A crash course in changing the world.
On May 23 and 24, 2012 Egypt started the first round of electing a new president. The article I dealt with is about women and their role in the revolution and in the votes taking place at the moment.
In Egypt's Arab Spring, women played an important role fighting for freedom and for their gender's rights on the streets and on the internet. But what happened afterwards? Did their efforts pay off in the end?
For a little moment it seemed as if things would change, but then the centralised, military-led, patriarchal reign took over the power and lasted over the last 15 months.
In 2007, a survey by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights (ECWR) showed that more than 80 per cent of Egyptian women said they had been subject to sexual harassment, while more than 60 per cent of men admitted to having harassed women.
After the revolution the situation doesen't seem to have improved. What happened is acutally the opposite. Nowadays, there are calls in Egypt to retain the status that women had hundreds of years ago. Some fundamentalist groups are seeking to change the law to make women stay at home and minimise her role in the society.
So to my mind it is very admirable that women in Egypt still try to change something but it seems that their attempts are hopeless. There was one women who candidated in the elections but she failed to gather enough support. Moreover, the 12 per cent minimum quota for women was scrapped. Therefore, just nine MPs in Egypt's new parliament are women (two per cent of parliament) despite the 984 women who ran for seats
© 2024 Created by Alchemy. Powered by
You need to be a member of Urgent Evoke to add comments!
Join Urgent Evoke