Reclaiming the Revolution: Women in Cairo Refuse to Be Sidelined

A predawn raid today increased clashes between the military and civilian populations in Egypt, triggering women in Cairo to mobilize around the ongoing violence which in recent days has targeted women.

This week horrifying images of just how brutal the military can be towards women went viral. The video showing military police dragging a woman wearing a hijab through the street, beating her senseless, then stomping on her stomach, her bright blue bra exposed as she lay motionless on the street defines the struggle of the Egyptian people. Protesters held up signs with her images, chanting warnings such as, "This is the army that is protecting us!"

CNN reports that several hundred women kicked off a "Million Woman" march to expose the military's sexual violence against female demonstrators. Protesters held up pictures of women, elderly people and teenagers who had been beaten up by the police, demanding a regime change. Many men even formed a protective circle around female marchers so they would not be assaulted.

There is a reason why Time magazine picked the protester as its Person of the Year. There is a reason why the image of the protester on its cover is that of a woman. Since the Arab Spring, it has been women, from Iran to Saudi Arabia to Egypt, who have not only been on the front-lines of the protests, demanding more rights, but also shaping their country's revolutions.

The problem is not with getting women on the streets during these times of passionate protests, but keeping them there. It is after the euphoria fades, after the dictator is placed in custody when the political blueprint of a country is being determined that women are nowhere to be heard.

We repeatedly see this. From Bangladesh's '71 War of Independence, to Iran in '79, to Libya, and all over the Middle East today, where are the women when it comes to forming the new government?

What Egyptian women are showing us today is truly revolutionary because they are refusing to be sidelined in determining the future of their country. They were and are a part of Egypt's revolution. Social media and the Internet are women's weapons to ensure their voices will not be silenced.

If the image of the woman in her blue bra being stomped senseless on the streets of Cairo shows us anything, it is that this revolution is being televised, and the world is watching. Egyptian women are showing us that without women, and without women's rights, no country can become a real democracy.

Cross-Posted from Anushay's Point. Become a Fan on Facebook.

 

Follow Anushay Hossain on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AnushaysPoint

Comments

[see-ellen2001]

08:23 PM on 12/21/2011

We are thinking of you and your great courage, our Egyptian sisters.

[Angelaaaa]

07:02 PM on 12/21/2011

And thank goodness for modern communications technology that ensure we (and they) can actually see what is REALLY going on. In the past, such activist women were easily denigrated and victimized, through determined institutional denial and stonewalling. They almost certainly would have been subject to further community punishment for their supposed "immorality". Even their own families may have harbored doubts.

But no longer. Hopefully, it is getting harder to be a tyrant and get away with secret acts of oppression.

[Sheldon archer]

06:55 PM on 12/21/2011

Great but unfortunately if the radical Muslims get in power, you will see no womens' rights there.

[kilthistle]

06:08 PM on 12/21/2011

The raw determination and limitless courage of these Egyptian women protesters, gives proof to the saying, "Women hold up half the sky!"

What an inspiration.

[2083]

04:10 PM on 12/21/2011

I bet that's how Shirin Ebadi felt in 1979.

[Norm]

04:07 PM on 12/21/2011

I'm a woman. The image of the woman on the street broke my heart: They injured her and they shamed her. On purpose. I applaud the courage of all those women who took to the streets to protest.