Tahrir Square was dubbed the symbol of Egypt’s newfound freedom after an 18-day protest toppled the government and shook the Arab world in February. This week we learned that the freedom was not evenly distributed: 18 women were subjected to so-called virginity tests in the same square a few weeks later.
Women played a central part in the Egyptian revolution – they mixed freely with men and either played their part by lobbing molotov cocktails or simply bringing in food and supplies under commonly seen black burqas. Their loud and cheerful presence was heralded as a coming of age for feminism in the region.
Ever since those heady days, the sense of equality and euphoria has been subsiding. This Saturday the Alliance for Arab Women is to launch a manifesto demanding equality in front of an estimated 3,000 women at a conference in Cairo. They have been moved to action by many things; the fact there are no women in any of the committees framing the new constitution and attacks such as that on International Women’s Day in March among them.
The extent of the prevailing attitudes were evident in the admission of the “virginity tests” by an army general. This man, who preferred to remain anonymous for some reason, told CNN that these “virginity tests” had been carried out to prevent any of the 18 women claiming sexual assault.“We didn’t want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren’t virgins in the first place,” he said. “None of them were [virgins].” So only virgins can be raped?
He went on that the women involved were “were not like your daughter or mine . . . these were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found . . . molotov cocktails and [drugs]”.
Perhaps it’s too much to ask for one revolution to overturn entrenched attitudes such as these but real change will only come if the law is changed. OK, Amnesty International suggests that female genital mutilation is still carried out on about 74% of girls in Egypt, despite it being against the law – but this is an opportunity for real change. The new manifesto wants women’s human rights included in the new constitution and a secular state, more women to get the ID necessary to allow them to vote and more effort to support women standing in September’s election.
But why are foreign governments not yet helping? Last week, the government announced a new wave of funding for the Arab Partnership fund, pledging £110m as part of the “UK’s initiative to shape policy and strengthen support to those in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa seeking more open and plural societies”. Women weren’t even mentioned.
After the limited success in Afghanistan let’s hope that this money, and more from other western governments, can be used to encourage equal rights. There’s a long way to go before women can claim true equality in Egypt and other parts of the Arab world. But if Tahrir Square is to be its symbol, those 18 days will have to be more significant in the longer term than the 18 victims of virginity tests.
Courtesy: guardian.co.uk