Women Making History for Egypt

All eyes have been on Egypt as millions of Egyptians marched on Cairo this week. They met at Tahrir Square, which is Arabic for Liberation Square, an ideal location for a gathering of millions of Egyptian citizens seeking to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year reign. Until Wednesday, the protests were considered peaceful. The situation took a violent turn as Mubarak supporters took to the square to counter the protests.

Sources from around the world are proclaiming that women are marching as equals alongside men in the demonstrations in Egypt. Men, women, people from different socioeconomic backgrounds — they have all united for a common cause to oust Mubarak’s regime. So what makes this uprising different from others throughout the history of the Middle East that are more exclusive to men? Women were getting involved because the protests were deemed as peaceful and safe. For some, this was their first protest, and it has been a unique experience because of the respectful way men were treating them. But with escalating violence, the atmosphere has changed for women.

Human rights activist, writer, and celebrated feminist Nawal El Saadawi was a political prisoner who was forced to live in exile. She is one of the many voices speaking out about the unity in the Egyptian protests. El Saadawi says, “We are calling for justice, freedom, and equality and real democracy and a new constitution, no discrimination between men and women, no discrimination between Muslims and Christians, to change the system … and to have a real democracy.”

Even though most of Egypt is without Internet access, support for the protests has been spreading rapidly online through blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Twitter is ablaze with the #Egypt and #jan25 hashtags, and users are sharing Twitpics. The Facebook group Women of Egypt, created by Leil-Zahra Mortada in Barcelona, Spain, has five photo albums dedicated to pictures of women protesting. Journalists are using their Facebook pages to report the opinions and sentiments of the women involved. Some are afraid that women aren’t being documented in the protests and that they will be written out of the history of this event. Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian-born writer, has been educating the media on how to correctly talk about what is happening in Egypt. She called on CNN to use the terms “revolt” or “uprising” instead of “chaos” and “crisis” when referring to the situation.

At this point, it is unclear what the result will be from this uprising amidst the current violence, but it is clear that the Egyptian women will be remembered for their courage and willingness to stand up for their rights.