The Aftermath of the Women’s March in Egypt
March 11, 2011
by Bruce Nahin
|The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
On Tuesday, women in Egypt took to the streets to celebrate INTERNATIONAL WOMAN’S DAY, and presumably their male counterparts, the ones who celebrated with then at the fall of Murbark, were to join them to celebrate “ democracy coming to Egypt”… So what happened? Did they meet with unity and celebration by their male counterpart? Hardly- they were met with hackles, verbal assaults and shades of Lara Logan, physical and sexual assaults. More than 200 men charged on the women – forcing some to the ground, dragging others out of the crowd, groping and sexually harassing them as police and military figures stood by and failed to act.
The female demonstrators had been protesting against Egypt’s chronic sexual harassment problem, against the many barriers women face in public life, and against the pervasive conservatism that curtails the freedom of women in society at large. The women chanted slogans that had been used in the revolution itself, calling for freedom, justice and equality. But their demonstration quickly attracted a counter-protest. The women’s chants calling for an “Egypt for all Egyptians” were drowned out by retaliations such as “No to freedom!” shouted by the opposing group. The men charged at the female protesters, who had been standing on a raised platform in the middle of Tahrir Square.
Women have a right to participate in Egyptian society as equals – and the revolution will have achieved nothing if it does not recognize the basic right of the Egyptian women to exist, to demonstrate, to work, to live and walk the streets with dignity.
So much for the message of equality. During the “joyus celebration of freedom” women took to the streets along with their male counterparts and some saw this a a foretaste of a new era for women in Egypt… In my last column I stated : The attacks on Ms Logan was “regretably the rule not the exception…”… the rule definitely.
Further Reading:
Egypt’s Women Take to the Streets
A Long Battle Ahead for Egyptian Women
I have always thought that all this freedom and glorious revolution talk was a bunch of hype. This was nothing but throwing out an old dictator who was perceived as weakened by age for a new dictator who is strong enough to hold on for awhile who will be thrown out by another young dictator when he ages out of the job. Our misogynist Corporate media is too stupid to recognize reality. They are perfectly will to celebrate a new “democracy” where 52% of the adult population can’t participate.
Bes,
It’s not because the misogynist media is “stupid”, it’s by “design.” Like their male counterparts in the mideast, our American misogynists have no intention of allowing women to participate equally in how they live and are governed neither here nor there.
We can crow about how much better we have it here than these courageous women have in the mideast, Africa, etc., but considering we are the U.S. of A., you’d think women would have come much further than they have.
Hillary puts it in perspective and I’m paraphrasing: “women’s rights are the incomplete project of the 21st century…”
She said it much better, but the point is that women’s rights should be on the front burner, not hidden away and referred to like a “pet project” by men.
well said Bes
our own young guys with exception of Bruce are silencing the Egyption women’s aspirations.
marille “young guys…” why thank you
This is why I think Corporate Media needs to be destroyed by giving women the consumer rights to choose only the channels they want to pay for and making it so no one can send anything over a cable connection you pay to rent without your permission. That would drive most of the woman mocking crap channels who spread lies out of existence as no one would willing pay for their crap.
What we have to do since we have some free speech rights here in the USA is continue to talk about how the glorious revolution is nothing but the same old shit, real Democracy includes women and glacial progress is no progress. Men won’t like women having rights? well to F’ing bad we don’t like the current situation and we are the majority so they need to get over it and I mean NOW. We have to keep exposing their hypocrisy and failures. Because the Corporate Media men and their captive female talking heads will cover up any failure of the revolution to keep the romantic revolution schlock alive. Sort of like people in alcoholic families lie about their family life to make it seem normal. Really, liberal Dem women are like a bunch of alcoholics wives. Never tell the truth because you have to keep up appearances.
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