Despite Arab Spring, women’s repression continues

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Today`s Column

Despite Arab Spring, women’s repression continues

Posted : 2012-09-07 16:57

Updated :

By Bonnie Erbe

Predicting history is more than a bit of a crapshoot. But I had it right when I speculated what last year’s Arab Spring would bring.

Following Iran's example (I know Iranians are Persians, not Arabs, but they both seem to enjoy installing extremely conservative theocratic governments after revolutions), it was easy to see that every time a secular dictator was toppled, an Islamic theocracy would step in. And that's a recipe for disaster regarding women's rights.

Now my prediction is coming to fruition. Last weekend, Egypt's new Islamist-dominated government lifted a longstanding ban against veiled women newscasters on state-run TV. Here we go, I thought. First it’s the hijab or headscarf. Next it will be the chador, the black cloak-like garment that fully covers a woman from head to toe, except for her face. Then these poor Egyptian women will be pushed back into wearing the niqab, a face veil that in some cases leaves only a tiny slit for eyes. That outfit must be tons of fun to wear during Egypt's stultifying summers.

A good friend disagrees with me, saying the Internet and social media represent salvation for female victims of post-Arab Spring repression. There’s some hope in what she says, but not enough to convince me.

That said, CNN reported recently that hundreds of women from across the Middle East attended a conference in Egypt to discuss how technology and the Internet, particularly social media, can be used to protect and advance women's goals in the region. Mona Eltahawy, a columnist and an international lecturer on Arab and Muslim issues, moderated the conference, taking the stage with both arms in casts. Eltahawy claims she was sexually assaulted and beaten by soldiers near Tahrir Square last November.

Assaults and beatings ― that's a genteel way for the Muslim Brotherhood-led government to thank Eltahawy and the thousands of women who helped overthrow former President Hosni Mubarak. Eltahawy has written extensively on women's treatment under the new regime and she makes no secret of the repression blooming in Egypt. In an essay for Foreign Policy, Eltahawy asked: "Why do they hate us?"

Why do Arab men hate their women?

I quote extensively from that essay here, dear reader, so you may experience just a smidgen of what Egyptian and other Arab women are experiencing:

"Name me an Arab country, and I’ll recite a litany of abuses fueled by a toxic mix of culture and religion that few seem willing or able to disentangle lest they blaspheme or offend. When more than 90 percent of ever-married women in Egypt ― including my mother and all but one of her six sisters ― have had their genitals cut in the name of modesty, then surely we must all blaspheme. When Egyptian women are subjected to humiliating ‘virginity tests' merely for speaking out, it’s no time for silence. When an article in the Egyptian criminal code says that if a woman has been beaten by her husband ‘with good intentions' no punitive damages can be obtained, then to hell with political correctness. And what, pray tell, are 'good intentions?’”

Eltahawy is one of the lucky ones, despite her beatings. She now observes Egypt from afar, out of harm's way and out from under the Muslim Brotherhood's control.

Social media is certainly a great help to women resisting Middle Eastern repression. Eltahawy is among many who use Twitter to publicize records of the new government's atrocities heaped on women who say anything out of line with their theocratic rules. Social media shines like sunshine, and sunshine is a good thing. Even though some men in Arab Spring countries may beat, rape and abuse their women, they can no longer cover up their acts.

But it does not, now at least, appear to be stemming the flux of retreat to a time when male abuse of women was just a part of life and something to be expected. I hope my prediction doesn't come true.

Bonnie Erbe, a TV host, writes this column for Scripps Howard News Service.