Anushay Hossain2013-05-19T04:49:46-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=anushay-hossainCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Anushay HossainGood old fashioned elbow grease.Media Blackout: Why Is the World Not Acknowledging Shahbagh?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.27182682013-02-20T17:51:09-05:002013-04-22T05:12:01-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/
At the age of 18 years when I went abroad for college, I discovered that Bangladesh was famous, at least in Charlottesville, Virginia: Famous for floods, cyclones, crippling poverty and dying children.
Now as a long-time resident of the States, I have found that Bangladesh is upheld as an ideal when it comes to development indicators such as reducing maternal mortality ratios, and allowing women to enter the workforce en masse, particularly in our garment sector.
Speaking of the garments sector, there is apparently nothing the international media loves more, when it comes to Bangladesh, than factory fires that unfortunately almost regularly sweep through the country. Just look at the example of Tazreen Garments. Late last year when the story broke that major U.S. chains, such as Walmart, manufacture their clothes in cheap labor factories tucked away in the outskirts of Dhaka, the Western press could not get enough.
This story about lack, or absolute absence, of fire safety measures in Bangladeshi garment factories, killing thousands of poor Bangladeshi workers almost annually, was gobbled up by the media. Not a day could go by when the Tazreen garment factory story was not mentioned in the news, and even major American outlets such as ABC and NBC were providing wall to wall coverage on the incident.
Is the West then only interested in press that perpetuates stereotypes of the 'poor, brown, exploited worker'? Do they not want to hear when we rise up against religious extremism? Why then when the Shahbagh story is unfolding before the world's eyes, the international media is looking away? Writer, Kachin Gupta ponders:
Something remarkable is happening in Bangladesh which has gone under-reported, if not unnoticed, by newspapers and news television channels. What is a pity and a shame is that the international media, which goes into overdrive if 10 people gather at Tahrir Square or a bunch of lazy layabouts decide to 'occupy' Wall Street, has missed a story that tells more than one unfolding tale in a country with a bitter past and an uncertain future, a nation whose blood-soaked birth is unparalleled in recent history.
Many experts even state that the gathering in the heart of the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka is a "social revolution akin to the French Revolution." For over two weeks, thousands of Bangladeshi youths, organised largely by online activists and bloggers, have been leading a non-violent movement to deny religious fundamentalism a place in mainstream politics, demand death penalty for war criminals, and ban the student arm of the country's largest fundamentalist party. Bangladeshi writer, Saad Z. Hossain explains what makes the protests in Bangladesh so genuine:
...The significance of Shahbagh is that ordinary people have taken to the streets after a long, long time. This is not about legal arguments, or capital punishment morality, or political manoeuvring towards future elections. I believe deep inside, this is a visceral rejection of fundamentalism, and the end game which Jamaat brings to the table. On some level I think people realize that there is no room for us in the kind of world they want to build. Our people are secular at heart. Our women work. We love music, and dancing. We care about literature, and language. Even with thousands in Shahbagh chanting for death, there is, inevitably, pockets of song and dance and plays, outbursts of the sentimentality which is our national character. We were never meant to be a fundamentalist state. This Jamaat thing is alien, even when perpetrated on us by some of our own. Shahbagh is the silent majority rising up against the use of religion to bully, the issuing of bewildering fatwas, the adoption of Arab dress and Arab ways, the blatant distortion of the past, the peculiar assault on our culture.
The biggest story of an organic movement to resoundingly choose secularism over Islamic extremism is happening in one of the world's largest Muslim democracies, so why is the world not acknowledging Shahbagh? Why does the majority of international media continue to either ignore the swelling numbers of ordinary Bangladeshis joining the movement, or still wrongly label the gathering in Shahbagh, and across the country, as mass demands for capital punishment? Why as a blogger, and main leader of Shahbagh was hacked to death outside his home, and why as the Government looks to ban the country's largest fundamentalist party, is the world not paying attention to Bangladesh?
While in America it is sadly quite normal to have the press cover stories of hurricanes and lost pets over major stories happening in the rest of the world, sometimes even in place of wars, it is shocking to see the major global networks overlook Bangladesh's cultural revolution. Is it because the world is confused by a Muslim country rejecting outright the mullahs and war criminals who have eaten away at our society? Can the Western press only make sense of our movements when we are storming the streets demanding higher wages, or when we're running around as paid political stooges? Why is the media intentionally missing out?
Perhaps they cannot make sense of Shabagh because it smashes any stereotypes or prejudices the rest of the world may hold about poor, Muslim, 'developing' nations. Or perhaps they don't want to hear our call for justice, real democracy, and secular government.
Whatever shape Shahbagh takes, it is clear that, in the words of famous poet, Gil Scot Heron, this revolution will not be televised, because the world is busy watching other channels.
For now, at least.
Cross-posted from BDNews24.com]]>Beyond Partisan Politics: Bangladesh Protests for Justicetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.26530722013-02-11T12:33:52-05:002013-04-13T05:12:01-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/transformed into a tangible human ocean this week as ordinary Bangladeshis joined in solidarity to demand the death penalty for the leader of the country's largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, well-known war-criminal, Abdul Quader Mollah.
His sentencing earlier in the week to life in prison triggered Bangladeshis to put aside their political differences, and unite as countrymen & women against Mollah who was convicted, and sentenced to life in prison for a series of killings during the country's 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
A comment posted on the Washington Post captures the non-partisan spirit and frustration of an entire nation:
We are not any political party. We do not represent anyone except of Bangladesh! It has been more than 40 years we are waiting for this verdict. We are protesting because if we can't punish murderers like "Kader Molla" who has direct charges of killing nearly 400 people, the sacrifice of 3 million martyrs won't worth [sic]. It's not a political issue. It's an issue of every single person of Bangladesh who loves this country...We are not politicians. We are the students, fathers-mothers, and generation of "freedom fighters"! We want justice.
A fellow Bangladeshi journalist and friend in Dhaka further articulates the power of these protests, but warns against the country's War Crimes Tribunals being used for political theater and retaliation:
...For me, the demons these trials will slay in terms of Bangladesh's own history are far greater than the few they may spawn. Nonetheless, I admit that I'm plagued by fears that the war crimes trials could become yet another source of cheap political polarization in Bangladesh. At Shahbagh though, I saw the opposite. It was ordinary citizens on the streets voicing their demands for justice, and the movement transcended the pedestrian, party-political, Bangladesh National Party (BNP) versus Awami League framework. It was exhilarating to be a part of that consciousness.
Protests continued into the fourth day, gaining strength by the hour. Although initially started by the Bloggers and Online Activist Network, it quickly became a "people's movement," as ordinary citizens took the streets.
Trying to gage the emotion, and somehow partake in what is clearly a historic moment in Dhaka as a Bangladeshi abroad is both frustrating and exhilarating. Your friend's Twitter & Facebook feeds keep you updated, yet angers you simultaneously for not being in your country right now. Perhaps like me, you feel like you are missing out.
Whatever your sentiments, one thing we must not be is dismissive or apathetic about what is happening in Bangladesh right now. When was the last time you saw all Bangladeshis come together for the same cause? I do not think in my lifetime I have ever witnessed people spill onto the streets for anything not somehow related to Awami League or BNP-led demonstrations or strikes. I do not think I have ever seen an on-going protest of this magnitude in Bangladesh ever that was not partisan.
The involvement not only of online activists and bloggers, but of the Bangladeshi youth also speaks volumes, and gives these protests credibility while dispelling myths about the younger generation not having interest in the country's future.
Cynics who laugh off what is happening in Shahbagh as a "wannabe Tahrir Square," cannot ignore the masses. The sheer number of people that have come out cannot be dismissed. When people come in droves like this, you have to listen to what they are saying. You do not have to agree, but you have to hear them. You just cannot ignore the numbers, or the echoing spirit of 1971, as Mili Rahman, widow of Birshrestha Matiur Rahman, told the crowds:
This is another 1971. Today we are united in voicing our single demand. We freed the country in 1971 and today you will free it once again from Razakars.... None can hold us back.
As protests show no signs of dying down anytime soon, let us join together, Bangladeshis in Shabagh and all over the word, to make sure that after waiting for four decades, justice is finally delivered, and the memory of our martyrs is honored.
Cross-Posted From BDNews.]]>India's Tipping Point: Death of Rape Victim Sparks Global Outragetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.24032552013-01-04T15:01:50-05:002013-03-06T05:12:01-05:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/prompted outrage and horror around the world. The physiotherapy student was tortured and raped by a group of six men on Dec. 16 armed with a metal bar on a private bus in New Delhi. She died from her injuries in a Singapore hospital on Saturday. Tuesday morning, as per Hindu custom, the ashes from her cremated body were scattered in the Ganges River.
Police have detained five men and a teenager, and are seeking the death penalty against the accused. The woman was raped for nearly an hour before a metal rod was pushed inside her, critically damaging her internal organs.
The incident has sparked marches across India where a woman is estimated to be raped every 20 minutes, with Delhi being labeled the "rape capital" of the country. Huge protests and demonstrations voiced people's anger against the treatment of women in India, demanding tougher laws on violence against women.
The death of the young woman has become a rallying cry against the violence all Indian women face in society despite making huge economic and social strides. The 23-year-old's death symbolizes a clash between the India which has the highest number of women in local government, and the India with the world's largest coerced prostitution rates.
The dichotomy is fascinating because it exposes a country in which women simultaneously have so much and so little power. India is a country where women are worshiped as goddesses, celebrated as prime ministers, yet also raped to death on public transportation.
Why is violence against women so pervasive in the world's largest democracy? In The Hindu, author Ratna Kapur tries to offer Indian men's "sense of displacement" as an explanation for the violence:
... What is the anger that motivates this level of violence? Is the sight of a young smartly-dressed educated female professional generating a sense of displacement in men? Over the past several decades, women's rights have proliferated and they are claiming their subjectivity, asserting their identity as women as opposed to being someone's wife, daughter or sister. And with the opening up of the market, women are more visible in the workplace. That they are entering male bastions of power has challenged the sense of superiority and entitlement of the traditional Indian male ... This idea of a woman as a fully formed human subject remains a difficult concept to embrace.
As a Bangladeshi, I can understand this "sense of displacement" men may feel especially when they are not used to seeing women in the public sphere. But I am also fed up with us excusing men. You feel threatened by women accessing education, asserting their rights as human beings so you rape them with a metal rod? You rape them until their intestines come out? You throw her body from the bus and leave her for dead?
Violence against women and girls, in India and around the world, must stop. There is no point of stacking our government with women, letting them run our country and worshiping them as religious deities if they are not safe on our streets, if they are killed at birth for being born girls.
When I think of the pure torture this young woman went though in the last hours of her life, when I force myself to look at her picture before and after her attack, all I can think is that she looks like me. She looks like my sister. She looks like my daughter. She could be in my family. As a South Asian woman, I hang my head in horror because although I know this rape happened in India, I can only imagine how many similar incidents are going unreported right next door in Bangladesh.
We as an international community need to say "No" to the violence, just as Indian society is clearly doing. But we also need to stop the excuses. It is 2013 and women in India and around the world are only going to get more educated, more powerful.
People need to get used to it. Men need to get used to it. It is just a fact of life that from India to Indiana, women are only going to become more prosperous. It is the natural progression for a sex that has been denied their health and rights for centuries. Women around the world will continue their climb upwards, and men need to stop using violence as a means of holding us back.]]>The Silence of a Laureatetag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19626142012-10-19T13:56:52-04:002012-12-19T05:12:01-05:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/
I just could not wrap my head around what kind of threat a tiny woman--with her iconic bright and colorful flowers carefully tucked behind her ear--posed to these big men with guns. Clearly the military's worries went beyond what Suu Kyi represented to them physically. This woman personified the heart and the spirit of the long winding road that Burma has tread to democracy.
In my adult years, Suu Kyi's imprisonment lasted well over a decade. Forced to be a prisoner in her own home, Suu Kyi is known worldwide as a champion for the core principles of democracy. Nobody embodied the fight for a people to choose their government the way she did. And it is clear that "The Lady" is not done fighting after her much awaited release in 2010, declaring recently her willingness to run for Burma's presidency: "... As a political party leader, I also have to have the courage to be president."
Suu Kyi went on to state that her political party would work to remove an existing clause in the Burmese constitution barring her from the presidency. Her words signal a new era in a country that is still waking up from the tight grip of five decades of military rule.
Could anything be more politically dramatic than watching her take the place of the very regime that placed her under arrest, separated her from her family and barred her from taking office even after winning landslide elections? She is arguably one of the most romanticized political figures of modern times.
However, it is what Suu Kyi is not saying that may be the most telling of the kind of leader she would be. In reality, how will "The Lady" rule? Burma's ethnic minorities may hold some clues.
This summer, ongoing tension between Burma's Muslim population, the Rohingyas, who are denied citizenship and legal rights by the government, reached new heights as social media helped propel the issue to global attention.
Religious and ethnic violence displaced almost 80,000 people from their homes beginning in June, and to make matters worse, neighboring Bangladesh has closed off entry of Rohingya refugees fleeing the violence in Burma.
Burma's president suggested that the Muslim minority should be physically moved out of the country, while the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, declared that Bangladesh cannot help the Rohingyas. Bangladesh has even shut off foreign NGOs from being able to assist the thousands of people trapped between two countries, in desperate need of food and medical services.
But it is Suu Kyi's silence on this issue that is particularly deafening. How can a woman the world has watched fight for her people against the might of a military junta for decades not have a word to say when an entire section of her country's population is being violently attacked? It is shocking to say the least. It also makes us ponder what kind of leader Suu Kyi will be.
Why is the world being silent about Suu Kyi's silence? This is where the politics gets personal and begins to implicate all of us. When I first mentioned that I wanted to write about how Suu Kyi has failed the Rohingyas, many people were shocked that I would "attack" a woman the world holds so dear. No one wants to hear anything bad about Suu Kyi. We clearly have idolized this woman to the point of no return. We want to believe that the fight she waged for a "free" Burma includes the Rohingya people as well.
The lesson is that, when it comes to women in positions of power, we still tend to genderize them. We do not want anything to taint the perfect portrait of grace and political sacrifice we have painted in our hearts and minds of Aung San Suu Kyi. We imagined and worshiped her as a maternal political warrior, and that is how we want her to remain. Even if this can be a considered a positive stereotype, it still is a stereotype.
But as both the Bangladeshi and Burmese governments abdicate responsibility, remaining silent about the war on Rohingyas is a moral failure--and who more could facilitate a solution to the crisis than Suu Kyi?
We have waited decades to see Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi ascend toward what we all believed was her rightful political throne.
Where lies her political destiny? The Rohingyas now hold the key.
This story originally appeared in Huffington, in the iTunes App store.]]>The Startup Wives Club: Life With an Entrepreneurtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.16581322012-07-10T11:08:43-04:002012-09-09T05:12:04-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/
You see, for the past two years, Shayan and his partners had worked tirelessly trying to get their startup company, a service which tracked teens' digital activities and sent concerned parents alerts, off the ground.
My growing belly and I had watched my husband and their team rename their company twice, rebuild their website three times, raise money four times and change their logo I do not know how many times, all amidst one of the greatest global economic recessions in recent history.
As I stood in my Pea in the Pod size 200 (okay, really it was a size 14) maternity gown, my iced glass of water in hand, the other wives and I were talking about how proud we were of our spouses. I observed what a stressful few months it had been, but how happy I was that everything had worked out.
"I am so relieved all the hectic days of starting a business are behind us!" I exclaimed, much to the surprise of the other wives, who all glanced at each other with confusion. That is when one of the wives, Caroline, turned and said something to me that changed the outlook of my marriage forever.
"This is not the end, Anushay," Caroline informed me. "It is just the beginning."
I had no idea what she was talking about. The beginning of the business? Or the beginning of the night? All the other spouses were much older than me, but our age difference had never been tangible to me until that moment. What did they know that I did not?
Caroline and the the other wives laughed at my innocence. They started telling me stories of the first startup Jim invested in. Amy, another "Startup Wife", countered with an anecdote of how they sold their first house and lived off of Ramen noodles for Tom's first business venture. Half way through all the ladies' stories, I stopped listening. I was so stressed, my belly and I started devouring the dessert tray.
When I said 'I Do' to marrying my entrepreneur, I had the idea that the business he was trying to get off the ground at the time, the one whose success we were all celebrating that night, was the business he was going to work at his whole life. But the more I listened to the other wives, the more I realized that being an entrepreneur is more than a profession. It is a lifestyle.
"Welcome to the Startup Wives Club, Anushay!" Caroline exclaimed as all the women burst out into laughter. "You have a long ride ahead of you."
I think back to this night often. Actually, I think back to it every time my husband comes to me with a new idea. I think back to my initial panic, the nervous, fluttering butterflies in my stomach. However, now I see the reality of being married to an entrepreneur is quite an adventure.
Entrepreneurs are amongst some of the most proactive and inspirational people I have ever met. Yes, I am biased, but it is true. They are not only always trying to solves problems, but always trying to identify a need in society, and then figure out how to meet it.
The birth of our first child last year coincided with the birth of my husband's current startup company, CrimePush. The more pregnant I became, the more ambitious my husband became. It was not enough that the venture he had been working so hard on was taking off. Shayan wanted to do more.
He searched for ideas in everything we did, from prenatal yoga classes to Target runs. But it was after being held at gunpoint on the streets of Washington, DC that Shayan thought of a way to help report and prevent crimes for the 21st century. CrimePush was born.
CrimePush is a crime-reporting and public safety application. With a few clicks, you can push along GPS embedded crime tips and distress messages that include text, photo, video, and audio to the nearest authorities. Its simplicity encourages bystanders to report things they might otherwise ignore. The recorded video can be used to broadcast suspects and incidents, to give dispatchers a sense of how serious a situation is or even to save a panicked 911 caller from having to describe a traumatic event.
After many a depleted bank account, it is now, finally, available free on iTunes and Google Play, and over 100 police departments and universities have contacted CrimePush to be integrated into the app. Who knew that this germ of an idea Shayan thought of would be gaining traction across the country?
Being married to an entrepreneur may mean endless nights, constantly searching for potential investors and months without a paycheck. But at the end of the day there is no other club I would rather belong to than the "Startup Wives Club."]]>1971 Rapes: Bangladesh Cannot Hide Historytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.15344292012-05-22T18:52:46-04:002012-07-22T05:12:24-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/Partition. Growing up, stories of the Mukti Bahini (Bengali for "Freedom Fighter") were the stories that raised us.
My mother told me that in 1971 you would send out the men in your family to look in large public parks for the bodies of loved ones who had "disappeared," picked up by Pakistani soldiers. Despite the endless killings and torture, she still says, "There was a feeling in the air that you could do anything. Everyone knew Independence was only a matter of time."
But the one thing we did not hear about as much as we heard about the passionate fighting that defeated the Pakistani Army, were the rapes that took place in 1971. Many academics state that the first time rape was consciously applied as a weapon of war was during the Bangladesh War of Independence.
Yet growing up, those are the stories that were missing from the narrative the post-war generation were told. While the role of women as fighters and supporters of the war are highlighted, the stories of rape camps and war babies are largely ignored.
But we all know that as hard as you try, history cannot be rewritten. The truth exists, and ultimately comes out. In recent years, the shame slowly is lifting from this part of Bangladesh's Liberation War, as more scholars ask questions and more feminists demand the truth.
Each time I go home to Bangladesh, a relative, usually male, takes me aside and whispers stories to me about the "piles, and piles of bodies of rape victims" you would find under bridges in mass graves. "How many women were raped and killed in the hands of Pakistani soldiers," my uncle tells me as his voice whimpers. "You cannot imagine, Ma."
But a Bangladeshi scholar wants us to do just that. In fact, as a country we all owe a great deal to Bina D'Costa who went and tracked down the Australian doctor, Geoffrey Davis, brought to Dhaka by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and the United Nations. Davis was tasked with performing late-term abortions, and facilitating large scale international adoption of the war babies born to Bangladeshi women.
D'Costa's conversation with Dr. Davis was recently published in a Bangladeshi publication, and is worth reading in its entirety. The stories of women being tied to trees and gang raped, breasts hacked off, dumped in mass graves and being held in Pakistani rape camps are all detailed.
When asked if the usual figures of the number of women raped by the Pakistani Army, 200,000 - 400,000, are accurate, Dr. Davis states that they are underestimated:
... Probably the numbers are very conservative compared with what they did. The descriptions of how they captured towns were very interesting. They'd keep the infantry back and put artillery ahead and they would shell the hospitals and schools. And that caused absolute chaos in the town. And then the infantry would go in and begin to segregate the women. Apart from little children, all those were sexually matured would be segregated... And then the women would be put in the compound under guard and made available to the troops... Some of the stories they told were appalling. Being raped again and again and again. A lot of them died in those [rape] camps. There was an air of disbelief about the whole thing. Nobody could credit that it really happened! But the evidence clearly showed that it did happen.
Dr. Davis talks about how Sheikh Mujibur Rahman labeled the rape survivors as "war heroines" to help them reintegrate into their communities, but the gesture largely did not work. After being assaulted and impregnated by Pakistani soldiers, the Bangladeshi women were completely ostracized by society. Many were killed by their husbands, committed suicide, or murdered their half-Pakistani babies themselves.
Some women were so scared to go back home after being held captive in Pakistani rape camps, they begged their Pakistani captors to take them back to Pakistan with them.
As I was reading through the article, I found myself simultaneously looking up sources online. This video of a NBC reporter who found a shelter where many women impregnated with Pakistani soldiers stayed until they delivered, makes you remember that when we talk about the large-scale violence against women that took place in 1971, often we are talking about young girls, sometimes just 13 years old.
As I struggled through my emotions to keep reading, I stopped and sat back in my chair. 'What am I doing this for?" I asked myself. 'What is the point of digging up all this horror?"
That is when I realized that the pain is exactly the point. The shame that the women of Bangladesh who survived the war carry should be shared with all of us. Why should they suffer in silence? They probably bore the greatest burden of the war, and out of respect we must recognize them. We must find honor in their experience.
Yes, we are a "conservative" country. Yes, we are a Muslim country. Yes, we can use a lot of excuses as to why we want to close our eyes to this painful and horrifying part of 1971. But by doing that we are denying a huge part of our history to exist. As D'Costa says, we are intentionally suffering from "historical amnesia."
After Bosnia, the Rome Statute officially recognized rape as a weapon of war. While these survivors are still alive, Bangladesh must honor their testimonies and have these crimes prosecuted in the War Crimes Tribunal, finally set up in Bangladesh forty years after Independence.
The question that keeps haunting me, though, is where can the vibrant women's movement in Bangladesh go if we have a such a massive historical wound to heal from? We must look to the past and bring justice to these women, to all the survivors of the sexual violence of the 1971 war, if we really want to move forward.
Cross-Posted from Anushay's Point.]]>The Pinterest Gap: Is Pinning Only for Women?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.14962292012-05-08T15:15:56-04:002012-07-08T05:12:08-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/
In the wee hours of the night, as my cat snores loudly at my feet, I decorate the dream house that I so badly want down to the last corridor carpet. I collect images of the places in the world I visited and loved, along with pins of cities I cannot wait to see. I articulate my sense of personal style with images. I have gathered the recipes of foods I love to make and foods I will learn to make. I define my core feminist beliefs through pinning.
Oh, and I have planned pretty much every one of my daughter's birthday parties, every year until she is about 16 years old.
As "girly" and "silly" as this may seem, the number of women using this social networking site in droves is serious business. But do the statistics on women collecting and sharing pictures mean that Pinterest is just for females? Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams describes Pinterest's gender problem, saying that the gender gap exists even online:
This intensifying social media gender gap reveals a great deal both about how social media works and how conservative ideas about gender find themselves reproduced online... I remember years ago people saying, 'Online communication is going to be gender neutral. This is great!' But the same patterns show up everywhere.
The article, "Pinterests' Gender Trouble," goes onto state that "pinning" has become such a female activity that many sites are popping up offering "manlier" versions of the social media site, such as
Seriously guys? Are men that insecure and immature that even pinning has to somehow feel "manly" in order for you to do it?
While this may be a reality for men, it was an article about another emotion Pinterest is known to stir up that caught my attention. The post describes how Pinterest is making women depressed and stressed over everything they don't have -- the home, the marriage, the size 2 wedding dress, and 10 carat engagement ring.
This silly approach ruins the point of pinning. For me it is a place to organize your dreams in addition to just organizing your daily life, from what to feed your family for dinner to landscaping your yard. It makes me more focused on my goals. I actually find it a great way to de-stress. Pinterest increases my drive and makes me more ambitious to a degree. A visual collection of to-do lists? What is not to love?
Maybe women do like to organize more. It's a critical skill which let's us taste what it is like to have it all and keep tabs on everything. But at the end of day is OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) considered feminine? Isn't everybody just a little obsessive?
This is precisely why I think Pinterest is not just a "women only" site, and the people at Pinterest agree, stating that while "People who initially discovered Pinterest were largely women... The act of collecting is a universal behavior."
I think that even though women may have driven over in droves from the start, Pinterest is for everybody. The point is to share, people! That is actually one of my favorite things about the site: sharing with people you know -- and people you don't. Actually, the latter usually have some of the best pins.
As we learn, explore and remember through pictures, let us keep the Internet gender neutral for as long as we can. After all, great ideas know no gender barriers.
PS: If you are as addicted, follow me on Pinterest!]]>Asma al-Assad: To Shop or Not To Shop? tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.13682642012-03-21T11:43:28-04:002012-05-21T05:12:01-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/Guardian recently revealed thousands of personal emails it uncovered between Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, and his wife, Asma.
Amidst the beginnings of civil war brewing in Syria, and the slaughtering of civilians in Homs, one would be forgiven to think that the Assads were busy packing their bags, and boarding the nearest private jet out of Syria into exile.
But Syria's ruling family is showing us that when your dictatorship is drawing to an inevitable end, there is no better therapy than retail. Emails obtained by the Guardian show an avid online shopper in Asma al-Assad, busy contemplating between diamond jewelry, chandelier lighting and Louboutin shoes while her husband downloads Harry Potter films.
People are shocked not only at how isolated the Assads are from the violence tearing Syria apart, but at the discovery that Asma might be as ruthless as her husband. There have been no shortages of editorials since the emails went public on the woman behind the man who just might be the "real dictator."
My question is, why are we surprised? Yes, the fact that this woman is buying $6,000 crystal-encrusted Christian Louboutin shoes as Syrians bleed to their death, slaughtered by their own government, is utterly disgusting, but why should we be surprised? Do we really expect Asma to be kinder, more gentle of a figure just because she is a woman? Apparently so.
Reuters describes the first lady as the supposed "gentler face" of a brutal regime trying to "reform," prior to the Arab Spring knocking down the dictator's door:
The world was smitten by her immaculate facade. In the Western media, Asma, a 36-year-old mother of three, was described as sophisticated, elegant, confident, with a "killer IQ" and an interest in opening up Syria though art and charity...
Open up Syria though art and charity? More like navigate international sanctions to get her Venetian glass vase from Harrods delivered to Damascus.
My point is that clearly the Syrian regime was using Asma to cultivate a softer, more modern image of the country, as many rulers in the Middle East do by using their wives. But this image was just that -- an image. It was not real, so why are we caught off guard? Did we really buy what the regime was selling?
Asma is a highly educated woman with professional experience in the banking world. She was raised in Britain where her English friends called her Emma. Clearly she was smart enough to know what kind of family she was marrying into. And if she can online shop, she can definitely use Google to find out about the massacres her husband has been unleashing upon Syria's unarmed civilian populations, including women and children. The United Nations puts the official estimated death toll at 7,500.
Throughout history, from Eva Braun to Marie Antoinette, women have loved, married and stood by ruthless leaders. Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto's government in the 1990's was amongst the first in the world to officially recognize the Taliban. We should not be surprised that Asma jokes about being the "real dictator," and is standing by her man as his rule collapses around him. She married him in the first place!
The stereotype of women being warmer, more nurturing creatures is just that: a stereotype, as Asma and her $6,000 high heel shoes remind us. ]]>Demi Moore Finds No Country for Old Women: The Actress & Our Fear of Agingtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.12609712012-02-09T19:15:16-05:002012-04-10T05:12:01-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/divorce from her younger husband, Ashton Kutcher, and subsequent trip to rehab for drug and alcohol addiction have been documented all too well in the tabloids. We read the headlines and exclaim over our shock and horror at Moore's "pathetic" behavior. Unable to keep her much younger man, losing the battle with Mother Nature, guilty for beginning to show her true age, Moore reportedly turned to substance abuse to keep her fledgling self-confidence afloat. We can balk as much as we want at Demi Moore's troubles, but how long can they distract us from our own insecurities?
With the deluge of bad press Demi has recently gotten it is easy to forget who this woman used to be, and I am sure somewhere deep inside, still is. Demi Moore was an icon in the 1980's, an original member of the "Brat Pack" with movies such as "St. Elmo's Fire," "Ghost" and "A Few Good Men" amongst countless others under her belt.
But apparently all that is irrelevant now, none of it matters anymore as Moore sits in rehab in Utah with Brooke Mueller, the infamous ex-wife of Charlie Sheen known for her addiction to crack cocaine. Could this story get any sadder?
When news of Moore's troubles first broke, I found myself reading the news on my computer screen in shock and disbelief, but also in anger and guilt. "Look what we have done to this woman," I thought to myself. We can all try to wash our hands of Demi's demise, but we are all ultimately responsible for it. Every time we looked at a picture of her, or any other "aging" actress and poked fun at her looking old, looking "tired" we fed the machine that makes us believe that somehow ageing is wrong.
Moore is a product of our youth-obsessed culture which teaches women from when they are girls that we are valued by our beauty. We are taught to stay young and thin at any cost, and there is no other industry that consistently reinforces that message more than Hollywood. It is clear that we are all buying and believing this message.
The fact of the matter is the film industry, in the US and around the world, has pitted women against Mother Nature. It's an impossible battle to win and we all know it. But when women remind other women of that fact, like Demi Moore has, we blame and label them as failures, shower them with pity and disgust. We think they are "pathetic."
What makes it even easier for the public to "ooh" and "aah" over Demi Moore's troubles is the added element of heartbreak from her divorce from Ashton Kutcher. This layer of rejection frames Moore as a failure, completely masking her once stellar and iconic career. What is even more depressing about this story is that when you look at pictures of Moore, her insecurities appear to be tangible, you can almost reach out and touch how badly Moore feels about herself. Her lack of confidence is palpable.
Abandonment coupled with age in a town like Hollywood makes us feel sorry for Moore, but deep down we are actually terrified because we know what happened to her can happen to us. We are all equally vulnerable to our insecurities. Everyone of us fears rejection and heartbreak.
We are all products of our society and that society is youth-obsessed. Demi Moore embodies that obsession. Can there be a worse place to grow old than in Hollywood where as a woman you can literally find yourself out of work because you had the audacity to age? The sad fact is as we grow older, women around the world, but especially those working in films, are told that they are worthless. How ridiculous and wrong is that?
There are countless stories about how infatuated Moore was with youth, surrounding herself with young people, partying with her daughter, and hitting on teen heartthrobs such as Zac Efron. She was apparently obsessed with staying thin and before the actress's now infamous 911 call, Moore's weight had dropped to scarily unhealthy levels.
At her age, a woman should be comfortable in her skin, glowing in her life's accomplishments. One look at Moore and you can tell she would rather be anywhere else but in her own body.
I can only hope that Moore comes out of this with her honor and self- assurance in tact. She is Demi Moore! I still cannot believe we are feeling so sorry for the woman who once lit up the screens as a goddess in films like GI Jane, Disclosure, and of course, Ghost.
Whether or not Demi survives this challenge in her life, the sad truth is that it will only be a matter of time before another actress falls to a similar fate. That is until we break the cycle, redefine what society tells us is beautiful, and embrace the fact that ageing is a fact of life.
Become a Fan on Facebook.]]>Princess Amira al-Taweel: Challenging Women's Roles Around The Worldtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.12278762012-01-24T16:30:15-05:002012-03-25T05:12:01-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/defying the country's notorious driving ban and figuratively by attempting to advance their rights in a country that allows women almost no rights without male guardianship or representation.
In addition to the battles Saudi women have been waging on the ground and behind the scenes for equal rights, they have had a champion in Princess Ameera al-Taweel, the wife of Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, one of the more progressive of the thousands of Princes of the Saudi family and one of the richest men in the world.
Much like his peers in the Middle East, the Prince has been utilizing his wife as a public relations tool to project a more modern image of his country to the West. And it's been working. Ameera recently completed a slew of press events in the US, criticizing the kingdom's rigid laws for women, supporting the removal of the driving ban and participating in international forums such as the Clinton Global Initiative to tackle rising unemployment among Arab youth.
It has been refreshing, to say the least, to watch an articulate and intelligent Saudi woman from the ruling family campaign for women's rights in a country that normally prefers the voice of women to be well, non-existent.
And that's precisely what has landed Princess Ameera al- Taweel in hot water with her brother in-law, Prince Khalid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz, who last week publicly reprimanded the Princess for her increasingly high profile image, threatening his brother to reign in the "repeated appearance of his wife in the media," warning him of "severe" repercussions if the younger Prince does not stop "practices which violate our family, religion and Saudi values."
Well there's a slap on the wrist for you. While it may appear to some that the older Prince is just protecting Saudi culture, Prince Khalid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz's statements actually reflect the real and deep-rooted overall mentality in the kingdom: That women are the property of men.
It is precisely this kind of thinking that not only keeps women off the roads in Saudi Arabia, but out out of the offices and seats of government and out of public life, confining them to the home and relegating them to the back seat indefinitely.
What is also disturbing about the Prince's statements is the connection he draws between his sister in-law's high-profile work and his family's honor. Around the world, and specifically in the Middle East, this idea of women symbolizing honor may sound romantic, but it is the direct source of horrendous acts of violence against women, such as "honor killings," which justify murdering women who have supposedly damaged their family prestige, as the Prince stipulates:
Our family honor is a red line and if you don't respect this honor, then we do ... I now tell you that if you do not come back to your senses and stop your deviation, then our response will be very severe and harsh next time without prior warning.
Using a man's wife to publicly threaten and blackmail him sounds like the plot from a classic (sexist) movie. I mean, are men in 2012 seriously still this insecure that they have to pin their prestige on women and use them as pawns in what is obviously a much larger issue of power?
Saudi women may be pushing ahead with their fight to expand the rights in a kingdom that is determined to continue curbing them. If they have their way, one more Saudi woman may disappear from the global stage.
Hopefully Prince Ameera will demonstrate to the women of her country and the world that she is no bargaining chip, and usher Saudi Arabia into a new era for women.
]]>Reclaiming the Revolution: Women in Cairo Refuse to Be Sidelinedtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.11613012011-12-21T15:35:16-05:002012-02-20T05:12:01-05:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/
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.]]>'I Need Help': Why More Women Need To Admit Ittag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.11212112011-11-30T14:03:47-05:002012-01-30T05:12:02-05:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/
But something happens to our female friendships when we leave our twenties and enter our thirties. As we get older and get married, have babies, work more, work more -- and did I mention, work more? -- we also begin to talk less. Why is it when women need their girlfriends most, they stop reaching out to them? Why is it that when we stop being single and become wives and mothers, we stop talking about those relationships, especially when they are not going the way we want them to?
The whole idea for this post came about from a conversation I had with a dear friend of mine this morning in London. She called to tell me about a mutual friend of ours whose husband is struggling with depression and they can't get pregnant.
"Anushay, if you had asked me how she was doing a week ago, I would have said she has never been better," Ellie told me. "Everything seemed to be going so well with her, especially with her new job. And then I found out she has been an emotional wreck. You should call and check up on her."
Three years ago, when I was planning my own wedding, one of my oldest and best friends was there with me every step of the way. But halfway through wedding planning, my sister told me she had heard a rumor that my friend was getting divorced. I thought it was the most absurd thing, and got very angry with my sister for spreading gossip about my best friend. But when I asked my friend about it, she told me she and her husband had been separated for months, leading completely separate lives.
There is a certain shame that comes with struggling in your marriage, different from the kind you would have in other romantic relationships. As many modern, empowered women struggle with where the institution falls into their lives, many women still view getting married as an accomplishment. But married women are often the last people to tell you they are having problems, especially when it comes to their marriage. It is as though there is some kind of secret code of conduct that women feel they must follow, a book of unspoken rules they have to uphold by not admitting when they are unhappy in their marriage.
Women also start talking less about their problems when they become mothers. Up until recently, even the issue of postpartum depression was kept under wraps while millions of women struggled in silence.
Two months ago I became a new mom. As anybody will tell you, the first few weeks of motherhood are unbelievably challenging, not only because you have no idea what to do, but because physically your body has been through an unimaginable journey that it barely has time to recover from. There's the pregnancy itself, nine long months during which your body grows the baby, then there is the labor, which normally comes with its own set of complications, and before you can even muster the time to adjust to your new family, you never get any sleep and you have to be up all night feeding and changing a baby you are still getting to know.
As new parents, one night my husband and I got into a huge argument in front of my mother, who was staying with us. I literally had been awake for 72 hours straight nursing and taking care of our daughter. I was physically exhausted, recovering from a c-section, and needed help. But instead of asking for it, I chose to get into a heated fight over the remote control. When my mother came to console me, she told me that as women we have to do more, shoulder more and do it in silence. "Equality doesn't exist, Anushay," she told me. "Men just can't do as much."
I could not believe my own mother was telling me this. The woman I had learned everything about feminism from, here she was telling me to suck it up and accept things as they were! I looked at her and said I could not believe she had just said that to me. "This is going to be a blog post, mom," was my response. Maybe men just can't do as much as us, but they were going to have to step it up and try!
I went and communicated my pain and frustration to my husband. Co-parenting and sharing responsibilities as a family was something we had talked about at length way before having our baby. I had to make sure we were on the same page because frankly, and as I communicated to him, I could not do it on my own. I needed help and he had to help me. After going to him with my issues, I heard his frustrations of how I was trying to do everything, cutting him out, and not letting him assist. Having this conversation early on helped us reconnect and get back on the same page.
It also made me realize that most women do not ask for help, and other women, most often our own mothers, discourage us from asking for it. Being a mother, especially a new mother, is so physically and emotionally challenging, particularly during the first few days. Seriously, it is like being on another planet. I have no idea how women do it on their own. It is flat out unfair for women not to have all the help in the world as they embark on this role.
By admitting I was in over my head and communicating with my husband, I was able to get the support I needed to take care of my baby the best I could. I was able to get sleep, and most importantly, I was able to enjoy my baby during this undeniably precious time in our lives.
Who are we protecting when we hurt ourselves? Who benefits when we let our mental and emotional state deteriorate? No one. As women, we owe it to ourselves and our families to stop pretending and start talking, like we used to when we were younger, like we did when we were in college. Remember how much better you would feel just by telling someone your problem, by just talking about it?
Women need to complain more about their kids and their husbands, about motherhood and marriage! When we share our burdens, we discover our support systems. After all, if we can learn one thing from the 1950s it's that perfection does not exist -- nor should we want it to.
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]]>Seven Billion People & Women's Rights: What Is the Connection?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.10687082011-11-01T10:56:57-04:002012-01-01T05:12:01-05:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/
Organizations such as the Guttmacher Institute and Population Action International (PAI) state that the number seven billion reflects the urgent need for people to be able to exercise their right to determine the size and spacing of their families. However, the majority of women, especially in the developing world, are still unable to control their fertility.
In fact, experts estimate that there are currently 215 million women around the world who wish to either delay or prevent pregnancy but lack access to contraceptives. Guttmacher states that these women account for more than 80% of all unintended pregnancies in the developing world every year.
What I find fascinating about this relationship is the focus it brings to the rights of the individual, especially women. What was groundbreaking at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo was the spotlight it put on women's rights. This was when population policies stopped being about controlling population and slowing population and started being about empowering women.
The idea was that if women had access to education and higher salaried jobs, they would choose to have smaller families, thus lowering fertility rates. In her post, PAI's Suzanne Ehlers identifies that we have repeatedly been shown that "if you give women the tools to have control over their lives, the numbers will follow."
So, if we already know the way forward, why does it seems as though we keep moving backwards when it comes to allowing women control over their reproductive health and rights? Why is it that even though we established a roadmap in Cairo over fifteen years ago, today in Washington attacks on women's reproductive health, both globally and domestically, persist as foreign aid keeps getting cut?
Investments in women's health must be made if we are to sustain our planet. We can still reduce the numbers and slow population growth if we address the world's unmet need for contraception, as Guttmacher Institute's Susan Cohen explains:
Responding directly to individual people's needs and desires to determine for themselves whether and when to have a child will contribute significantly toward their ability to lead healthier, more productive lives. In turn, these benefits for individuals and families accrue to their communities and to society at large. Ultimately, the impact would be felt at the global level. Meeting the stated desires of all women around the world to space or limit births would result in the world's population peaking within the next few decades -- and then actually starting to decline.
Reaching seven billion may be a milestone today, but unless we address women being able to access modern contraception, this number will only increase and bring with it dire consequences. At the core of the solution is investing in women -- in our rights and in our health. If women are to truly be empowered, they must be in control of their reproduction.
And the whole world will reap the rewards.
Become a Fan on Facebook. ]]>Sexting: It's Not Just Congressmen and Pop Stars Who Do Ittag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8816242011-06-22T11:42:46-04:002011-08-22T05:12:02-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/Anthony Weiner, or pop stars like Rihanna that are doing it. In fact, 1/4 kids admit to sending a nude photo of themselves before having left the house. So how do parents prevent their kids from the world of sexting and cyberbullying?
While there is no denying that technology has helped dramatically improve and speed up many aspects of our lives, it has also sped up ugly realities for kids, like bullying.
Teenagers these days are faced with more than being harassed in the hallways of their high schools. They have to deal with actual video footage of them getting beaten up, having sex or being bullied going viral on classmates' cellphones or worse, the Internet.
How do we safeguard our kids from the dangers of the digital world? How can technology help safeguard us from well, technology?
uKnow.com, a provider of parental intelligence systems, today launched uKnowKids, a powerful new service to help parents protect their kids against online predators, sexting, and cyberbullying while also supervising their children's digital privacy and reputation. uKnowKids is the first service to do more than simply show parents the messages their kids are sending and receiving; instead the service takes the vast amount of social data available online about a child and on the mobile phone, and translates it so a parent can quickly and easily act on it.
The founders know what they are up against. In fact, one of uKnow.com's co-founders, Tim Woda, prevented a real-life Internet predator incident that occurred with his own child. Woda's young teen son accepted a "friend" request on the Internet from someone he did not know: a "friend" of a "friend." Unfortunately, this "friend" turned out to be a child predator that had previously targeted and victimized a number of other kids he had "met" online, as Woda explains:
The digital world creates new parenting challenges for mom and dad. My son made the mistake of communicating with someone that wanted to cause him harm...it was a real wake-up call. Being aware is not the same as being engaged. Today's digital kids are online earlier, more often, and from more places than ever before. The tools of childhood have changed and so the tools of parenthood need to evolve as well.
Today kids can access social networking websites from a wide array of devices including mobile phones, gaming devices, music players, and mobile and personal computers. uKnowKids helps parents keep track and make sense of what's going on with the child's social networks and digital devices, enabling parents to understand not only what the child is doing, but when.
Can technology help us safeguard our kids, and in effect aid parents in being better parents? By launching uKnowKids, parental intelligence systems, uKnow.com says yes.]]>Virginity Tests: Time to Let Gender Out of the Revolution's Closettag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.8731992011-06-09T13:07:12-04:002011-08-09T05:12:01-04:00Anushay Hossainhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/anushay-hossain/
This is nothing uncommon. Even in conservative countries, we frequently see women come out in full force during political protests with little to no objection from the men. And this was not a first for Egyptian women who were heavily involved in Egypt's 1919 revolution.
It is after the euphoria fades, after the dictator is placed under house-arrest 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, Syria, and all over the Middle East today, where are the women at the decision-making table? Where are the women when it comes to forming the new government?
Women may be a consistent feature of the ongoing electrifying protests in the Middle East, but the one thing that has not changed is how women are forced back into the domestic sphere when the big boys (aka military) with their guns come to town. It is the aftermath we are still fighting to play a role in.
This brings us to post-Mubarak Egypt. While rumors of virginity tests being conducted on female protesters while in custody were rampant and reported even by Amnesty International, they have just been confirmed by a high-ranking Egyptian General who also added:
The girls who were detained 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 in the tents Molotov cocktails and drugs.
Now before you gasp in shock and disgust over this statement, consider who it comes from. Noted Egyptian feminist writer Mona Eltahawy points out that we should not be surprised at all that this general, speaking on condition of anonymity, would say something like this.
Eltahawy states that aside from Egypt's staggering sexual harassment statistics, (80% of women report street sexual harassment; 60% of men admit to doing so), in 2006 Mubarak actually directed his security forces to target female activists and journalists for sexual assaults at demonstrations as a means to "shame them back home." A year later, during a religious festival mass sexual assaults against women and girls took place in Cairo while the police watched.
Nobody believed that change would come overnight for Egypt with the departure of Mubarak's regime, but the young and old, men and especially women, still have high hopes for it. And they should because like the rest of the region, the time for dictators and their dynasties is over.
Virginity tests are nothing new to Egypt. It is described as something that straddles across class and urban/rural divides. But it becomes something entirely different when the state is conducting them. It is a testament to how Egypt's Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), who have replaced Mubarak, is using the sexual behavior of women, its cultural associations with honor in this region, to once again shame women away from political protest.
It may have worked in the past, but in this age of information and more importantly, social media and blogging, it is a useless tactic. Women in Egypt and beyond will not stand for it anymore. Eltahawy says that it is the virginity tests which will spark Egypt's next revolution:
There's a thin line between sex and politics, and it is nonsense to keep repeating the mantra that Egypt's revolution "wasn't about gender". What revolution worth its salt can be fueled by demands of freedom and dignity and not have gender nestled in its beating heart?
Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, Bahrain no revolution in no nation can be transformational or sustainable until we identify the gender factor, and uproot patriarchy. Fighting for democracy and fighting against patriarchy go hand in hand.
It is time to admit that, and finally let gender out of revolution's closet.
Cross-posted from Anushay's Point.]]>