{"id":1116,"date":"2011-12-29T18:42:03","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T18:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/enas\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2011-12-29T18:42:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-29T18:42:03","slug":"the-status-of-egyptian-women-in-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ecwronline.org\/?p=1116&lang=ar","title":{"rendered":"The Status of Egyptian Women in 2011"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Egyptian Women between the Wings of the Revolution and Stripping the Reality<\/strong>
\nEdited by Nehad Aboul Komsan, Chair of ECWR – Prepared by ECWR Research Unit<\/p>\n

Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice were the key words of the 25th of January 2011 Revolution, which was started by the Egyptian youth and later joined by the men and women from all layers of society and walks of life. The Egyptian women in particular amazed the world.
\nThey used social media to spread the word and call people to join the revolution. They participated in protests, often assuming leadership positions despite often instable and dangerous situations. In the revolution\u2019s squares, women\u2019s attendance was overwhelming, where there were cases of women leading with men following. The women participated in
\nthe security of the public committees and volunteered in the field hospitals, expressing their deep dedication to restoring Egypt\u2019s freedom and dignity. During January and February, the number of female martyrs reached 15.
\nThe Egyptian women participated in the various marches in the consecutive waves of the Egyptian revolution, aimed at preserving the spirit of the revolution.
\nThe women suffered great amount of violence but never lost their dedication to the concerns of this nation and hope for better future of the Egyptian people.
\nThe revolution has the potential to break the cultural barriers by creating opportunities for the Egyptian women to change the traditional understanding of the gender roles that has seen them as passive observers rather than active participants and with that change the perception of the nation and the world.
\nThe Egyptian revolution contributed to returning the civilized and humane image of the
\nMuslim and Arab women in the world, aimed at breaking the stereotypical image of the crushed Muslim women who hid in black clothes (Abaya) behind a man with a white robe.
\nThe Egyptian woman changed the image by herself on the top of list of the most successful women in the world, and honor that has been granted to only few women of the first world and only few women of the \u201ca developing world\u201d have ever been represented.
\nIn the occasion of the International Women\u2019s Day, the American magazine \u201cNewsWeek\u201d announced a list of 150 women form different countries in the world, described as \u201cWomen that moved the world\u201d. An international conference was organized from the 10th to 12th of March, 2011 in order to honor these women. This list included four Egyptian women: Dr. Nawal El-Sa\u2019adawy, the female activist, media professional Gamila Ismail, the female activist Salma Sa\u2019aid ,who participated in succession of the 25th January, 2011 revolution and the female activist Dalia Zeyada.
\nOn the occasion of the International Women\u2019s Day, the British magazine \u201cGardian\u201d ranked Dr. Nawal El-Sa\u2019adawy as the 16th most important 100 female activist in the world. While
\nthe \u201cArabian Business\u201d magazine placed Isra\u2019a Abdelfatah, the female Egyptian activist of
\nthe 6th of April movement on the list of 100 most influential women in the Arab World.
\nThe \u201cArabian Business\u201d magazine recognized Dr. Dalia Mogahed, Egyptian decanted advisor to the U.S President Barack Obama on the Islamic affairs and Muslim community, as the third most influential Arab women in the world out 100.
\nThe magazine explained the crucial importance of the Dr. Mogahed\u2019s role in closing the gap between the West and the Muslims countries, by presenting their traditions and the
\nconcepts that important to their communities.
\nThe EU parliament honored Asmaa Mahfouz and four other activists of the Arab spring with Sakharov prize, which yearly awarded for dedication to the freedom of thinking. It is
\nconsidered to be one of the most important international prizes in the field of human rights.
\nThe Egyptian women were presented on the cover pages in the newspapers and world
\nmagazine from the beginning of the year as the revolutionaries. Ironically, the Egyptian
\nwomen once again the end of the year was marked with pictures of a young female\u2019s
\nprotestor\u2019s body being dragged naked on the ground, a photo that summed the grim reality
\nthat the Egyptian women live in.
\nAmong the cover pages of the newspapers and magazines in the beginning of the year and
\ntheir cover pages in its end, the Egyptian women suffered from the intentional exclusion as a systematic policy to the governments of the post-revolution, the revolution that carved the word \u201cEl- Tahrir Square\u201d in all world languages by the Arab words as a synonyms to \u201cthe freedom, justice, and equality\u201d.
\nIs it comes into the Egyptian women\u2019 mind that her situation after revolution will contrary to what she came out of it?!
\nIs El-Tahrir Square will remain a synonym to \u201cthe freedom, justice, and equality\u201d?!
\nOr the revolution will eat \/sacrifice its children and the forefront of them the women?!
\nIn 2011, the Egyptian women has excluded intentionally not only in the political scene, but
\nfrom the Egyptian scene in general, The exclusion of women from the leadership positions,
\nwas confined to the ministries of the revolution on a small number of women, the two
\nministries of Dr. Essam Sharaf included one woman in each, while the Ministry of National Salvation headed by Dr. Kamal el Ganzory included three women.
\nThe women excluded from the important positions like the governor and the constitution
\namendments committee even the discussion on the amendments of the law of parliament
\nand Shura council , the law of dividing the constituencies which attended by not exceeded
\nthe fingers of one hand within tens of men, who is their decision was disappointing, for
\nexample the law of dividing the consequences has greatly expanded in the constituencies
\nwhich causing a great difficulty in the election propaganda, and in the Law of parliament and Shura council canceled the 64 sites which was for women and provided that the list has to included at least one women on each list, but the new law didn\u2019t specify the place of
\nwomen on the lists; which led to most of the political forces to put women in a late position
\non their lists, So the successful didn\u2019t exceed the number of fingers of the hand.
\nWhile the female activists received no small share of the violations of their human rights and their rights in freedom of participate and express their opinion; also Egypt has witnessed for the first time from the military to detect the virginity of the female activists as well as the assault and torture , assignment to military trials and the civil and military Investigations.
\nThis exclusion was accompanied by a hatred campaign to change the Personal Status Code
\nwhich some of its articles have equitable for the Egyptian women, in addition to the claims
\nof the fundamentalist currents, that rose rapidly after the revolution, demanding the return of women to the home and reduce their participation in the society. These claims rose up in the same time of ignoring and ignorance that the return of women to their houses will cause of 32 of Egyptian families which is household by women will day of starvation and setback to the Egyptian economy whereas women represent 23.2% of the official workforce and 70% of the worksorce of the marginal sector.
\nThe ECWR\u2019s report of The 2011 Egyptian Women\u2019s Status addressed the different levels of
\nwomen\u2019s situation as follows:<\/p>\n