Tahrir Square has become a dyed in white, black and red, the colors of the Egyptian flag, and to echo the cries of citizens who ask for a better life, but mostly it has been dyed red with anger ( should have been ashamed) of those who wanted to humiliate those who were demonstrating. The march of a million women has become a nightmare for hundreds of people gathered at the iconic square.
What began as a peaceful demand celebrated Women's Day, and claimed that no one forget that they are an important part of Arab societies and should not be left behind, has become the worst example of why Egypt needs urgent change in gender. Shouting "out, out", the group was in the square was broken up by a mob that has scared off the protesters to tears.
Accusing them of "foreign" and cited as the guilty of obstructing the revolution, the mob has managed to divide them into small groups, even a person, after which surrounded them and curses. "This is what Americans want," screamed. Many men tried to defend the girls who were cornered and terrified but fought their attackers stoically.
Carrying banners with the slogan "Where are the farmer and mother of the martyr" and implying that those who were demonstrating were not authentic Egyptian, the counter-demonstrators gathered to have humiliated the argument that they should be at home cleaning and looking after their children.
" Some women dressed in the traditional way to have rebuked who gathered to call for improvements that cut across all. Earlier, in a statement, the organizers had recalled that during the revolution women were human shields, formed part of the defense committees of the districts and clashed with the National Democratic Party thugs.
" They also released slogans against sexual harassment and sex discrimination. A woman in the new Cabinet Despite having been side by side from the first minute of the revolt, women were sidelined when they began to be steps toward a democratic transition. If the government of Hosni Mubarak had twenty four women ministers, the new Cabinet of Essam Sharaf only has Fayza Abul Naga.
The same has happened with the Coalition of Youth on January 25 that instigated the revolution and met with representatives of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Asmaa only Mahfouz was privileged to be among the eight emissaries of the Egyptian youth. Not a single woman was in the group of experts that prepared the proposed amendments to the Constitution will be voted in a referendum next March 19.
This was precisely one of the reasons that were holding the people who were now in the Tahrir Square calling for an end of machismo and a paternalistic society that has burdened their wives, which relegates to the background constant. Inferior wages, poorer working conditions and sexual violence as a norm is what Egyptian women face every day.
And not just for religious reasons. While some of the demonstrators who laid siege to the Koran hadiths were repeated, noting that "women should be subject to man, most of which beset the protesters were normal individuals, middle-aged. It was not a matter of religion, argued some of the girls, but pure and simple machismo.
What began as a peaceful demand celebrated Women's Day, and claimed that no one forget that they are an important part of Arab societies and should not be left behind, has become the worst example of why Egypt needs urgent change in gender. Shouting "out, out", the group was in the square was broken up by a mob that has scared off the protesters to tears.
Accusing them of "foreign" and cited as the guilty of obstructing the revolution, the mob has managed to divide them into small groups, even a person, after which surrounded them and curses. "This is what Americans want," screamed. Many men tried to defend the girls who were cornered and terrified but fought their attackers stoically.
Carrying banners with the slogan "Where are the farmer and mother of the martyr" and implying that those who were demonstrating were not authentic Egyptian, the counter-demonstrators gathered to have humiliated the argument that they should be at home cleaning and looking after their children.
" Some women dressed in the traditional way to have rebuked who gathered to call for improvements that cut across all. Earlier, in a statement, the organizers had recalled that during the revolution women were human shields, formed part of the defense committees of the districts and clashed with the National Democratic Party thugs.
" They also released slogans against sexual harassment and sex discrimination. A woman in the new Cabinet Despite having been side by side from the first minute of the revolt, women were sidelined when they began to be steps toward a democratic transition. If the government of Hosni Mubarak had twenty four women ministers, the new Cabinet of Essam Sharaf only has Fayza Abul Naga.
The same has happened with the Coalition of Youth on January 25 that instigated the revolution and met with representatives of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Asmaa only Mahfouz was privileged to be among the eight emissaries of the Egyptian youth. Not a single woman was in the group of experts that prepared the proposed amendments to the Constitution will be voted in a referendum next March 19.
This was precisely one of the reasons that were holding the people who were now in the Tahrir Square calling for an end of machismo and a paternalistic society that has burdened their wives, which relegates to the background constant. Inferior wages, poorer working conditions and sexual violence as a norm is what Egyptian women face every day.
And not just for religious reasons. While some of the demonstrators who laid siege to the Koran hadiths were repeated, noting that "women should be subject to man, most of which beset the protesters were normal individuals, middle-aged. It was not a matter of religion, argued some of the girls, but pure and simple machismo.
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