Feminism Stereotyping and the Absence of
Female
Social Leaders
**My speech in 6th EGEP Forum held by EWHA University in Seoul, South Korea 2014
Introduction
In Jan 25th 2011, Mozn Hassan, director of Nazra,
the Institute of Feminist Studies said in an interview with CNN “It’s important to give the message that
we are not afraid and we are willing to die. We will be in the front, defending
the revolution and defending other women and men.”[i]
By these sentences Mozn broke the stereotype of the
Egyptian Feminist who stands for not only women demands but her country’s. In
this study we are going to argue about the necessity of changing the strategies
and styles of the feminist movement in Egypt, a new look for the new generation
of feminist through understanding of history, studying of reality and planning
for the future.
The
Lack of Having a Strong Feminist Movement in Egypt
Nowadays,
Egypt does not have a strong feminist movement, but there are initiatives,
number of activists and organizations, some of them are active and the other are
not, but we cannot say that there is an organized feminist movement with a
clear program and its female representatives in our political parties. We face
the absence of feminist pioneers like old movements due
to the challenge of stereotype and society's perception of them. This is obvious
in the failure to achieve strategic objectives such as the position of women in
the Constitution and Parliament, systematic violence by the state, and the
increase of violence against women in the street.
The
History of Feminism in Egypt
In
the 1919 Revolution, women participated in demonstrations and strikes as the
first martyr of the revolution fell on March 14, 1919, "Ms. Hamida
Khalil.". Her martyrdom was the engine for women to demonstrate in 16March1919in
the first demonstration of 300 women leaded by Huda Shaarawi protesting on the existence
of the British occupation of Egypt, which has led to the recognition of women’s
role in the Egyptian community.
Until
1951, Egyptian women knew independently the importance of defending their
parliamentary rights, and their attempts were not based on any governmental aid.
In the beginning of the 50’s, women demonstrated under the leadership of the activist
Dorria Shafik. More than 1500 women had stormed the Egyptian parliament to
demand their full political rights, the reform of the personal status laws and
equal pay. It was the last independent women demonstration of demands before
the Coup of July 1952.[i]
In
general, from the 50’s to the 70’s there wasn’t any independent feminist
movement, but there have been attempts to keep working on women’s rights through
state institutions and independent attempts.
In the
new millennium the role of women emerged in leading the strike of the “Mahalla
Textile Company” which included 24’000 workers in December 2006. Their famous
chanting was “The women are here, where are men?!”.They were not striking as
feminist activists demanding special feminists’ demands, but striking for the
economical and social rights as workers.
Feminism
Stereotyping and the Society
The stereotype look of feminist activists is due to how the society sees them with a purely masculine look, and limits them in certain qualities like, man haters, ugly angry girls and man imitators. In addition to the inability of some feminist organizations’ leaderships to adopt new ideas, that cause the conflict between two generations. The old generation sees the young feminists a shasty precipitate generation, their only way to achieve their demands is with walking naked in the streets affected by the Egyptian activist “Aliaa El Mahdy”!
That perspective labels women everywhere negativity and denies their right to associate in public sphere and play an important role in the fields of culture, politics and the economy equally with men. The feminist movements in Egypt are working to change this situation to achieve that absent equality. On the other hand new feminist generations struggle to prove that women can change the social, economic, and political order cross teamwork, and therefore the efforts of
feminist aims to improve the status of women in society.
Departing
from the Old Framework Gives New Opportunities for Success
As we
see in the history of the female activism, the most successful icons were the
ones defending social rights that affect men and women, such as Huda Shaarawi who
defended independency and gain the women movement a lot of attraction. Because
of giving off typical framework or stereotype they achieved success, those
cadre scan influence and inspire other girls and they participate in movements for
social change, even in the revolutions, which will serve the feminist movement
as a whole.
Models
of Successful Icons from the Egyptian Revolution 2011
·
Dr. Mona Mina
Mona
Mina is described by the Egyptian press as the “Saint of the Egyptian
Revolution”[i]
not for her feminist activism but for defending human rights as whole. She was
widely known in the 18’s days of the Revolution by devoting herself to help in
treating the protesters and transferring food and medicine to the square.
Mona Mina is the founder of “Doctors without
Rights” movement, and the new Secretary General of Doctors’ Syndicate to become
the first woman in this position, since it was founded in 1949. She began her
struggle with her colleagues to demand the rights of doctors. She led many
strikes against Mubarak’s regime demanding better wages and secure hospitals.
They demanded raising the budget of the Ministry of Health to resolve the
problems of hospitals, stop repeated attacks by thugs and improving health
conditions to ensure good services to citizens. Mona also participated in the
sit-in in front of the Ministry of Health in the era of the former President
Mohamed Morsi to demand the rights of doctors. Till this day, she continues her
struggle for the right of everyone in treatment and the right of her colleagues
in a fair wage and suitable working conditions.
·
Mahinour Al-Masry
Mahinour
Al-Masry the twenty-eight-year-old Alexandrian lawyer and human rights activist
who sparks the demonstrations with her cheers. Mahinour has a history of supporting
labors rights and has been described by one of the workers as “workers’
companion." as she joined them in their sit-in in factories and supported their
dismissed colleagues. She was collecting the necessary supplies for the
protestors, and bails for the imprisoned.
In
November 2012 during the bombing of Gaza, Mahinour within 500 young people,
decided to solidarity with the Palestinian cause, went to Gaza, declared full
support for the resistance against the occupation and donated blood for the
wounded there. She was the first to open the file of Syrian refugees in Egypt
when the government decided to arrest them preparing for deportation to their
country again. Mahinour decided to go to support them and to detect the number
of detainees there.[i]
That why most of activists call her “The Butterfly of the Revolution”.
Mahinour now is imprisoned for two years with a fine
of 50’000 EGP because she demonstrated in Alexandria to reject the provisions
of the patent, which was issued in favor of the killers of the revolutionaries
on January 25th, and the killers of Khaled Said - who was killed by the police
in Alexandria after being tortured and he was the spark of the Egyptian
Revolution in 2011.
Successful
Initiatives (Girls’ Revolution – We’ll Wear Dresses – We’ll Ride Bikes).
“I'm a girl, I am a human being, I am free". This is the
motto of the page "Girls’ Revolution" on Facebook[i].
Although the Page defends female rights but when they designed their messages
they consider not to be trapped in the typical stereotype, they defended human
rights in general and asked both genders to take action.
The page
since 2011 is considered the mouthpiece of any girl calling for revolution against
all that is backward, as we are living in a society classifies people according
to their gender - male or female. The page discuss that girls are not asking
for equality with men, but for freedom of society away from the male and away from
comparing them with men all the time.
Egyptian
girls are facing a problem in wearing dresses for the fear of harassment in the
streets, and then go to wear jeans, pants and use shirts under clothing, to
change the appearance of the dress for just the fear of harassment if they revealed
their arms.
While
acknowledging the existence of harassers in the street, and the complete
disappearing of dresses – for the middle class girls– Girls’ Revolution page
announced its initiative of “We’ll Wear Dresses”. The Successful initiative encouraged
many girls to walk in the streets wearing beautiful dresses. The main goal of
the event is to encourage girls to move freely in the streets.
The page
also announced another campaign called “We’ll Ride Bikes” aiming to break the
wrong taboo “it is not right for girls to drive bicycles”. The campaign seeks
to encourage girls to break the fear of harassment that they face and prevent
them from using an easy and non-expensive ride to move freely.
New
Titles Make a Big Difference.
We learn
from history and experience that, women who defend public causes in a new
language and out of the old framework success. This is what the feminist
movement in Egypt needs to get out of the cocoon of stereotypes. In the coming
paragraphs, we will discuss two types of female activism need to shed light on
as they empower women in many ways.
Female
Entrepreneurs.
Condemning
that women are not efficient enough allows the society to exploit them through
the market, it is not easily claiming their un-efficiency. Much has been said
about the role of women as wives and mothers aiming to put them to work at home
without payment for their efforts and time. We do not exaggerate if we say that
the reason of most of the issues and problems of the Egyptian woman is due
economic reasons. Women’s economic independence is the way to solve most of
their problems. Not to mention their freedom in decision-making
We used in Egypt to see pioneer women, as the
idea of leadership originates from the need. Such as that woman who sells
vegetables is peeling and packaging those vegetables to develop her work. There
are mounting number of women who had decided to crack their way in the field of
entrepreneurship in recent years with the spread of the Internet and the
emergence of project-based work from home. New opportunities for women to break
into the areas that were dominated by men in the past - have encouraged
millions of women to seize those opportunities. Women rights organization
should highlight the work and efforts of female entrepreneurs as a source of
inspiration for women to gain financial independency.
Egyptian
Females on YouTube.
· The Absence of the feminist press
It
is true that there are hesitant feminist attempts to write, but the feminist
movements in Egypt lack the Feminist Press and the presence of non-traditional
channels to reach the wider public of Egyptian women, in the same time a number
of girls appeared on the scene of YouTube, expressing the problems of society. Such
as;
·
Salma El-Dali, TV Presenter
Salma
graduated from College of Mass Media and got a master's degree from USA. She
started to record several video clips on YouTube[i],
addressing the political situation in Egypt, and that was her beginning with
the satire media. This caused many problems for her with the state security.
Those YouTube episodes made very high view rates; some of them exceeded a
million views!
That
encourages her to start her first TV program “The Advisor” to criticize the
poor conditions suffered by the Egyptian people from the government; she discussed,
for example, the problem of cars theft, and hosted a real thief and a real
police officer. She was so bold to discuss the poor quality of the English
language for the former President Mohamed Morsi.
·
Mayam Mahmoud, Egyptian Female Rapper[i]
Mayam Mahmoud,
an economics undergraduate from Cairo. The 18-year-old female rapper chose her
work to be focused on sexual harassment, as an endemic problem in Egypt. Her songs tackle harassment and victim-blaming head-on – condemning Egyptian society for accepting
harassment as part of everyday life, and for laying the blame for it on women
rather than men. Mayam believes that the problem can only be tackled if women
call out harassers in the street, and she hopes her rapping will encourage
others to follow her lead. Women often choose to stay silent in case as they
were told that it’s their entire fault. "I won't be the shamed one,"
she says in one of her raps.[ii]She
believes that every time we don't say anything, we make the problem bigger. Mayam
is one of the girls who chose to think outside of the box and used her talent
as a rapper to solve the harassment problem.
New
Generation of Female Civil Activists.
Feminist
organizations have to shed the light into new types of activism. They should
care more about political, human rights and development female activists, who
work on creating new reality for the whole society. These activists will
provide better ideals for young girls and force the society to respect women
and their rights, also encourage women to demand their rights. They should
encourage them not only for being women but also for being successful models in
their fields. History of feminism in Egypt declares that the commitment to the
traditional form or stereotype make all of these efforts are wasted in vain.
Conclusion.
Women should
be in the centre of the activity not the centre of the cause, by highlighting
the successful female leadership in political, human rights, development,
entrepreneurs and social media fields. We are giving here an example for women to
follow, to take action and take the rights back with their hands, their civil
rights, economic freedom and the freedom of expression and this will force
society to respect and cherish females.
The Dictionary defines feminist as "an
advocate of social, political, legal, and economic rights for women equal to
those of men”[i].Our
strategic goal should be to change this definition in both the dictionary and
minds to become; Feminism is “a progressive movement that defends equality in
the society”.
[i]Mayam Mahmoud, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4QLX4eRXY4l0IbUGKOwasQ
[ii]Patrick Kingsley, “Rapper Mayam Mahmoud
challenges Egyptian expectations of veiled women”, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/01/egypt-rapper-mayam-mahmoud
[i] Salma El-
Dali,https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUbHBSwM3Oi_7IWKbLUgXwA
[i]Girls’ Revolutions, https://www.facebook.com/EgyGirlsRev
[i] Mohammed Morsi,
“Mahinour, the Companion Who Taught Me” http://revsoc.me/politics/28338/
[i] Dr. SanaaMounir, “Basic
features of feminist movement in Egypt (Part I)” http://alfalq.com/?p=1509
[i] Pete Ramand and Mahmoud Mahdy , “Feminism,
Muslim women and the Egyptian Revolution” http://internationalsocialist.org.uk/index.php/2012/03/feminism-muslim-women-and-the-egyptian-revolution/
