.
Call on the men and follow me to the coffee shop so we can weep and cry.
He intends to do it, he is making tactics even before he bids us farewell.
If you agree just say okay.
If you agree just say okay.
Either way, there is no way.
Shaaban Youssef, a literary critic, said he believes Bakry is the first Egyptian woman to master conversational-style political verse. "She has succeeded in widening the popularity of this type of poetry," he said. "Her poems appeal to highly sophisticated intellectuals . . . as well as to those who don't even read."
The other night, Bakry strolled into her living room, a jumble of design styles that include a stuffed fox, porcelain ballerinas, French baroque tables, a treadmill, horse statues and ruffled curtains that look as if they were on loan from an opera house. She sat, dressed in black, makeup carefully done, a headband slightly aglitter. In her deep voice, each syllable is granted distinctive weight.
She began writing love songs, she recalled, when she was a student at Cairo University under the tutelage of one of Egypt's most respected poets, Ahmed Rami. Her first collection was published in 1987, when, she said, the nation's poets stayed safe from arrest by scribbling verse heavy in symbolism. Her poems grew increasingly political throughout the 1990s, and her writing today is that of a street sage summoning satire and defiance to shake a mood of resignation.
"I became more aware of people's struggles," she said. "I didn't think about repercussions. I wasn't calling for war or killing. I just called people to hold to their dreams, their dignity."
Bakry does credit Mubarak for keeping the country out of war and improving infrastructure. The economy is growing and foreign investment is up in a painful push toward privatization. But these gains, she added, don't inspire a nation's soul when so much else is wrong: unemployment, inflation, religious extremism, and the embarrassing reality that nearly half of Egypt's population lives on $2 a day or less.
"We are living as if in a theatrical play," Bakry said. "All the actors have their makeup expertly on, but no one believes them. They don't speak the truth."
In her poem about fraudulent democracy, she writes:
Democracy is our ruse.
The big guys in the alley fabricated it, just to improve our image,
and to believe that we live an easy life.
Out her window, beyond the chic CityStars mall, the pyramids rise in the desert, testaments to a great, ancient civilization that has for centuries lost its way. And Bakry worries what the future will bring.
"The most uplifting trait of Egyptians is a sense of belonging," she said. "Throughout history we have felt attached to the land, the Nile, the country. But you can't keep this alive through force. It has to be felt naturally, a belief. And that is what's disappearing, our sense of belonging is diminishing."
By Jeffrey Fleishman, LA Times
Iman Bakry has risen to national prominence with her politically barbed verse about repression, corruption and poverty, appealing to the intellectual as well as the illiterate.
"I see a storm coming," begins a stanza in one of her poems.
Bakry is a media-savvy wordsmith who has risen to national prominence through television appearances and public readings. Her politically barbed verse articulates the frustrations and false dreams that have embittered a cynical public and laced the air with hints of rebellion. Opposition forces are often silenced and intimidated by the authoritarian government, but Bakry senses the anger welling.
"The explosion is already happening," she said in an interview in her Cairo apartment. "There's demonstrations, political activism, labor strikes, protests over clean water and bread shortages. All this signals the collapse of the whole society. We are walking to hell, toward a very dark future."
A former Arabic language teacher, Bakry has a curious relationship with the government she pillories. Until recently she headed the publishing department of the Egyptian Cultural Ministry. She resigned after complaining that her superiors resisted new writers and new ideas. She also sensed that some within the ruling National Democratic Party were fed up with her criticism of Mubarak's 27-year rule.
But Bakry has not been censored. She publishes and speaks when she wishes; she gets invited onto state-owned TV. And that, she said, illustrates the irritating, beguiling power of a police state that creates the veneer of democracy by tolerating a degree of freedom of expression.
Some dissident bloggers and political opponents are jailed. However, there is no reliable pattern of whom the government targets. The state allows certain artists such as Bakry, regarded by officials as passionate but harmless to national security, to write about whatever they choose, even if it causes a few politicians to wince. She skewers the state but does not directly call for unrest or overthrowing the government.
"Yes we can say it. The only problem is the regime doesn't listen to what we say," said Bakry. "The people listen to me instead of telling political jokes. My poetry allows them to vent, but as far as the government is concerned, neither I nor any other poet has much of an impact."
Nonetheless, her jabs are thrown with wily force. One of her poems, "Hello, Our Masters," attacks the ruling party's 2005 rewriting of the constitution to make it easier for Mubarak's son, Gamal, a 45-year-old businessman with no government experience, to succeed him. In the poem, Mubarak is a manipulating patriarch grooming the way for his child:
They are going to promote kindergarten students.
Heredity (succession) will become fashionable.
Call on the men and follow me to the coffee shop so we can weep and cry.
He intends to do it, he is making tactics even before he bids us farewell.
If you agree just say okay.
If you agree just say okay.
Either way, there is no way.
Shaaban Youssef, a literary critic, said he believes Bakry is the first Egyptian woman to master conversational-style political verse. "She has succeeded in widening the popularity of this type of poetry," he said. "Her poems appeal to highly sophisticated intellectuals . . . as well as to those who don't even read."
The other night, Bakry strolled into her living room, a jumble of design styles that include a stuffed fox, porcelain ballerinas, French baroque tables, a treadmill, horse statues and ruffled curtains that look as if they were on loan from an opera house. She sat, dressed in black, makeup carefully done, a headband slightly aglitter. In her deep voice, each syllable is granted distinctive weight.
She began writing love songs, she recalled, when she was a student at Cairo University under the tutelage of one of Egypt's most respected poets, Ahmed Rami. Her first collection was published in 1987, when, she said, the nation's poets stayed safe from arrest by scribbling verse heavy in symbolism. Her poems grew increasingly political throughout the 1990s, and her writing today is that of a street sage summoning satire and defiance to shake a mood of resignation.
"I became more aware of people's struggles," she said. "I didn't think about repercussions. I wasn't calling for war or killing. I just called people to hold to their dreams, their dignity."
Bakry does credit Mubarak for keeping the country out of war and improving infrastructure. The economy is growing and foreign investment is up in a painful push toward privatization. But these gains, she added, don't inspire a nation's soul when so much else is wrong: unemployment, inflation, religious extremism, and the embarrassing reality that nearly half of Egypt's population lives on $2 a day or less.
"We are living as if in a theatrical play," Bakry said. "All the actors have their makeup expertly on, but no one believes them. They don't speak the truth."
In her poem about fraudulent democracy, she writes:
Democracy is our ruse.
The big guys in the alley fabricated it, just to improve our image,
and to believe that we live an easy life.
Out her window, beyond the chic CityStars mall, the pyramids rise in the desert, testaments to a great, ancient civilization that has for centuries lost its way. And Bakry worries what the future will bring.
"The most uplifting trait of Egyptians is a sense of belonging," she said. "Throughout history we have felt attached to the land, the Nile, the country. But you can't keep this alive through force. It has to be felt naturally, a belief. And that is what's disappearing, our sense of belonging is diminishing."
By Jeffrey Fleishman, LA Times
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Egypt: Reform to continue
Before a joint session of the People's Assembly and Shura Council to mark the opening of parliament President Hosni Mubarak vowed in a keynote speech that neither the current global financial crisis nor local economic conditions would stand in the way of reform. "We have travelled a long way on the road of political and socio-economic reform but must still introduce a further package of serious reforms to complete the modernisation of our legislative and constitutional structure," Mubarak said.
He told parliamentarians that a new list of draft reform laws were ready to be discussed in the new session, including legislative amendments aimed at increasing the number of women serving in parliament. Only nine seats in the 454-seat People's Assembly are currently held by women, four of them elected and five appointed by the president. The 264-seat Shura Council has 21 women members, 20 presidential appointees and a single elected member.
Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufid Shehab told Al-Ahram Weekly that three amendments will be introduced to help increase the number of women parliamentarians.
"We will have to amend the 1956 law on the exercise of political rights, the 1972 law regulating the People's Assembly and the 1980 law governing the Shura Council."
"A ministerial legislative group," Shehab continued, "is currently discussing the necessary amendments, probing the possibility of creating up to 56 new electoral districts."
President Mubarak's announcement that the number of female lawmakers is to be increased provoked mixed reactions.
Leading Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama pointed out that increasing women's representation hardly tops the political reform agenda. "Other priorities," he said, "include amending the parties law in order to enhance competition in political life and revoking the emergency law to curtail the intimidation of independent and opposition political activists."
Under the current electoral laws, says Salama, there is little doubt that most, if not all, new female lawmakers will belong to the NDP.
Shehab also informed the Weekly that amendments to the electoral law are being appraised. "There are a lot of opinions, some in favour and some against changing the current individual candidacy system," said Shehab, adding that "the NDP prefers that this critical issue become a matter of dialogue with all political forces ahead of parliamentary elections in 2010."
President Mubarak went on to tell both houses of parliament to expect changes to the 1993 law regulating elections to professional syndicates. "The amendment," says Shehab, "will provide greater facilities for voting and guarantee that the boards of syndicates are elected in a democratic way."
The current law, drafted by the NDP in 1993, was conceived to prevent the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood from infiltrating civil society organisations, especially professional syndicates. Brotherhood members, however, have been able to control the boards of the Lawyers' and Doctors' Syndicates while the Engineers' Syndicate, bogged down in legal disputes, has long been placed under judicial sequestration.
President Mubarak revealed that he has given instructions that parliament should draft new regulations covering nuclear activities "as part of the strategic decision taken last year to launch an ambitious nuclear programme". Mubarak devoted a large part of his speech to reviewing the impact of the global financial crisis on Egypt. "The first quarter of the current fiscal year registered a growth rate of 5.8 per cent, compared to a high 6.5 per cent during the first quarter of last year," Mubarak said. He urged the government to act to ensure that the burdens of the crisis do not fall on the shoulders of the poor.
"I have asked the government to increase investment spending and to increase the budget deficit slightly, a shortfall that we will recover from in the coming year without placing additional burdens on citizens."
As part of a new financial package regulating the stock market, insurance and real estate markets is to be tightened. "The measures will unify regulators in a single authority in order to better confront crises and attract local and international investments," Mubarak said.
He vowed that the global credit crunch would not deflect the government from pursuing economic reform, saying "the need to provide the private sector with greater incentives in the two areas of investment and exports is more pressing than ever". He did not, however, make any reference to the controversial scheme to distribute shares in government-owned companies to the public free of charged. The programme was officially announced by Gamal Mubarak, the chairman of the NDP's powerful Policies Committee, and Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin, on 10 November.
Gamal Mubarak, in a meeting with leading NDP members of the board of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions (GFETU) on Monday, argued that "privatisation is not an end in itself but a means of raising the efficiency of public sector companies." He also indicated that a wide-ranging dialogue between the NDP and leaders of civil society organisations is likely ahead of the programme being implemented, and expressed his willingness "to meet with leaders of workers in Cairo and other governorates to address their concerns about the scheme".
In a bid to contain criticism Gamal Mubarak revealed that draft legislation will veto the sale of government stakes in strategic companies, including pharmaceuticals, iron and steel and textiles, and in public assets such as the Suez Canal. He also refuted allegations that the new programme ultimately aimed to cut subsidies and eliminate free public services.
President Mubarak emphasised that moving ahead with the liberal economic reform programme will not come at the expense of social justice and revealed that amendments are in the pipeline to laws governing personal status healthcare, including mental health, insurance and pensions. A new law covering organ transplants will also be presented to parliament.
Mubarak expressed pleasure that parliament has begun discussing a new bill designed to create civil, non-profit universities. "These aim to provide high-quality education to graduates of secondary schools who do not have a place in state universities," he said. The bill was approved by the Shura Council on Monday and is expected to be presented to the People's Assembly next week.
Mubarak concluded with hopes that the new parliamentary round will also witness the passing of another package of laws protecting antiquities and the environment, establishing a new agency for food safety, stamping out illiteracy, ensuring the safety of vessels and the rights of the handicapped.
"A lot of bills will be on the agenda and I hope your debates will be constructive and in the interests of the people," he said.
By Gamal Essam El-Din, Al Ahram Weekly
He told parliamentarians that a new list of draft reform laws were ready to be discussed in the new session, including legislative amendments aimed at increasing the number of women serving in parliament. Only nine seats in the 454-seat People's Assembly are currently held by women, four of them elected and five appointed by the president. The 264-seat Shura Council has 21 women members, 20 presidential appointees and a single elected member.
Minister of State for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Moufid Shehab told Al-Ahram Weekly that three amendments will be introduced to help increase the number of women parliamentarians.
"We will have to amend the 1956 law on the exercise of political rights, the 1972 law regulating the People's Assembly and the 1980 law governing the Shura Council."
"A ministerial legislative group," Shehab continued, "is currently discussing the necessary amendments, probing the possibility of creating up to 56 new electoral districts."
President Mubarak's announcement that the number of female lawmakers is to be increased provoked mixed reactions.
Leading Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama pointed out that increasing women's representation hardly tops the political reform agenda. "Other priorities," he said, "include amending the parties law in order to enhance competition in political life and revoking the emergency law to curtail the intimidation of independent and opposition political activists."
Under the current electoral laws, says Salama, there is little doubt that most, if not all, new female lawmakers will belong to the NDP.
Shehab also informed the Weekly that amendments to the electoral law are being appraised. "There are a lot of opinions, some in favour and some against changing the current individual candidacy system," said Shehab, adding that "the NDP prefers that this critical issue become a matter of dialogue with all political forces ahead of parliamentary elections in 2010."
President Mubarak went on to tell both houses of parliament to expect changes to the 1993 law regulating elections to professional syndicates. "The amendment," says Shehab, "will provide greater facilities for voting and guarantee that the boards of syndicates are elected in a democratic way."
The current law, drafted by the NDP in 1993, was conceived to prevent the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood from infiltrating civil society organisations, especially professional syndicates. Brotherhood members, however, have been able to control the boards of the Lawyers' and Doctors' Syndicates while the Engineers' Syndicate, bogged down in legal disputes, has long been placed under judicial sequestration.
President Mubarak revealed that he has given instructions that parliament should draft new regulations covering nuclear activities "as part of the strategic decision taken last year to launch an ambitious nuclear programme". Mubarak devoted a large part of his speech to reviewing the impact of the global financial crisis on Egypt. "The first quarter of the current fiscal year registered a growth rate of 5.8 per cent, compared to a high 6.5 per cent during the first quarter of last year," Mubarak said. He urged the government to act to ensure that the burdens of the crisis do not fall on the shoulders of the poor.
"I have asked the government to increase investment spending and to increase the budget deficit slightly, a shortfall that we will recover from in the coming year without placing additional burdens on citizens."
As part of a new financial package regulating the stock market, insurance and real estate markets is to be tightened. "The measures will unify regulators in a single authority in order to better confront crises and attract local and international investments," Mubarak said.
He vowed that the global credit crunch would not deflect the government from pursuing economic reform, saying "the need to provide the private sector with greater incentives in the two areas of investment and exports is more pressing than ever". He did not, however, make any reference to the controversial scheme to distribute shares in government-owned companies to the public free of charged. The programme was officially announced by Gamal Mubarak, the chairman of the NDP's powerful Policies Committee, and Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin, on 10 November.
Gamal Mubarak, in a meeting with leading NDP members of the board of the General Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions (GFETU) on Monday, argued that "privatisation is not an end in itself but a means of raising the efficiency of public sector companies." He also indicated that a wide-ranging dialogue between the NDP and leaders of civil society organisations is likely ahead of the programme being implemented, and expressed his willingness "to meet with leaders of workers in Cairo and other governorates to address their concerns about the scheme".
In a bid to contain criticism Gamal Mubarak revealed that draft legislation will veto the sale of government stakes in strategic companies, including pharmaceuticals, iron and steel and textiles, and in public assets such as the Suez Canal. He also refuted allegations that the new programme ultimately aimed to cut subsidies and eliminate free public services.
President Mubarak emphasised that moving ahead with the liberal economic reform programme will not come at the expense of social justice and revealed that amendments are in the pipeline to laws governing personal status healthcare, including mental health, insurance and pensions. A new law covering organ transplants will also be presented to parliament.
Mubarak expressed pleasure that parliament has begun discussing a new bill designed to create civil, non-profit universities. "These aim to provide high-quality education to graduates of secondary schools who do not have a place in state universities," he said. The bill was approved by the Shura Council on Monday and is expected to be presented to the People's Assembly next week.
Mubarak concluded with hopes that the new parliamentary round will also witness the passing of another package of laws protecting antiquities and the environment, establishing a new agency for food safety, stamping out illiteracy, ensuring the safety of vessels and the rights of the handicapped.
"A lot of bills will be on the agenda and I hope your debates will be constructive and in the interests of the people," he said.
By Gamal Essam El-Din, Al Ahram Weekly
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Egypt: Muslim woman defies male dominance
Amal Soliman, a 32-year-old Egyptian woman, has endured intimidation and ridicule in the year since she applied for a job as the Muslim world's first mazouna, or female marriage registrar, but she says her victory has been worth the fight.
Amal Soliman was ridiculed for wanting to be a marriage registrar
In late September, Soliman, who holds a Masters degree in Islamic Sharia law, broke into what has until now been an exclusively males-only club.
However, the Committee of Egyptian Mazouns, an all-male organisation, challenged Soliman's application saying the job would be inappropriate for a woman and voiced their opinion in a statement issued by the committee.
A marriage officer presides over a wedding (or divorce) ceremony, recites verses from the Quran and signs the official certificates making the union legally binding.
Al Jazeera recently spoke with Soliman shortly after she conducted her first wedding ceremony on October 25.
Al Jazeera: Why did you decide to apply for a position that has traditionally – and for centuries – been a male vocation?
Soliman: In 2007 one of the two marriage officers of my neighbourhood passed away, leaving behind a job opportunity.
For three months everyone wondered who would be able to replace Al Hajj Abou Mesalam and right before the deadline (October 2007) for applying I rushed over to the civil court in Zagazig, the heart of rural Egypt, to give in my application.
I had been interested in pursuing a doctorate degree in Islamic studies but also maintaining a flexible job that would allow me to spend time with my three children.
Legally, there is no reason why a woman can't do the job, and the Mufti (Islamic scholar and interpreter of Islamic law) said it was religiously acceptable as it is only an administrative position.
In October 2007, my husband and I formally submitted an application to the local family court clerk for the post of marriage officer.
Was your application accepted?
Well, I took my husband with me because I was afraid I would be made fun of, which I was.
When I applied the man at the desk laughed openly at me and said that is was just not possible.
He imagined I would go home and forget about it, but instead I argued and told him that I had studied Sharia Law and I know it is an administrative job.
Though the clerk refused to accept my submission, I turned to Ibrahim Darwish, head of the local magistrate in Zagazig for his opinion.
Darwish was puzzled; he said there was no precedent for this situation so he did not know what to say. I took that as a sign that there was a small window of opportunity.
I then consulted Khaled el-Shalkamy, the head judge of Zagazig's family court.
I told him it was my right to be nominee as I was extremely qualified.
I told him just to accept me and let the other people involved in the selection process do the rest.
Were there no other applicants for the job?
Actually, I was in competition with 10 other candidates, all men, but none of them held post-graduate degrees in Sharia law like I did.
So el-Shalkamy accepted my application.
On February 25, I couldn't hold back my tears as I stood in front of the local court and was appointed as my district's new mazouna.
But the battle was half-won. I would not be able to begin work as a mazouna until Mamdouh Marei, the Egyptian minister of justice, formally signed off and authorised my appointment.
But many males did not accept the idea that a woman could hold what has been a man's job and you were targeted in the media.
The chairman of the Committee of Egyptian Mazouns, Muhammad Abou Ayeeta, said "the Ministry [of Justice] should refuse the appointment, because it is unacceptable that women would work in this occupation."
How did you deal with the backlash?
Well, at first my optimism slowly started to fade as I saw so much opposition. Some
columnists wrote that I was out to destroy tradition, that I was a threat to the religion and should be punished for pursuing the post.
But there were two main reasons for the opposition I faced. Firstly, it is simply rooted in male chauvinism. These people believe the woman's place is firmly in her house.
The other group was comprised of uneducated people who have developed an image of women's role in Islam from television; usually based on the words of a sheikh with a turban on his head.
Arguments made against me claimed that a woman couldn't perform marriages because of menstruation, as religion prevents women from praying or entering a mosque during her monthly cycle.
Others claimed that it was inappropriate for a woman to sit amongst men during the signing of the marriage certificates, which is traditionally predominately a male gathering where the marriage officer sits directly between the groom and his father-in-law.
Did no religious authority or group support you?
Well, four months after contacting the Ministry of Justice and receiving no word, I contacted the National Council for Women for a louder voice and stronger backing.
Both my opponents and proponents were beginning to wonder if I would ever receive the approval of the ministry of justice.
From the first moment that my papers where accepted as a nominee, the national press caught wind of this unusual event.
A journalist in Al Akhbar, one of Egypt's leading newspapers, heard about the situation, and helped launch my cause as a national debate.
Eventually the news went global. I think the media was a catalyst and made my appointment go through faster than it would have.
It made me happy to have so much international coverage … Sometimes when I'm sitting alone I wonder if I'm dreaming. What is going on? Did we really pull this off?
I'm happy not just for me; I had always wanted to show the world Egypt's developments with regards to women rights and gender equality.
But you did not get ministry approval until September 27; why did it take the ministry so long?
Of course I was happy and relieved, but more importantly I regained my confidence when the minister finally signed my appointment. I had slowly started to doubt myself up to that point.
However, I now believe that the minister had to be cautious, as this case was the first of its kind.
But laws are not religion. We can develop them.
On November 14, the United Arab Emirates followed in Egypt's footsteps and appointed Fatima Saeed Obeid Al Awani as a mazouna in the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department.
By Farah El Alfy in Cairo, Egypt, Al Jazeera English
Amal Soliman was ridiculed for wanting to be a marriage registrar
In late September, Soliman, who holds a Masters degree in Islamic Sharia law, broke into what has until now been an exclusively males-only club.
However, the Committee of Egyptian Mazouns, an all-male organisation, challenged Soliman's application saying the job would be inappropriate for a woman and voiced their opinion in a statement issued by the committee.
A marriage officer presides over a wedding (or divorce) ceremony, recites verses from the Quran and signs the official certificates making the union legally binding.
Al Jazeera recently spoke with Soliman shortly after she conducted her first wedding ceremony on October 25.
Al Jazeera: Why did you decide to apply for a position that has traditionally – and for centuries – been a male vocation?
Soliman: In 2007 one of the two marriage officers of my neighbourhood passed away, leaving behind a job opportunity.
For three months everyone wondered who would be able to replace Al Hajj Abou Mesalam and right before the deadline (October 2007) for applying I rushed over to the civil court in Zagazig, the heart of rural Egypt, to give in my application.
I had been interested in pursuing a doctorate degree in Islamic studies but also maintaining a flexible job that would allow me to spend time with my three children.
Legally, there is no reason why a woman can't do the job, and the Mufti (Islamic scholar and interpreter of Islamic law) said it was religiously acceptable as it is only an administrative position.
In October 2007, my husband and I formally submitted an application to the local family court clerk for the post of marriage officer.
Was your application accepted?
Well, I took my husband with me because I was afraid I would be made fun of, which I was.
When I applied the man at the desk laughed openly at me and said that is was just not possible.
He imagined I would go home and forget about it, but instead I argued and told him that I had studied Sharia Law and I know it is an administrative job.
Though the clerk refused to accept my submission, I turned to Ibrahim Darwish, head of the local magistrate in Zagazig for his opinion.
Darwish was puzzled; he said there was no precedent for this situation so he did not know what to say. I took that as a sign that there was a small window of opportunity.
I then consulted Khaled el-Shalkamy, the head judge of Zagazig's family court.
I told him it was my right to be nominee as I was extremely qualified.
I told him just to accept me and let the other people involved in the selection process do the rest.
Were there no other applicants for the job?
Actually, I was in competition with 10 other candidates, all men, but none of them held post-graduate degrees in Sharia law like I did.
So el-Shalkamy accepted my application.
On February 25, I couldn't hold back my tears as I stood in front of the local court and was appointed as my district's new mazouna.
But the battle was half-won. I would not be able to begin work as a mazouna until Mamdouh Marei, the Egyptian minister of justice, formally signed off and authorised my appointment.
But many males did not accept the idea that a woman could hold what has been a man's job and you were targeted in the media.
The chairman of the Committee of Egyptian Mazouns, Muhammad Abou Ayeeta, said "the Ministry [of Justice] should refuse the appointment, because it is unacceptable that women would work in this occupation."
How did you deal with the backlash?
Well, at first my optimism slowly started to fade as I saw so much opposition. Some
columnists wrote that I was out to destroy tradition, that I was a threat to the religion and should be punished for pursuing the post.
But there were two main reasons for the opposition I faced. Firstly, it is simply rooted in male chauvinism. These people believe the woman's place is firmly in her house.
The other group was comprised of uneducated people who have developed an image of women's role in Islam from television; usually based on the words of a sheikh with a turban on his head.
Arguments made against me claimed that a woman couldn't perform marriages because of menstruation, as religion prevents women from praying or entering a mosque during her monthly cycle.
Others claimed that it was inappropriate for a woman to sit amongst men during the signing of the marriage certificates, which is traditionally predominately a male gathering where the marriage officer sits directly between the groom and his father-in-law.
Did no religious authority or group support you?
Well, four months after contacting the Ministry of Justice and receiving no word, I contacted the National Council for Women for a louder voice and stronger backing.
Both my opponents and proponents were beginning to wonder if I would ever receive the approval of the ministry of justice.
From the first moment that my papers where accepted as a nominee, the national press caught wind of this unusual event.
A journalist in Al Akhbar, one of Egypt's leading newspapers, heard about the situation, and helped launch my cause as a national debate.
Eventually the news went global. I think the media was a catalyst and made my appointment go through faster than it would have.
It made me happy to have so much international coverage … Sometimes when I'm sitting alone I wonder if I'm dreaming. What is going on? Did we really pull this off?
I'm happy not just for me; I had always wanted to show the world Egypt's developments with regards to women rights and gender equality.
But you did not get ministry approval until September 27; why did it take the ministry so long?
Of course I was happy and relieved, but more importantly I regained my confidence when the minister finally signed my appointment. I had slowly started to doubt myself up to that point.
However, I now believe that the minister had to be cautious, as this case was the first of its kind.
But laws are not religion. We can develop them.
On November 14, the United Arab Emirates followed in Egypt's footsteps and appointed Fatima Saeed Obeid Al Awani as a mazouna in the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department.
By Farah El Alfy in Cairo, Egypt, Al Jazeera English
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Egypt: Microfinance empowering Egyptian women
By Iman Bibars
CAIRO: The Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW) embarked on its operations over 20 years ago in Mainsheet Nasser, at that time one of the largest unrecognized illegal settlements in Egypt.
Field experience and academic research indicated that it was particularly difficult for women who head their own households to access credit and employment, and research conducted by ADEW showed that there were no lending programs that considered the conditions of these women.
Within the microfinance framework, women are afforded the opportunity to start small businesses in and around their homes so they are not compelled to leave their children at home alone. Examples of such businesses include selling vegetables, other groceries, self-made clothing items or accessories. Women are thus able to provide sustenance, education and medical care for their children, providing them with the opportunity for improved social and professional standing.
In Egypt, microfinance loans are offered to groups of at least five women without the need for collateral or guarantees, provided that each of the women has committed to working on a specific project.
In order to obtain loans, women should have either an existing business or ideas for an intended one. Field research is then carried out by specialized researchers depending on the nature of each project to ensure they are profitable and suitable for the area in which they are established.
Quite well known in the world of microfinance globally but less so outside it, the loan repayment rate among women who are recipients of these loans is stunningly high — 99 percent in the case of Egypt.
This is so even though interest rates in microfinance are unusually high compared with those of conventional loans, as recipients typically have no credit history or even bank accounts. Furthermore, women who receive loans often succeed in establishing and expanding private projects.
Unfortunately, however, there are obstacles facing the microfinance sector in Egypt. For example, there are no specific microfinance laws in Egypt comparable to other countries in the Middle East, such as Morocco, which institutionalized legal frameworks for microfinancing NGOs within which they could operate.
There is also a lack of information about the program and as a result, about 80 percent of the Egyptian population is not aware of the lending processes currently in place, or the opportunities available to them.
A gender quota is much needed because these loan programs, while aimed at both genders, are granted mostly to men because many women lack identity cards or other official documents.
In addition, there is very little collaboration between NGOs or other institutions regarding loans. For Egypt to overcome these obstacles and ensure that microfinancing is made available to more people in need, institutional coordination is required. Commercial banks with no microfinance divisions might consider providing NGOs with special loans that would allow these NGOs to identify microfinance customers themselves, broadening the reach of credit to the poor while also increasing the margins of lending institutions.
Diversification of microfinance services to include group loans, training, technical support and feasibility studies, and lifting restrictions on lending activities beyond conventional loans, could also increase the scope and benefit of initial microfinance successes.
The establishment of a specialized information centre to document borrowers’ credit history, and holding training courses for those working in microfinance programs, would also help improve the system.
For example, ADEW is calling for coordination among practitioners and the Social Fund for Development, a joint initiative between the Egyptian government and the United Nations Development Program, which designs development programs and provides funding for various development initiatives.
Lending is not a function of banks alone. NGOs working in microfinance are already playing a principal role in the development process in Egypt through their extensive knowledge of remote and marginalized areas not targeted by the commercial banking sector.
NGOs like ADEW are therefore in a unique position to reach marginalized beneficiaries and promote awareness about lending processes to individuals otherwise out of reach. The close relationship with marginalized communities as well as the cooperation with bilateral and multilateral donors makes NGOs a natural actor in lending processes.
While these loans will not alleviate Egypt’s poverty completely, or bring about imminent economic development, they are an innovative means of survival and sustainable employment for many Egyptians and can play an important role in Egypt’s overall development.
Daily News Egypt
Dr Iman Bibars is chairperson of the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW, www.adew.org/adew) and an international gender and development expert. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
CAIRO: The Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW) embarked on its operations over 20 years ago in Mainsheet Nasser, at that time one of the largest unrecognized illegal settlements in Egypt.
Field experience and academic research indicated that it was particularly difficult for women who head their own households to access credit and employment, and research conducted by ADEW showed that there were no lending programs that considered the conditions of these women.
Within the microfinance framework, women are afforded the opportunity to start small businesses in and around their homes so they are not compelled to leave their children at home alone. Examples of such businesses include selling vegetables, other groceries, self-made clothing items or accessories. Women are thus able to provide sustenance, education and medical care for their children, providing them with the opportunity for improved social and professional standing.
In Egypt, microfinance loans are offered to groups of at least five women without the need for collateral or guarantees, provided that each of the women has committed to working on a specific project.
In order to obtain loans, women should have either an existing business or ideas for an intended one. Field research is then carried out by specialized researchers depending on the nature of each project to ensure they are profitable and suitable for the area in which they are established.
Quite well known in the world of microfinance globally but less so outside it, the loan repayment rate among women who are recipients of these loans is stunningly high — 99 percent in the case of Egypt.
This is so even though interest rates in microfinance are unusually high compared with those of conventional loans, as recipients typically have no credit history or even bank accounts. Furthermore, women who receive loans often succeed in establishing and expanding private projects.
Unfortunately, however, there are obstacles facing the microfinance sector in Egypt. For example, there are no specific microfinance laws in Egypt comparable to other countries in the Middle East, such as Morocco, which institutionalized legal frameworks for microfinancing NGOs within which they could operate.
There is also a lack of information about the program and as a result, about 80 percent of the Egyptian population is not aware of the lending processes currently in place, or the opportunities available to them.
A gender quota is much needed because these loan programs, while aimed at both genders, are granted mostly to men because many women lack identity cards or other official documents.
In addition, there is very little collaboration between NGOs or other institutions regarding loans. For Egypt to overcome these obstacles and ensure that microfinancing is made available to more people in need, institutional coordination is required. Commercial banks with no microfinance divisions might consider providing NGOs with special loans that would allow these NGOs to identify microfinance customers themselves, broadening the reach of credit to the poor while also increasing the margins of lending institutions.
Diversification of microfinance services to include group loans, training, technical support and feasibility studies, and lifting restrictions on lending activities beyond conventional loans, could also increase the scope and benefit of initial microfinance successes.
The establishment of a specialized information centre to document borrowers’ credit history, and holding training courses for those working in microfinance programs, would also help improve the system.
For example, ADEW is calling for coordination among practitioners and the Social Fund for Development, a joint initiative between the Egyptian government and the United Nations Development Program, which designs development programs and provides funding for various development initiatives.
Lending is not a function of banks alone. NGOs working in microfinance are already playing a principal role in the development process in Egypt through their extensive knowledge of remote and marginalized areas not targeted by the commercial banking sector.
NGOs like ADEW are therefore in a unique position to reach marginalized beneficiaries and promote awareness about lending processes to individuals otherwise out of reach. The close relationship with marginalized communities as well as the cooperation with bilateral and multilateral donors makes NGOs a natural actor in lending processes.
While these loans will not alleviate Egypt’s poverty completely, or bring about imminent economic development, they are an innovative means of survival and sustainable employment for many Egyptians and can play an important role in Egypt’s overall development.
Daily News Egypt
Dr Iman Bibars is chairperson of the Association for the Development and Enhancement of Women (ADEW, www.adew.org/adew) and an international gender and development expert. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service (CGNews).
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Egypt: Spotlight on Egypt's marriage crisis
By Magdi Abdelhadi
"I want to get married" is a perfectly normal thing to say for a young Egyptian man. But when a girl says it in such a conservative society - let alone writes a book with that title - she is making a political statement.
"Girls are not supposed to be actively seeking something, a girl simply exists for someone to marry or divorce her," says the author of the top-selling book, Ghada Abdelaal. "To say she wants something is seen as impolite."
The book started as a blog, before it was spotted by an Egyptian publisher and printed as a series of comic sketches in which flawed and failed suitors knocking at her parents' door.
A paranoid policeman, a hirsute fundamentalist, a pathological liar and other hilarious caricatures portrayed in sparkling Egyptian vernacular.
Marriage anxiety
The veiled, softly-spoken Abdelaal is a sharp and witty observer of social incongruity in Egypt, a feisty spirit trying to tear up stifling tradition.
They ask young girls here when they are three or four, who would you marry… they implant the idea your only purpose in life is to get married
Ghada Abdelaal
She says her target is not Egyptian men but a tradition known as "gawwaz el-salonat" (living room marriage), where a stranger is brought to the family home and the daughter must decide whether to marry him on the basis of this brief encounter.
"People who go for a picnic need to know each other a little longer than that - let alone make a lifelong commitment."
The book's popularity - it is in its third print run with a sitcom in the offing - reflects a widespread anxiety in Egyptian society. More and more young people cannot afford to get married.
Although the book focuses on finding Mr Right, she acknowledges finding an affordable flat remains an almost insurmountable obstacle. Many young people stay engaged for years before they can save up enough money.
"By the time they actually get to live together, they are already tired of each other," says women's rights activist Nihad Abou El Qoumsan. This causes the unusually high rate of divorce among the newlyweds in Egypt, she says.
Such is the impact of property prices on the marriage crisis, a popular talk show has invited engaged couples to join a draw to win a flat.
A new apartment will be given away by a wealthy businessman every day of the fasting and holiday month of Ramadan, in September. Huge numbers have registered.
Sexual frustration
Some describe it as a social time bomb. Religious customs mean there is no sex before marriage. So how do young people react to this situation?
I don't think people who harass women on the street are necessarily single, or necessarily sexually frustrated
Anthropologist Hania Sholkamy
Sociologist Madeeha al-Safty of the American University in Cairo believes one consequence is sexual harassment of women and rape reaching unprecedented levels in Egypt.
"If you are frustrated, there is the possibility that you take it out [through] violence.
"Some people choose the safer way in moving towards a more religious attitude - not necessarily extremism, but it might reach the point of extremism," she adds.
But anthropologist Hania Sholkamy hesitates to link the problems of sexual harassment and rape to the marriage crisis.
"I don't think people who harass women on the street are necessarily single, or necessarily sexually frustrated. There are many millions of people who are extremely frustrated, but they do not harass women.
"I think the issue is one of violence and gender disparities, pure and simple."
Gender disparities is a theme running throughout Abdelaal's book, from the provocative title questioning the women's passive role in a traditional society to the way children are brought up.
"They ask young girls here when they are three or four, who would you marry… they implant the idea your only purpose in life is to get married.
"Even after she goes to school they tell her that a girl's only future is in her husband's home. So what happens when a girl for any reason cannot get married. Should she set fire to herself?"
---BBC NEWS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7554892.stm
"I want to get married" is a perfectly normal thing to say for a young Egyptian man. But when a girl says it in such a conservative society - let alone writes a book with that title - she is making a political statement.
"Girls are not supposed to be actively seeking something, a girl simply exists for someone to marry or divorce her," says the author of the top-selling book, Ghada Abdelaal. "To say she wants something is seen as impolite."
The book started as a blog, before it was spotted by an Egyptian publisher and printed as a series of comic sketches in which flawed and failed suitors knocking at her parents' door.
A paranoid policeman, a hirsute fundamentalist, a pathological liar and other hilarious caricatures portrayed in sparkling Egyptian vernacular.
Marriage anxiety
The veiled, softly-spoken Abdelaal is a sharp and witty observer of social incongruity in Egypt, a feisty spirit trying to tear up stifling tradition.
They ask young girls here when they are three or four, who would you marry… they implant the idea your only purpose in life is to get married
Ghada Abdelaal
She says her target is not Egyptian men but a tradition known as "gawwaz el-salonat" (living room marriage), where a stranger is brought to the family home and the daughter must decide whether to marry him on the basis of this brief encounter.
"People who go for a picnic need to know each other a little longer than that - let alone make a lifelong commitment."
The book's popularity - it is in its third print run with a sitcom in the offing - reflects a widespread anxiety in Egyptian society. More and more young people cannot afford to get married.
Although the book focuses on finding Mr Right, she acknowledges finding an affordable flat remains an almost insurmountable obstacle. Many young people stay engaged for years before they can save up enough money.
"By the time they actually get to live together, they are already tired of each other," says women's rights activist Nihad Abou El Qoumsan. This causes the unusually high rate of divorce among the newlyweds in Egypt, she says.
Such is the impact of property prices on the marriage crisis, a popular talk show has invited engaged couples to join a draw to win a flat.
A new apartment will be given away by a wealthy businessman every day of the fasting and holiday month of Ramadan, in September. Huge numbers have registered.
Sexual frustration
Some describe it as a social time bomb. Religious customs mean there is no sex before marriage. So how do young people react to this situation?
I don't think people who harass women on the street are necessarily single, or necessarily sexually frustrated
Anthropologist Hania Sholkamy
Sociologist Madeeha al-Safty of the American University in Cairo believes one consequence is sexual harassment of women and rape reaching unprecedented levels in Egypt.
"If you are frustrated, there is the possibility that you take it out [through] violence.
"Some people choose the safer way in moving towards a more religious attitude - not necessarily extremism, but it might reach the point of extremism," she adds.
But anthropologist Hania Sholkamy hesitates to link the problems of sexual harassment and rape to the marriage crisis.
"I don't think people who harass women on the street are necessarily single, or necessarily sexually frustrated. There are many millions of people who are extremely frustrated, but they do not harass women.
"I think the issue is one of violence and gender disparities, pure and simple."
Gender disparities is a theme running throughout Abdelaal's book, from the provocative title questioning the women's passive role in a traditional society to the way children are brought up.
"They ask young girls here when they are three or four, who would you marry… they implant the idea your only purpose in life is to get married.
"Even after she goes to school they tell her that a girl's only future is in her husband's home. So what happens when a girl for any reason cannot get married. Should she set fire to herself?"
---BBC NEWS
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/7554892.stm
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Egypt: Grass-roots effort in Egypt fights 'cutting' girls
By ANNA JOHNSON
SULTAN ZAWYIT, Egypt (AP) — In this small Nile River farming village, Maha Mohammed has started to doubt whether she should circumcise her two daughters.
A year ago, she had few qualms about female genital mutilation, the practice of cutting a girl's clitoris and sometimes other genitalia. She herself was cut two decades ago, and she fears her daughters will not find husbands otherwise.
But Mohammed also has heard that circumcision can be medically risky and emotionally painful. And a strong-willed neighbor, another woman, has been dropping by her house regularly to persuade her to say no.
"I hear that girls suffer not just physically but psychologically," the 31-year-old Mohammed said. "But I am afraid. I don't want my daughters to have uncontrollable demands for sex."
Such doubts are significant. With vigorous grass-roots campaigns and the passage of tough laws against circumcision, Egypt seems to be making a dent in this deeply ingrained practice, thousands of years old. The number of young girls circumcised is now steadily declining in a country where an estimated 96 percent of married Egyptian women have had their genitals cut.
The most recent comprehensive study predicts about 63 percent of Egyptian girls 9 years old and under will be circumcised over the next decade. The numbers are lower in urban areas like Cairo — about 40 percent — but higher for rural areas in the south — about 78 percent, the government's 2005 demographic and health survey predicts.
The lower circumcision rate in urban areas is attributed to higher income and education levels and greater access to information. But in the villages along the Nile, where the rate is highest, a grass-roots effort is under way to bring information straight to people's homes.
The door-to-door campaign to end female genital mutilation is slow and time-consuming. It publicly plays down any outside help or connections to Western aid groups.
Instead, local activists focus on convincing Egyptians, one woman, one family and one village at a time. Often they reach out to women who have turned against the practice on their own, appealing to them to approach neighbors whose daughters are between ages 8 and 11.
Fatma Mohammed Ali is one.
The 35-year-old woman suffered intense complications after being circumcised at age 13, including severe pain during childbirth. Now she regularly visits her neighbor — Mohammed — gently discouraging her from the practice and using her own family as an example.
Neither of Ali's daughters was circumcised. Both are physically "normal" and one attends university — a high achievement for a woman from this village, Ali says.
"I don't care what everyone thinks. I was really harmed, and I didn't want this for my daughters," said Ali, a proud woman who often sits with her arms crossed against her chest. "When I talk about my experience, many become convinced. They also see how my daughters are good and religious."
It's difficult to encourage village women to go public with their views on the subject, said Nevine Saad Fouad, the project manager for child protection with a group called the Better Life Association for Comprehensive Development in the nearby city of Minya.
But when village women do go public, the results are astonishing.
Of some 3,000 families targeted over the past few years in several nearby villages, more than half say they have abandoned the practice, nearly 800 are undecided and fewer than 500 say they will continue to circumcise their daughters.
The key is convincing villages that stopping circumcision is an Egyptian idea — not one imported by international aid groups or Western governments, Fouad said. The group also promotes homegrown activities such as community plays, discussions with local doctors and religious debates.
Along with local groups taking action, Egypt's government has also been discouraging the practice in recent years. The National Council for Childhood and Motherhood has developed programs to help villages declare themselves against the cutting and sponsored an influential campaign of TV commercials and billboards featuring a young Egyptian girl.
Last year, the Ministry of Health prohibited licensed medical professionals from performing the procedure, and Egypt's parliament voted in June to ban it as part of a law protecting children. But activists stress that laws alone aren't enough.
"There is a wave of change right now," said Mona Amin of the childhood and motherhood council. "But we must keep this momentum, this intensity."
The pressure to uphold the tradition in this conservative, socially close-knit nation of 80 million people remains strong.
Many women fear potential husbands will reject daughters as impure or immoral. Medical rumors — including that circumcision is the only way to control a girl's sexual desires — are rampant. Others believe that abandoning the practice is caving to Western pressures to change their society.
Female genital mutilation is practiced in Africa and the Middle East by Muslims as well as Christians
In Egypt, leaders of both religions have spoken against it, including Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III and Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, who issued a fatwa against it in 2007. But others, especially some local Muslim leaders, continue to give their blessing.
Egyptians also receive mixed messages from midwives and some doctors, Fouad said. Some doctors, midwives and even barbers make home visits, giving circumcision sales pitches — just to make money off the $10 for an operation, Fouad believes.
For now, for every mother who agrees not to circumcise her daughters, many others still go ahead, activists say — women like Samia Ali Taha, who lives in the same village as Ali and Mohammed.
Taha is convinced she must circumcise her daughter a year from now, in the summer after the girl finishes sixth grade. She feels that way despite visits from another woman neighbor who has told her that the medical rumors — including that a woman's clitoris will grow if not cut — are false.
"It's not an option. We can't have it otherwise," said Taha, 32. "It is something we have grown up with and our ancestors have done."
But at a nearby house, sitting with a 6-year-old daughter cradled in her lap, Mohammed says she is slowly being convinced the other way.
"Maybe I am 70 percent for not doing it. Part of my change of heart is talking with Fatma and others," Mohammed said.
The young mother hesitates. "But I am still confused," she says.
---Associated Press
SULTAN ZAWYIT, Egypt (AP) — In this small Nile River farming village, Maha Mohammed has started to doubt whether she should circumcise her two daughters.
A year ago, she had few qualms about female genital mutilation, the practice of cutting a girl's clitoris and sometimes other genitalia. She herself was cut two decades ago, and she fears her daughters will not find husbands otherwise.
But Mohammed also has heard that circumcision can be medically risky and emotionally painful. And a strong-willed neighbor, another woman, has been dropping by her house regularly to persuade her to say no.
"I hear that girls suffer not just physically but psychologically," the 31-year-old Mohammed said. "But I am afraid. I don't want my daughters to have uncontrollable demands for sex."
Such doubts are significant. With vigorous grass-roots campaigns and the passage of tough laws against circumcision, Egypt seems to be making a dent in this deeply ingrained practice, thousands of years old. The number of young girls circumcised is now steadily declining in a country where an estimated 96 percent of married Egyptian women have had their genitals cut.
The most recent comprehensive study predicts about 63 percent of Egyptian girls 9 years old and under will be circumcised over the next decade. The numbers are lower in urban areas like Cairo — about 40 percent — but higher for rural areas in the south — about 78 percent, the government's 2005 demographic and health survey predicts.
The lower circumcision rate in urban areas is attributed to higher income and education levels and greater access to information. But in the villages along the Nile, where the rate is highest, a grass-roots effort is under way to bring information straight to people's homes.
The door-to-door campaign to end female genital mutilation is slow and time-consuming. It publicly plays down any outside help or connections to Western aid groups.
Instead, local activists focus on convincing Egyptians, one woman, one family and one village at a time. Often they reach out to women who have turned against the practice on their own, appealing to them to approach neighbors whose daughters are between ages 8 and 11.
Fatma Mohammed Ali is one.
The 35-year-old woman suffered intense complications after being circumcised at age 13, including severe pain during childbirth. Now she regularly visits her neighbor — Mohammed — gently discouraging her from the practice and using her own family as an example.
Neither of Ali's daughters was circumcised. Both are physically "normal" and one attends university — a high achievement for a woman from this village, Ali says.
"I don't care what everyone thinks. I was really harmed, and I didn't want this for my daughters," said Ali, a proud woman who often sits with her arms crossed against her chest. "When I talk about my experience, many become convinced. They also see how my daughters are good and religious."
It's difficult to encourage village women to go public with their views on the subject, said Nevine Saad Fouad, the project manager for child protection with a group called the Better Life Association for Comprehensive Development in the nearby city of Minya.
But when village women do go public, the results are astonishing.
Of some 3,000 families targeted over the past few years in several nearby villages, more than half say they have abandoned the practice, nearly 800 are undecided and fewer than 500 say they will continue to circumcise their daughters.
The key is convincing villages that stopping circumcision is an Egyptian idea — not one imported by international aid groups or Western governments, Fouad said. The group also promotes homegrown activities such as community plays, discussions with local doctors and religious debates.
Along with local groups taking action, Egypt's government has also been discouraging the practice in recent years. The National Council for Childhood and Motherhood has developed programs to help villages declare themselves against the cutting and sponsored an influential campaign of TV commercials and billboards featuring a young Egyptian girl.
Last year, the Ministry of Health prohibited licensed medical professionals from performing the procedure, and Egypt's parliament voted in June to ban it as part of a law protecting children. But activists stress that laws alone aren't enough.
"There is a wave of change right now," said Mona Amin of the childhood and motherhood council. "But we must keep this momentum, this intensity."
The pressure to uphold the tradition in this conservative, socially close-knit nation of 80 million people remains strong.
Many women fear potential husbands will reject daughters as impure or immoral. Medical rumors — including that circumcision is the only way to control a girl's sexual desires — are rampant. Others believe that abandoning the practice is caving to Western pressures to change their society.
Female genital mutilation is practiced in Africa and the Middle East by Muslims as well as Christians
In Egypt, leaders of both religions have spoken against it, including Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III and Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, who issued a fatwa against it in 2007. But others, especially some local Muslim leaders, continue to give their blessing.
Egyptians also receive mixed messages from midwives and some doctors, Fouad said. Some doctors, midwives and even barbers make home visits, giving circumcision sales pitches — just to make money off the $10 for an operation, Fouad believes.
For now, for every mother who agrees not to circumcise her daughters, many others still go ahead, activists say — women like Samia Ali Taha, who lives in the same village as Ali and Mohammed.
Taha is convinced she must circumcise her daughter a year from now, in the summer after the girl finishes sixth grade. She feels that way despite visits from another woman neighbor who has told her that the medical rumors — including that a woman's clitoris will grow if not cut — are false.
"It's not an option. We can't have it otherwise," said Taha, 32. "It is something we have grown up with and our ancestors have done."
But at a nearby house, sitting with a 6-year-old daughter cradled in her lap, Mohammed says she is slowly being convinced the other way.
"Maybe I am 70 percent for not doing it. Part of my change of heart is talking with Fatma and others," Mohammed said.
The young mother hesitates. "But I am still confused," she says.
---Associated Press
Friday, August 1, 2008
Egypt: Shame and Sexual Harassment in Egypt
What an awful time to be woman in Egypt: 98 percent of foreign women visiting Egypt and 83 percent of native Egyptian women, who were recently surveyed, said that they have been sexually harassed, says Mona Eltahawy.
NEW YORK – When I was only 4 years-old, and still living in Cairo, a man exposed himself to me as I stood on a balcony at my family’s home, and gestured for me to come down.
At 15, I was groped as I was performing the rites of the Haj pilgrimage at Mecca, the holiest site for Muslims. Every part of my body was covered except for my face and hands. I’d never been groped before and burst into tears, but I was too ashamed to explain to my family what had happened.
During my 20s, when I had returned to Cairo and wore the hijab, a way of dressing which again covers everything but the face and the hands, I was groped so many times that whenever I passed a group of men I’d place my bag between me and them. Headphones helped block out the disgusting things men -- and even boys barely in their teens -- hissed at me.
I learned to push and punch those whose hands thought my body was fair game, but I never found anything to soothe the burning violation. So imagine how much sharper that violation stung when I tried to complain to the police only to be shooed away --or when it was their hands which groped me.
Once, a riot policeman fondled my breast while he was pushing back a group of us journalists at the trial of an opposition politician. I yelled at him, and I complained to his supervising officer, who moved him to the back row of riot police and told me “Nevermind.”
So it was no surprise to learn that 98 percent of foreign women visiting Egypt and 83percent of native Egyptian women who were recently surveyed said that they, too, had been sexually harassed, and they have recounted a catalog of horrors similar to mine. What an awful time to be woman in Egypt.
When the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights reported that 62 percent of Egyptian men admitted to harassing women, I could only shudder at what sexist bullies so many of my countrymen are.
Even worse, when I read that the majority of the more than 2,000 Egyptian men and women that ECWR surveyed blamed women for bringing on the harassment because of the way they dressed, I honestly thought my countrymen and women had lost their minds.
In Egypt today, up to 80 percent of women wear one form of veil or another -- be it a headscarf or a full-body veil that covers the face too -- so you would think it was obvious that sexual harassment had nothing to do with the way a woman dresses.
So what is it that drives such a stubborn wish to fault women?
The answer lies in perhaps the saddest of all the Centre’s findings. Unlike foreign women, most Egyptian women said women should keep their harassment to themselves because they were ashamed or feared it could ruin their reputation. That’s when I was taken back full circle to the time I was groped on the Haj.
Shame.
This shame is fueled by religious and political messages that bombard Egyptian public life, turning women into sexual objects and giving men free reign to their bodies.
In 2006, It was the well-publicized episode of the mufti of Australia comparing women who didn’t wear the hijab to uncovered meat left out for wild cats. He was educated at al-Azhar, the religious institution in Egypt that trains clerics from all over the Sunni Muslim world. He was suspended, but his reprehensible views are very much at work among many other clerics. Today, as two bloggers in Egypt reported recently, there are email and poster campaigns with a message that uses candy to tell women that if they cover they will be safe from harassment, as covered candy is safe from flies.
When did Egyptian women become candy and when did Egyptian men turn into flies?
There is no law criminalizing sexual harassment in Egypt, and police often refuse to report women’s complaints. And when it is the police themselves who are harassing women, then clearly women’s safety is far from a priority in Egypt.
The State itself taught Egyptians a most spectacular lesson in institutionalized patriarchy when security forces and government-hired thugs sexually assaulted demonstrators, especially women, during an anti-regime protest in 2005, giving a green light to harassers.
So there was little surprise that during a religious festival in 2006, a mob of men went on a rampage in downtown Cairo, sexually assaulting any woman they came across as police watched and did nothing.
It was only when bloggers broke the news that the media reported the assaults. Still, the Egyptian regime has never acknowledged it happened. At a demonstration against sexual harassment that I attended in Cairo a few days later, there were nearly more riot police than protestors.
My sister Nora was 20 at the time, and she, with several of her friends, joined the protest. She had never been to a demonstration before but was incensed when she heard the State was denying something that had happened to her many times. We swapped our sexual harassment stories like veterans comparing war wounds, and we unraveled a taboo which shelters the real criminals of sexual harassment and has kept us hiding in shame.
And that is why I began here with my own stories -- to free myself of the tentacles of that shame.
Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning New York-based journalist and commentator, and an international lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues.
---Middle East Online
NEW YORK – When I was only 4 years-old, and still living in Cairo, a man exposed himself to me as I stood on a balcony at my family’s home, and gestured for me to come down.
At 15, I was groped as I was performing the rites of the Haj pilgrimage at Mecca, the holiest site for Muslims. Every part of my body was covered except for my face and hands. I’d never been groped before and burst into tears, but I was too ashamed to explain to my family what had happened.
During my 20s, when I had returned to Cairo and wore the hijab, a way of dressing which again covers everything but the face and the hands, I was groped so many times that whenever I passed a group of men I’d place my bag between me and them. Headphones helped block out the disgusting things men -- and even boys barely in their teens -- hissed at me.
I learned to push and punch those whose hands thought my body was fair game, but I never found anything to soothe the burning violation. So imagine how much sharper that violation stung when I tried to complain to the police only to be shooed away --or when it was their hands which groped me.
Once, a riot policeman fondled my breast while he was pushing back a group of us journalists at the trial of an opposition politician. I yelled at him, and I complained to his supervising officer, who moved him to the back row of riot police and told me “Nevermind.”
So it was no surprise to learn that 98 percent of foreign women visiting Egypt and 83percent of native Egyptian women who were recently surveyed said that they, too, had been sexually harassed, and they have recounted a catalog of horrors similar to mine. What an awful time to be woman in Egypt.
When the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights reported that 62 percent of Egyptian men admitted to harassing women, I could only shudder at what sexist bullies so many of my countrymen are.
Even worse, when I read that the majority of the more than 2,000 Egyptian men and women that ECWR surveyed blamed women for bringing on the harassment because of the way they dressed, I honestly thought my countrymen and women had lost their minds.
In Egypt today, up to 80 percent of women wear one form of veil or another -- be it a headscarf or a full-body veil that covers the face too -- so you would think it was obvious that sexual harassment had nothing to do with the way a woman dresses.
So what is it that drives such a stubborn wish to fault women?
The answer lies in perhaps the saddest of all the Centre’s findings. Unlike foreign women, most Egyptian women said women should keep their harassment to themselves because they were ashamed or feared it could ruin their reputation. That’s when I was taken back full circle to the time I was groped on the Haj.
Shame.
This shame is fueled by religious and political messages that bombard Egyptian public life, turning women into sexual objects and giving men free reign to their bodies.
In 2006, It was the well-publicized episode of the mufti of Australia comparing women who didn’t wear the hijab to uncovered meat left out for wild cats. He was educated at al-Azhar, the religious institution in Egypt that trains clerics from all over the Sunni Muslim world. He was suspended, but his reprehensible views are very much at work among many other clerics. Today, as two bloggers in Egypt reported recently, there are email and poster campaigns with a message that uses candy to tell women that if they cover they will be safe from harassment, as covered candy is safe from flies.
When did Egyptian women become candy and when did Egyptian men turn into flies?
There is no law criminalizing sexual harassment in Egypt, and police often refuse to report women’s complaints. And when it is the police themselves who are harassing women, then clearly women’s safety is far from a priority in Egypt.
The State itself taught Egyptians a most spectacular lesson in institutionalized patriarchy when security forces and government-hired thugs sexually assaulted demonstrators, especially women, during an anti-regime protest in 2005, giving a green light to harassers.
So there was little surprise that during a religious festival in 2006, a mob of men went on a rampage in downtown Cairo, sexually assaulting any woman they came across as police watched and did nothing.
It was only when bloggers broke the news that the media reported the assaults. Still, the Egyptian regime has never acknowledged it happened. At a demonstration against sexual harassment that I attended in Cairo a few days later, there were nearly more riot police than protestors.
My sister Nora was 20 at the time, and she, with several of her friends, joined the protest. She had never been to a demonstration before but was incensed when she heard the State was denying something that had happened to her many times. We swapped our sexual harassment stories like veterans comparing war wounds, and we unraveled a taboo which shelters the real criminals of sexual harassment and has kept us hiding in shame.
And that is why I began here with my own stories -- to free myself of the tentacles of that shame.
Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning New York-based journalist and commentator, and an international lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues.
---Middle East Online
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Egypt: Women relatives of incarcerated prisoners demand their release
By Abdel-Rahman Hussein
CAIRO: Around 40 women gathered in front of the governor’s office in Al-Arish in Northern Sinai Tuesday to protest the continuing incarceration of some 70 prisoners from Siai arrested in the wake of a spate of bombings in the peninsula.
The protestors lifted placards and chanted slogans demanding the release of the prisoners, none of whom are kept in Sinai prisons but in other facilities such as Borg El-Arab, near Alexandria, and Cairo's Tora prison.
According to journalist and activist Mustapha Singer who was present at the protest, the women chanted slogans saying “Our country’s leaders, why did you take our children?”
Children lifted placards with captions such as “Release my father.”
There was a security presence around the protest and “I was prevented from taking pictures,” Singer said.
The governor sent some of his staff to take the names of the protestors so as to offer them aid, but the protestors demanded that their sons be released.
According to Singer, the staff responded by stating that the governor did not have the jurisdiction to release the prisoners, but that aid could be offered to the relatives.
The protest petered out at mid-afternoon and left vowing to return if the prisoners were not released.
Last Wednesday, a similar protest was prevented from taking place in a square in Al-Arish.
A government crackdown ensued after the Taba bombings of 2004, which killed 34 people. This attacked was followed by the 2005 attack in Sharm El-Sheikh in which 70 people were killed. An attack in Dahab the following year left 20 people dead.
According to Human Rights Watch, 3,000 people were arrested following the Dahab bombings. Since then most of them have been released except for the 70 for whom the protest was held.
All those who were held were detained under the emergency law, thus they were kept without charge or trial with their incarceration being renewed every 45 days. Some of the remaining 70 detainees have been kept under this law since 2004.
---Daily News Egypt
CAIRO: Around 40 women gathered in front of the governor’s office in Al-Arish in Northern Sinai Tuesday to protest the continuing incarceration of some 70 prisoners from Siai arrested in the wake of a spate of bombings in the peninsula.
The protestors lifted placards and chanted slogans demanding the release of the prisoners, none of whom are kept in Sinai prisons but in other facilities such as Borg El-Arab, near Alexandria, and Cairo's Tora prison.
According to journalist and activist Mustapha Singer who was present at the protest, the women chanted slogans saying “Our country’s leaders, why did you take our children?”
Children lifted placards with captions such as “Release my father.”
There was a security presence around the protest and “I was prevented from taking pictures,” Singer said.
The governor sent some of his staff to take the names of the protestors so as to offer them aid, but the protestors demanded that their sons be released.
According to Singer, the staff responded by stating that the governor did not have the jurisdiction to release the prisoners, but that aid could be offered to the relatives.
The protest petered out at mid-afternoon and left vowing to return if the prisoners were not released.
Last Wednesday, a similar protest was prevented from taking place in a square in Al-Arish.
A government crackdown ensued after the Taba bombings of 2004, which killed 34 people. This attacked was followed by the 2005 attack in Sharm El-Sheikh in which 70 people were killed. An attack in Dahab the following year left 20 people dead.
According to Human Rights Watch, 3,000 people were arrested following the Dahab bombings. Since then most of them have been released except for the 70 for whom the protest was held.
All those who were held were detained under the emergency law, thus they were kept without charge or trial with their incarceration being renewed every 45 days. Some of the remaining 70 detainees have been kept under this law since 2004.
---Daily News Egypt
Friday, July 18, 2008
Egypt: Egypt's sexual harassment 'cancer'
By Magdi Abdelhadi
Sexual harassment of women in Egypt is on the increase and observing Islamic dress code is no deterrent, according to a survey published this week.
The Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights (ECWR) describes the problem as a social cancer and calls on the government to introduce legislation to curb it.
The findings contradict the widely held belief in Egypt that unveiled women are more likely to suffer harassment than veiled ones.
More than 60% - including female respondents - suggested the scantily clad woman was most at risk. But in reality the study concluded the majority of the victims of harassment were modestly dressed women wearing Islamic headscarves.
ECWR head Nihad Abu El-Qoumsan said that even veiled women who were victims of harassment blamed themselves.
Western women who took part in the study demonstrated a strong belief in their entitlement to personal safety and freedom of movement, she says, but this was totally absent among Egyptian respondents.
No-one spoke about freedom of choice, freedom of movement or the right to legal protection. No-one showed any awareness that the harasser was a criminal, regardless of what clothes the victim was wearing.
Shocking attitude
The centre is campaigning for a new law that clearly defines sexual harassment as a crime and makes it easier for women to report it in Egypt - women like Noha Ostath.
Women are targets for harassment whether they are fully covered or not
The young film-maker told the BBC she was repeatedly groped in broad daylight by a van driver in a Cairo traffic jam as she walked on the pavement.
His behaviour made her so angry she ran after the van and held on to the side mirror to force the driver to stop so she could take him to a police station.
She was equally shocked by the attitude of other passers-by. Some tried to dissuade her from going to the police - others blamed her for what she was wearing (a baggy sports outfit).
In the end, after a tussle with the man that lasted for more than one hour, the strong-willed Ms Ostath dragged the man to the police station.
But even there, police officers refused to open an investigation and insisted on the presence of her father despite the fact that she is not a minor - she is 26.
Impudent allegation
After Noha's story was published in the Badeel daily, editor-in-chief Muhammad El Sayyed Said wrote that the behaviour of the crowd was characteristic of oppressed societies, where the majority identified with the oppressor.
He blamed the increase in sexual harassment on what he said were "three decades of incitement against women" from the pulpits of some of Egypt's mosques.
"This verbal incitement is based on the extremely sordid and impudent allegation that our women are not modestly dressed. This was, and still is, a flagrant lie, used to justify violence against women in the name of religion."
The British foreign office says Egypt is one of the countries with the highest number of cases reported to embassy staff regarding sexual offences against visiting women.
It warns them to be extra cautious in public places especially when alone because of the risks.
Ms Abou El-Qoumsan says Egyptians need to re-evaluate their value system and school curricula and to ensure that the rule of law prevails and prevents offenders and criminals walking free because of a breakdown of basic notions of right and wrong.
Thanks to surveys like this, one encounters an endless number of newspaper articles reflecting the feeling that Egypt is in the grip of a moral crisis.
Perhaps nothing illustrates Egypt's loss of a moral compass than the responses of some men in the ECWR study.
Some said they harassed a woman simply because they were bored. One who abused a woman wearing the niqab said she must be beautiful, or hiding something.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN EGYPT
Experienced by 98% of foreign women visitors
Experienced by 83% of Egyptian women
62% of Egyptian men admitted harassing women
53% of Egyptian men blame women for 'bringing it on'
Source: Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights
Participants in the survey were shown pictures of women wearing different kinds of dress - from the mini skirt to the niqab (full face veil) and asked which were more likely to be harassed.
---BBC News, Cairo
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Egypt: Two-thirds of Egyptian men harass women
By Cynthia Johnston
CAIRO (Reuters) - Nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women in the most populous Arab country, and a majority say women themselves are to blame for their maltreatment, a survey showed on Thursday.
The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women, shouting sexually explicit remarks, and exposing their genitals to women. "Sexual harassment has become an overwhelming and very real problem experienced by all women in Egyptian society, often on a daily basis," said the report by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights.
Egyptian women and female visitors frequently complain of persistent sexual harassment on Egyptian streets, despite the socially conservative nature of this traditional Muslim society.
The behaviour could have repercussions on Egypt's tourism industry, a major foreign income earner, with 98 percent of foreign women saying they had experienced harassment in the country, the survey said.
The survey of more than 2,000 Egyptian men and women and 109 foreign women said the vast majority of Egyptians believed that sexual harassment in Egypt was on the rise, citing a worsening economic situation and a lack of awareness or religious values.
It said 62 percent of Egyptian men reported perpetrating harassment, while 83 percent of Egyptian women reported having been sexually harassed. Nearly half of women said the abuse occurred daily.
Only 2.4 percent of Egyptian women reported it to the police, with most saying they did not believe anyone would help. Some feared reporting harassment would hurt their reputations.
"The vast majority of women did nothing when confronted with sexual harassment," the survey said, adding that most Egyptian women believed the victim should "remain silent".
Some 53 percent of men blamed women for bringing on sexual harassment, saying they enjoyed it or were dressed in a way deemed indecent. Some women agreed.
"Out of Egyptian women and men interviewed, most believe that women who wear tight clothes deserve to be harassed," the survey said. It added most agreed women should be home by 8 p.m.
The survey said most of the Egyptian women who told of being harassed said they were dressed conservatively, with the majority wearing the Islamic headscarf. The harassment took place on the streets or on public transport, as well as in tourist destinations and foreign educational institutions.
---Reuters
CAIRO (Reuters) - Nearly two-thirds of Egyptian men admit to having sexually harassed women in the most populous Arab country, and a majority say women themselves are to blame for their maltreatment, a survey showed on Thursday.
The forms of harassment reported by Egyptian men, whose country attracts millions of foreign tourists each year, include touching or ogling women, shouting sexually explicit remarks, and exposing their genitals to women. "Sexual harassment has become an overwhelming and very real problem experienced by all women in Egyptian society, often on a daily basis," said the report by the Egyptian Centre for Women's Rights.
Egyptian women and female visitors frequently complain of persistent sexual harassment on Egyptian streets, despite the socially conservative nature of this traditional Muslim society.
The behaviour could have repercussions on Egypt's tourism industry, a major foreign income earner, with 98 percent of foreign women saying they had experienced harassment in the country, the survey said.
The survey of more than 2,000 Egyptian men and women and 109 foreign women said the vast majority of Egyptians believed that sexual harassment in Egypt was on the rise, citing a worsening economic situation and a lack of awareness or religious values.
It said 62 percent of Egyptian men reported perpetrating harassment, while 83 percent of Egyptian women reported having been sexually harassed. Nearly half of women said the abuse occurred daily.
Only 2.4 percent of Egyptian women reported it to the police, with most saying they did not believe anyone would help. Some feared reporting harassment would hurt their reputations.
"The vast majority of women did nothing when confronted with sexual harassment," the survey said, adding that most Egyptian women believed the victim should "remain silent".
Some 53 percent of men blamed women for bringing on sexual harassment, saying they enjoyed it or were dressed in a way deemed indecent. Some women agreed.
"Out of Egyptian women and men interviewed, most believe that women who wear tight clothes deserve to be harassed," the survey said. It added most agreed women should be home by 8 p.m.
The survey said most of the Egyptian women who told of being harassed said they were dressed conservatively, with the majority wearing the Islamic headscarf. The harassment took place on the streets or on public transport, as well as in tourist destinations and foreign educational institutions.
---Reuters
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Egypt: Female genital mutilation outlawed
With attention focused on political events in the Middle East – the Hamas-Israel ceasefire, post-Doha developments in Lebanon, and the Saudis deciding whether or not to increase oil output – one important piece of news got drowned out: on June 7 the Egyptian parliament outlawed female genital mutilation (FGM). The BBC didn't even mention it.
I first came across the issue of FGM over a decade ago when I lived in Cairo and heard about studies that claimed over 70% of Egyptian women were circumcised in some way or other. I remember afterwards walking along the street and counting the women I passed: cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, not, not, not, cut, cut … By now I know that these studies were incorrect and that is not true that over 70% of Egyptian women have undergone FGM. The actual number is around 90%.
Over the past decade the Egyptian authorities have tightened the restrictions on FGM, first restricting the practice to doctors and nurses (in order to curb back-alley procedures), then also forbidding health service personnel to perform any type of FGM. But those were ministry instructions, not enforceable on private citizens. And as the practice is popular, only a law with severe punishments, like the one enacted now, will do … if it is accompanied by a health education campaign.
The Grand Mufti, Egypt's highest Islamic authority had already ruled FGM illegal and the only group protesting against the ban is the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming that "nothing in Islam forbids circumcision". This might technically be true, but last time I checked Egypt's MB wasn't campaigning against the prohibition of slavery, although according to traditional Islamic law it is not only not forbidden but explicitly allowed, whereas female circumcision isn't even mentioned in the Qur'an and the one often-cited hadith (tradition of the Prophet) about it had already been deemed "spurious" by Islamic scholars hundreds of years ago.
FGM is a good example how ancient (in this case pre-Islamic) traditions are absorbed into a new religious culture. Only one of the four Sunni legal schools, the Shafi'i, holds the so-called "Sunna circumcision", whereby the tip of the clitoral hood is "trimmed", to be obligatory. (The Shia all hold that it is wrong.) Interestingly, the extent of the Shafi'i school corresponds with the prevalence of FGM: Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, Horn of Africa, Yemen, sub-Saharan West Africa, Kurdistan, the south-west coast of India (Kerala) and Indonesia. But of course FGM is prevalent throughout the Greater Nile Valley (including Christians and animists) and among non-Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa, raising the question whether the Shafi'i school of Islamic law was adopted in part because of its stance on FGM or whether it adapted to a strong pro-FGM culture already in existence.
Kurdistan, touted as the "other" Iraq where women don't have to cover their heads and are ministers, is the only area in Iraq where FGM is common – both among Muslims and Yazidis, hinting at a pre-Islamic tradition. Sunni and Shia Arabs in Iraq might hold very traditionalist views when it comes to the role of women in society, and neither the Iran-inspired nor the Saudi/Taliban-inspired rules now gaining currency among Iraq's Arab population are anything to play down, but they don't cut their women.
In Saudi Arabia, despite its paternalism and oppression of women, FGM is alien to the interior's Wahhabi traditionalists who rule the country, yet is practised on the Red Sea coast – an area that is generally more liberal and whose inhabitants still scoff at having their lives regulated by uncouth barbarians from the interior.
Evidently, FGM is not linked to insularity or a lack of exposure to "modernity". Most likely having originated in the Nile valley and then spread to sub-Saharan Africa (and in the case of the Kurds also to some communities further the east), over time FGM was integrated into whatever new religion came along – including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism (in the case of the Ethiopian Jews).
But it remained part of local, popular culture; it did not become universal religious dogma. And to overcome it, FGM has to be treated as such. In Senegal and Ethiopia, where local women and community leaders were included in conceptualising and carrying out the programmes against it, campaigns have yielded success – quite spectacularly in some cases.
Similarly, the Egyptian parliament's decision to outlaw FGM, the practice of which now incurs a three months to two years in prison or a fine of 1,000-5,000 Egyptian pounds ($200-$1,000 – a lot of money in Egypt), needs to be accompanied by a public health campaign that takes the popular cultural attitudes seriously, that integrates community and religious leaders, and that is best organised not top-down but on the grassroots level. Criminalising the practice alone will not be enough.
But some attention and public recognition in the international media would have been nice.
-- The Guardian
I first came across the issue of FGM over a decade ago when I lived in Cairo and heard about studies that claimed over 70% of Egyptian women were circumcised in some way or other. I remember afterwards walking along the street and counting the women I passed: cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, not, not, not, cut, cut … By now I know that these studies were incorrect and that is not true that over 70% of Egyptian women have undergone FGM. The actual number is around 90%.
Over the past decade the Egyptian authorities have tightened the restrictions on FGM, first restricting the practice to doctors and nurses (in order to curb back-alley procedures), then also forbidding health service personnel to perform any type of FGM. But those were ministry instructions, not enforceable on private citizens. And as the practice is popular, only a law with severe punishments, like the one enacted now, will do … if it is accompanied by a health education campaign.
The Grand Mufti, Egypt's highest Islamic authority had already ruled FGM illegal and the only group protesting against the ban is the Muslim Brotherhood, claiming that "nothing in Islam forbids circumcision". This might technically be true, but last time I checked Egypt's MB wasn't campaigning against the prohibition of slavery, although according to traditional Islamic law it is not only not forbidden but explicitly allowed, whereas female circumcision isn't even mentioned in the Qur'an and the one often-cited hadith (tradition of the Prophet) about it had already been deemed "spurious" by Islamic scholars hundreds of years ago.
FGM is a good example how ancient (in this case pre-Islamic) traditions are absorbed into a new religious culture. Only one of the four Sunni legal schools, the Shafi'i, holds the so-called "Sunna circumcision", whereby the tip of the clitoral hood is "trimmed", to be obligatory. (The Shia all hold that it is wrong.) Interestingly, the extent of the Shafi'i school corresponds with the prevalence of FGM: Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast, Horn of Africa, Yemen, sub-Saharan West Africa, Kurdistan, the south-west coast of India (Kerala) and Indonesia. But of course FGM is prevalent throughout the Greater Nile Valley (including Christians and animists) and among non-Muslims in sub-Saharan Africa, raising the question whether the Shafi'i school of Islamic law was adopted in part because of its stance on FGM or whether it adapted to a strong pro-FGM culture already in existence.
Kurdistan, touted as the "other" Iraq where women don't have to cover their heads and are ministers, is the only area in Iraq where FGM is common – both among Muslims and Yazidis, hinting at a pre-Islamic tradition. Sunni and Shia Arabs in Iraq might hold very traditionalist views when it comes to the role of women in society, and neither the Iran-inspired nor the Saudi/Taliban-inspired rules now gaining currency among Iraq's Arab population are anything to play down, but they don't cut their women.
In Saudi Arabia, despite its paternalism and oppression of women, FGM is alien to the interior's Wahhabi traditionalists who rule the country, yet is practised on the Red Sea coast – an area that is generally more liberal and whose inhabitants still scoff at having their lives regulated by uncouth barbarians from the interior.
Evidently, FGM is not linked to insularity or a lack of exposure to "modernity". Most likely having originated in the Nile valley and then spread to sub-Saharan Africa (and in the case of the Kurds also to some communities further the east), over time FGM was integrated into whatever new religion came along – including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism (in the case of the Ethiopian Jews).
But it remained part of local, popular culture; it did not become universal religious dogma. And to overcome it, FGM has to be treated as such. In Senegal and Ethiopia, where local women and community leaders were included in conceptualising and carrying out the programmes against it, campaigns have yielded success – quite spectacularly in some cases.
Similarly, the Egyptian parliament's decision to outlaw FGM, the practice of which now incurs a three months to two years in prison or a fine of 1,000-5,000 Egyptian pounds ($200-$1,000 – a lot of money in Egypt), needs to be accompanied by a public health campaign that takes the popular cultural attitudes seriously, that integrates community and religious leaders, and that is best organised not top-down but on the grassroots level. Criminalising the practice alone will not be enough.
But some attention and public recognition in the international media would have been nice.
-- The Guardian
Monday, June 9, 2008
Egypt: Law Passed Banning Female Circumcision
Egyptian members of Parliament passed a new law that bans female circumcision. The new bill also changed the legal minimum age for marriage to 18 years-old for both genders.
The laws passed on Sunday impose jail time and large fines if caught practicing female circumcision. A maximum jail term of two years or a fine between $200 and $1,000 can be handed down by a judge.
The only means allowed for the process is in cases of "medical necessity." International rights groups welcomed the decision, saying it is a step in the right direction for Egypt.
The laws are enforceable immediately.
Some members of Parliament argued that the bill goes against Islamic principles and this is another attempt by the "west" to impose "its beliefs on our culture." However, most Islamic scholars welcomed the decision, saying it was long overdue to outlaw a practice that needed to be ended.
Some accounts argue that as many as 97 percent of Egyptian women have been circumcised. The practice is widespread in Upper Egyptian villages, and can often lead to death, infection and psychological trauma, Amnesty International has reported.
Previously Egyptian girls were allowed to legally marry at the age of 16.
By Joseph Mayton - AHN Middle East Correspondent
The laws passed on Sunday impose jail time and large fines if caught practicing female circumcision. A maximum jail term of two years or a fine between $200 and $1,000 can be handed down by a judge.
The only means allowed for the process is in cases of "medical necessity." International rights groups welcomed the decision, saying it is a step in the right direction for Egypt.
The laws are enforceable immediately.
Some members of Parliament argued that the bill goes against Islamic principles and this is another attempt by the "west" to impose "its beliefs on our culture." However, most Islamic scholars welcomed the decision, saying it was long overdue to outlaw a practice that needed to be ended.
Some accounts argue that as many as 97 percent of Egyptian women have been circumcised. The practice is widespread in Upper Egyptian villages, and can often lead to death, infection and psychological trauma, Amnesty International has reported.
Previously Egyptian girls were allowed to legally marry at the age of 16.
By Joseph Mayton - AHN Middle East Correspondent
Monday, June 2, 2008
Egypt: Facebook showdown
Right now, the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is considering blocking Facebook, the social networking website that has become a popular hangout for twentysomethings worldwide and a favorite venue for Egypt's disaffected youth. The reason: In April, one group of young citizens mobilized 80,000 supporters to protest rising food prices.
Facebook networking played a crucial role in broadening support and turnout for an April 6 textile workers' strike and protest. The Egyptian government, which has governed for 25 years under emergency law and doesn't allow more than five people to gather unregistered, hit back hard, jailing young dissidents and torturing Ahmed Maher, a young activist who tried, unsuccessfully, to organize a second demonstration in early May.
Despite these setbacks, the "Facebook movement" in Egypt is significant for several reasons. First, it challenges the perception that there is no prospect for independent, secular opposition in the country. The majority of Egyptians are under 30 and have known no other ruler than Mubarak. They have not seen real political parties because the government has long restricted opposition parties and free media.
The Facebook movement engaged large numbers of youth for the first time. Second, the Web offers a safe political space -- a role the mosque has traditionally played in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood has for decades been the only viable opposition.
With Facebook, young secular people can communicate, build relationships and express their opinions freely. (Significantly, the Muslim Brotherhood opposed the successful April demonstration but supported the unsuccessful May event.) Every member in the 100,000-strong online community could be, at any given moment, a leader of a movement. Third, engaging Egypt's youth is an important item on the agenda of Mubarak's son, Gamal, as he works to gain support for his succession to power.
As a young politician, Gamal established the Future Generation Foundation in 2000, which incubated many of the current leaders of the ruling National Democratic Party and the new Cabinet. Facebook activists and their supporters should be able to turn to this group for support.
A few weeks ago, Belal Diab, a 20-year-old college student, interrupted one of the Egyptian prime minister's speeches to protest the arrests of Facebook activists, shouting: "Look who are you fighting; it is us, the younger generation who stood with you and supported you!"
Nevertheless, Facebook activists are being targeted by government-based media campaigns defaming the website and the youth activists who use it. The government also warns media not to talk about the phenomenon. I saw the heavy-handed efforts of the government while recording a TV show with Maher. During the taping, Egyptian police broke into the studio, threatened the station manager and forced the guest outside the room.
What can be done to help this movement? The international community and the U.S. government should pressure the Egyptian government to support Internet freedom and keep Facebook accessible to Egyptians. One young activist, Ahmad Samih, is campaigning to gain local and international support to prevent the Egyptian government from blocking Facebook.
So far, nearly 20 Egyptian human rights organizations are supporting this cause. International human rights organizations should publicly join in that show of support. Egyptian democrats are "Facebooking" their advocacy in order to escape heavy recriminations. It would be shameful for the international community not to stand up on their behalf against a government that seeks to deny them even that small space to express themselves.
Otherwise, Mubarak's self-fulfilling prophesy as the only alternative to the Muslim Brotherhood will continue to hold Egypt back from the democracy its people deserve.
-- Sherif Mansour, LA Times
Facebook networking played a crucial role in broadening support and turnout for an April 6 textile workers' strike and protest. The Egyptian government, which has governed for 25 years under emergency law and doesn't allow more than five people to gather unregistered, hit back hard, jailing young dissidents and torturing Ahmed Maher, a young activist who tried, unsuccessfully, to organize a second demonstration in early May.
Despite these setbacks, the "Facebook movement" in Egypt is significant for several reasons. First, it challenges the perception that there is no prospect for independent, secular opposition in the country. The majority of Egyptians are under 30 and have known no other ruler than Mubarak. They have not seen real political parties because the government has long restricted opposition parties and free media.
The Facebook movement engaged large numbers of youth for the first time. Second, the Web offers a safe political space -- a role the mosque has traditionally played in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood has for decades been the only viable opposition.
With Facebook, young secular people can communicate, build relationships and express their opinions freely. (Significantly, the Muslim Brotherhood opposed the successful April demonstration but supported the unsuccessful May event.) Every member in the 100,000-strong online community could be, at any given moment, a leader of a movement. Third, engaging Egypt's youth is an important item on the agenda of Mubarak's son, Gamal, as he works to gain support for his succession to power.
As a young politician, Gamal established the Future Generation Foundation in 2000, which incubated many of the current leaders of the ruling National Democratic Party and the new Cabinet. Facebook activists and their supporters should be able to turn to this group for support.
A few weeks ago, Belal Diab, a 20-year-old college student, interrupted one of the Egyptian prime minister's speeches to protest the arrests of Facebook activists, shouting: "Look who are you fighting; it is us, the younger generation who stood with you and supported you!"
Nevertheless, Facebook activists are being targeted by government-based media campaigns defaming the website and the youth activists who use it. The government also warns media not to talk about the phenomenon. I saw the heavy-handed efforts of the government while recording a TV show with Maher. During the taping, Egyptian police broke into the studio, threatened the station manager and forced the guest outside the room.
What can be done to help this movement? The international community and the U.S. government should pressure the Egyptian government to support Internet freedom and keep Facebook accessible to Egyptians. One young activist, Ahmad Samih, is campaigning to gain local and international support to prevent the Egyptian government from blocking Facebook.
So far, nearly 20 Egyptian human rights organizations are supporting this cause. International human rights organizations should publicly join in that show of support. Egyptian democrats are "Facebooking" their advocacy in order to escape heavy recriminations. It would be shameful for the international community not to stand up on their behalf against a government that seeks to deny them even that small space to express themselves.
Otherwise, Mubarak's self-fulfilling prophesy as the only alternative to the Muslim Brotherhood will continue to hold Egypt back from the democracy its people deserve.
-- Sherif Mansour, LA Times
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Egypt: Women's mosque row erupts
Cairo: Theologians and secularists in Egypt are up in arms over a request from women to have their own mosques.
The clergy was quick to dismiss the demand as a fad but secularists warned against turning down the proposal, saying it would strengthen the hand of religious leaders in matters of the state.
An official at the Egyptian Ministry of Waqf (Religious Endowments) said women's groups have sought a licence for female-only mosques. "We are studying the legality from the Islamic perspective," said Abdul Gafar Helal, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. But theologians are firm in their opposition. "There is no evidence in Islamic history that shows mosques were designated for women," said Mustafa Al Shaka, a member of the Islamic Research Centre, an arm of Al Azhar.'
"It is part of this rash clamour for absolute equality between men and women. It is a misleading call, which causes confusion and discord in the nation," he told Gulf News.Suad Saleh, a professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Al Azhar University, did not share Al Shaka's views.
"There is nothing in Islam that prohibits women's only mosques," Suad told Gulf News. "Nor are there restrictions on women to lead female worshippers in prayers and address them."
A famed TV preacher, she sees no harm in allowing women to have their own mosques. "There is no clear text banning this in the Quran or the Sunna," argued Suad.
Secularists in the predominantly Muslim country are appalled at the stance of theologians."This shows that Egypt is rushing headlong into becoming a religious state where clergymen will have the final say in all affairs," Abbas Khater, a writer, told Gulf News. "After the tremendous gains made by Egyptian women, the society is moving towards reviving segregation between the two sexes."
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent for Gulf News
The clergy was quick to dismiss the demand as a fad but secularists warned against turning down the proposal, saying it would strengthen the hand of religious leaders in matters of the state.
An official at the Egyptian Ministry of Waqf (Religious Endowments) said women's groups have sought a licence for female-only mosques. "We are studying the legality from the Islamic perspective," said Abdul Gafar Helal, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. But theologians are firm in their opposition. "There is no evidence in Islamic history that shows mosques were designated for women," said Mustafa Al Shaka, a member of the Islamic Research Centre, an arm of Al Azhar.'
"It is part of this rash clamour for absolute equality between men and women. It is a misleading call, which causes confusion and discord in the nation," he told Gulf News.Suad Saleh, a professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Al Azhar University, did not share Al Shaka's views.
"There is nothing in Islam that prohibits women's only mosques," Suad told Gulf News. "Nor are there restrictions on women to lead female worshippers in prayers and address them."
A famed TV preacher, she sees no harm in allowing women to have their own mosques. "There is no clear text banning this in the Quran or the Sunna," argued Suad.
Secularists in the predominantly Muslim country are appalled at the stance of theologians."This shows that Egypt is rushing headlong into becoming a religious state where clergymen will have the final say in all affairs," Abbas Khater, a writer, told Gulf News. "After the tremendous gains made by Egyptian women, the society is moving towards reviving segregation between the two sexes."
By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent for Gulf News
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