May 2, 2015

As a final blog, I will present a reflection on what I have learned on Women’s Rights in Egypt throughout the past ten weeks. My reflection will include main themes of global issues that I was taught about in Middle Eastern Revolutions class. Main ideas previously talked about in my blogs will be presented to relate them to the controversies. Along with that the perspective of my research will be explained from the five perspectives of globalization. After this I will present my opinion on the matter of Women’s Rights in Egypt and how it has changed my understanding of the Middle East.

From my research, I learned that the women of Egypt have been repressed socially, economically and politically for quite some time now due to societal culture and tradition. This wasn’t always the case though, as presented in the article Women’s Rights in Ancient Egypt, women used to enjoy many rights. They were allowed to represent themselves in court, to maintain their household, provide public entertainment, and they were even allowed to inherit equal family shares as men.  Along with those rights they enjoyed many others, but times have changed and so have the freedoms women have been given.  I learned that economically and politically, they are not given much opportunity because of social restraints and beliefs that women belong at home. Socially they are held down through female genital mutilations and sexual harassment, which became my focus throughout my research.

After the 1970’s, sexual harassment became more prevalent which in turn increased modesty, making women change how they dressed to fit the new social norms. Along with that the Mubarak era increased social restraints even more. One example is when he ordered his men to rape and assault women because they were becoming too involved. This only led to the exploitation of the law and women were no longer secure to be out in the streets, even some law enforcers did not file complaints nor charges. Apart from that, female genital mutilations have also been used to keep women from moving forward by depriving them health and reproductive freedoms. Even though these are just two problems, they still continue today. For instance sexual harassment, as presented by UNICEF has been experienced by 99.3% of women in Egypt. Along with that, about 92% of Egyptian women have undergone female genital mutilations. Basically I learned that the women in Egypt have little to no rights due to societal culture and tradition.

To change all this, women started to become involved in revolutions and movements. They were involved in the Arab Spring, not only to end the repression Mubarak had set for all the citizens of Egypt, but also for women’s rights. The significance of Women’s Rights to the Arab Spring is that without women’s help, there is a possibility that the Arab Spring would not have been as successful. What was important though, was that women saw the Arab Spring as an event where their emergence from the shadows would also take place. I say this because they would be able to be out in the streets doing the same things as men and going against their traditional roles. They thought that once the revolts were over, then there would be a possibility of change over the issues women faced. This was not the case though. As presented in the blogs posted to Vital Voices Global Partnership, women were returned to their traditional roles once the demonstrations and revolts ceased.  There was one women in particular though, who said that they were able to gain dignity because they were fighting against a tyrant to end the injustices to everyone. I think this women’s statement is very important because it leads me to believe that the involvement of women did not cease there, even though that’s what others, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, would have wanted.

Some have argued that the Arab Spring isn’t over yet, because they still have not achieved a complete democratic government. If this is the case then women will continue to be involved in the uprisings, which I believe to be a good idea, because as we spoke in class about the controversy of democratization, other countries, like the US, will do little to be involved, so it is the responsibility of all its citizens to be a part of the movement.  With women involved, there can be some change, since The Muslim Brotherhood did little to change any of it when it came to be in power.

One of the most significant perspectives presented, throughout my research from some of my artifacts, was that of Political Liberalists. They seemed to have argued that democratization would bring many great benefits to the country.  With their arguments they supported civil rights, human rights and education. One example is the end of female genital mutilations, this would end because women would have the freedom to speak out and increase awareness through education. In the article Egyptian Mother on Genital Mutilation, Sara says that the tradition will be ending with her. She will teach her husband about the pain and effects of the tradition and start a new one with her daughter. With her reasoning I can see her being a political liberalist. I say this because she has wanted to change the practice by educating and using non-governmental actors. Her change will not require the involvement of the state nor organizations, she will simply start her own at home through education.

The ideas of political liberalists are also presented through other people and organizations in my blog. For instance, the advocates of the revolutions and END FGM seem to be fighting for democratization because through it, education would be provided to many as well as freedoms, such as freedom of speech. They believe that through education, awareness will be brought to the issue. With the allowance of speaking out and education, the health benefits would also be phenomenal. The article, End FMG, presents how the practice of female genital mutilations have been used to control a women’s sexuality. This means that a women experiences FGM so that they are not sexually active before marriage, the problem is that it also affects the female later on in life. This practice causes major complications, for instance during menstruation and child birth. If a democratic government were put in place, education would be provided, meaning that there would be an increase in awareness of the issues the practice causes. More parents would be aware of the fact that they are causing more harm than good to their baby girl. At the moment there seems to be too much ignorance, if education were provided then the ignorance on the topic of female genital mutilations would decrease.

What I understood about my topic was that, although women were involved in the uprisings and revolts, their situation as a women did not change much. They maintained their traditional role as any other time before the uprisings. They were kept from moving forward through genital mutilations and sexual harassment mostly. To me this was the most significant because something of this nature has more psychological, physical, and emotional effects than anything else. As End FGM said, there are problems with labor and other women related effects, but there are also other things affected.  The relationships with their partners was affected as well. As presented in a previous blog of mine, from the article Sex with Egyptian Women, having a sexual relationship was a problem especially because it was for the gratification of the man not the women. She would endure more pain than anything else due to the wrongful healing of the mutilated tissue. Not only was their pain and suffering but the mutilations kept the girls seen as an object instead of as a human being. The main objective of the mutilations was to keep them clean or pure for marriage. This was something parents bragged about when time came to look for a husband instead of letting her find love. The mutilations keep women from experiencing the pleasures of their sexuality and kept them from being seen and treated as a human being.

After doing my research, I would consider myself a political liberalist and a cosmopolitan because I agree with both authors of the chapter about “Whether the US should aggressively promote women rights in developing countries.” I say this because as I read and read, I wanted to come up with an idea about how to fix the problem about women not getting social equality or freedoms the same as men. But I kept running into a problem; I didn’t know what women were fighting for. This is something Greenberg presented, she argued that we needed to figure out what exactly was needed. Along with her views, I also agree with Coleman because she says that women’s rights should be promoted because it has many great benefits. Some of which provide for women empowerment through better education which would also improve health and the economy in these areas. I believe that with both of their perspectives something can be done about women’s rights.

On one hand, I believe we should promote women’s rights everywhere, but I also believe that in order to do that we need to focus on other problems first. I say this because as we have seen women have had rights given to them but they have only been written on paper, they don’t get to enjoy them in reality. So in order to fix that then there needs to be a target on social values and traditions, but in order for that to change there has to be education provided. I feel as if it is all a domino effect, if education were provided many things would change. But in order for that to happen, as Greenberg presented, there has to be a change for both genders not just one. With that being said, I believe that if the democratic sequence were used, then other social and traditional problems would change, such as women’s rights. With the Middle Eastern revolutions, a step in that direction has been made. Researching this topic, made me understand why these revolutions are important. They are not just important to get rid of a tyrant and old government, but they are a means to a new life, for all the citizens of Egypt. The Middle Eastern Revolutions could help fix a problem, which is prevalent in Egypt as well as around the world.