To celebrate International Women’s Day, hundreds of Egyptian women dared to stand together in Tahrir Square and demand equal rights and an end to sexual harassment. But men, who so recently demanded their own freedom, turned on the women, shoved and heckled them, and ordered them back home “where they belonged.” So many men joined in that they quickly outnumbered the women and chased them away.
My mind went back to my last visit to Egypt three years ago. I was in Cairo alone, staying in a lovely old hotel across an extremely busy street from the Nile River. I so wanted to cross over and take some pictures, but the traffic never
slowed. People ran across, darted through the honking, careening cars and hoped for the best. Just as I was ready to forget the Nile picture-taking, a man in long robes stopped and asked if I wanted to cross. I told him I did. Clinging to the back of his robe, I darted through that endless stream of roaring cars.
On the other side, the man said, “You can’t be here alone. I’ll stay with you until you see the Nile and take your pictures. Then I’ll take you back across to your hotel.”
Foolish me! I’d never thought about how I would get back across. Even worse, I had no idea how dangerous it was for a woman to be out on the street alone.
Those Egyptian women have plenty of reason to protest their plight. Sexual harassment is rampant in Egypt. A 2008 survey conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights found that 83% of Egyptian women and a full 98% of foreign women said they had been harassed. And get this: 62% of the men unabashedly admitted to harassing.
Women seldom report the assaults, though. Family shame. Stigma. A culture of acceptance of a woman’s lot in life.
I was in Egypt doing research for a book I was writing with Michele Rickett, Forgotten Girls: Stories of Hope and Courage. I was to review a revolutionary program there that teaches young girls to respect themselves and to stand up and say no to sexual harassment. The program is even working with young boys, teaching them to respect girls and women. The program has been well received by the younger generation.
It just may be that next March on International Women’s Day, Tahrir Square will see a much larger demonstration of more determined women. And maybe the men will not be quite so quick to run them off.
Maybe.
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If my husband would talk and listen I wouldn't be chatting with another man.
I'm looking for a sports bra that doesn't flatten. Any suggestions?
I got before and after pics copied and pasted in the reply box and tried to post, but the only things that shows up is the text I typed, not the photos.
There’s hypocrisy in allowing women to demonstrate openly for democratic reforms and then condemning them for wanting human rights. Posts like this remind me that the freedom I enjoy so blithely and take for granted are not part of all women’s experience. These women must feel betrayed and oppressed. My heart aches for them.
So true, Granny!
I’m amening GL’ post. We’ve been studying Susan B. Anthony and my students were stunned that women couldn’t vote. Then they did the math and discovered that it wasn’t that long ago. We still have a long way to go.
I was in high school when I discovered that women first got to vote in this country in 1920–the year my mother was born. I was absolutley shocked! Something that seemed so basic to me was so relatively recent. We’ve come a long way, Baby, but–oh, yes!–we still have a looooong way to go!
Kay, It’s going to be a hard won fight…TRACK
United States
In the United States, yes. The Nineteenth Amendment ratified on August 18, 1920 gave all women the right to vote. The Fifteenth Amendment ratified on February 3, 1870 had given African American men the right to vote. However, poll taxes, literacy tests, threats, refusal to allow voter registration and other obstacles in the Southern States prevented African Americans from exercising that right for almost one hundred years.
The United States is not fair either…
South Africa
White women were given the right to vote in 1930, but black women were not given the right to vote until the end of apartheid in 1994.
The Women of the World must Stand!
You are right, Track. It’s a process–a slow and shameful one. Which is why I applaud women such as those in Egypt who risk so much to protest. That’s the way change has come in this country. We must keep up the fight.
I think that (we as women) can never be free until ALL of our sister are free.
Yes! It is not a question of either/or. It is a question of freedom/bondage.