I know that it is a little early in the week to be doing my reflection, but I just came back from an event at the Wilson Center, titled, 'Women after the Arab Awakening'. I wanted to share everything I learned with you while it was still fresh on my mind.
It was a day long event, so I was only able to stay for the first panel. This panel was called, 'Today's View from the Ground'. The moderator of this discussion was Haleh Esfandiari. The speakers were as follows:
Dalia Ziada, from Egypt, who we may know as the woman in the pink scarf. She is the executive director for the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies.
Omezzine Khélifa, from Tunisia. She is a politician and advisor to the Ministry of Tourism.
Rihab Elhaj, from Libya. She is the Co-founder and executive director of the New Libya Foundation.
Fahmia Al Fotih, from Yemen. She is a communication analyst and youth focal point analyst at the UNPF
Hala Al Dosari, from Saudi Arabia. She is a Ph.D. candidate in health services research, also she is an opinion writer for online and print media. She is a blogger and advocate for Saudi women's rights.
First, Esfandiari opened the panel by posing this question, 'is the issue of women's rights in MENA being marginalized?'. She also said that though we are relayed the information that women are apart of this process of revolution, the people on the ground have a much different take and they are proceeding with a cautious optimism.
She then gave the floor to the first speaker, Dalia Ziada. She believes that though there is a risk in Islamist politicians, Egypt is not Iran or Saudi Arabia. Suzanne Mubarak did much work for Women's rights and brought about laws allowing women to give nationality to her child and that she may divorce her husband. I found this to be an interesting tid-bit since many of you, like me, probably did not know this. Though, I also went into this knowing next to nothing about Egypt. Ziada says that the culture is what is holding women back and grassroots action is necessary to see change. Dalia closed with her belief that the spring is not a success to her until she sees a woman in a position of power in one of the countries. Comparing women to flowers, Ziada says that their can be no spring without flowers.
Omezzine posed this question of Tunisia-- How are women's roles evolving?
Keeping with the theme of social media, I found it really interesting when she mentioned that Facebook was often a faster source than the media in Tunisia. It has been one year since the democratic elections in Tunisia and though people had said that women's rights were a last concern-- the women in parliament said hell no and strove forward, pushing for progress. As Tunisia stands now they have a misogynist society and women are seen as complimentary to men as opposed to equal. Omezzine closed with that Tunisia needs to move from state feminism to political feminism.
Rihab Elhaj says that women in Libya are being further marginalized. Many women are ambivalent with a mentality of 'it is what it is'. She spoke of the unarmed protests demanding the disbandment of violent non-state organizations. Rihab says the lack of female representation is from hesitance on the female part. This is because of a major problem with gender segregation and public harassment. Women are forced to either swallow their pride or stay at home. Rihab says that women are being marginalized in cultural and social life.
Fahmia Al Fotih used a statistic that 4 out of 5 women in Yemen claim that life has worsened in the past 12 months. The priority to women at the moment is food, security, and jobs. Al Fotih says the situation is only getting worse. Though women have been largely present at the protests-- they are veiled and so Al Fotih considers that they are not really there. Women protesters and activists are being attacked and beaten. Fundamentalist women are attacking other female protesters. Women protesters and doctors are being kidnapped. She spoke of the kidnapping of Tawakkol Karman and the woman named Bushra Al-Maqtari who has a fatwa on her that says if she is killed than the assailant has a ticket to heaven. Fahmia quotes UN Envoy, Jamal Bin Omar, who said, "Political parties disagree on everything, but they agree on marginalizing woman."
Al Dosari used her time to tell personal stories and stories of other woman in Saudia Arabia. She told the story of a women who took a video of her arguing with a religious officer who was telling her to go cover up. She used these stories for two reasons. One, the impact of empowerment and that all of the women must fight for their rights even if it is through small actions. Second, that the iron thumb of Saudia Arabian government makes it impossible for women to earn rights. All attempts they make eventually get squashed.
Though they all came from different situations, all of the speakers agreed that one of the best directions towards women's equality is to change the male mind set. During the uprising, no one paid mind to the women and they felt free. This is because the men had nothing to worry about, but now that governments are being set up, these men want to have something 'beneath them' to say 'I am higher than you'. So it boils down to a matter of cultural change and a renewed view of the woman's role, which is far in the distance, but possible. The issue of women's rights in the MENA is going to an on going battle in years and years to come and will not be solved overnight. With the persistence and dedication of accomplished women such as those who spoke at this event, then women's equality will one day be achieved in these countries.
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