To my fellow Egyptian feminists

By Dina Wahba

This is written with love, respect and in solidarity.

I present in this article a brief critique of the contemporary Egyptian feminist movement. I hope that this would be considered constructive criticism and channeled in a way that would strengthen the movement.

Orientalist tropes

Nicola pratt wrote an important article published in Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies newsletter. In this article she accused the international community of using an Orientalist narrative in dealing with women’s rights in the Middle East. I couldn’t agree more with her but I would like to add to this argument that we as Egyptian feminists export an Orientalist discourse. We reinforce ideas that victimizes all women and denies them their agency as well demonize all men.

Sexual harassment discourse

We seem to be trapped into the sexual harassment narrative. As if we have no other issue pertaining to women’s rights. We don’t link sexual harassment with the global narrative pertaining to violence against women in general nor do we link sexual harassment to wider struggles. We seem to be very outspoken about sexual harassment while silent on all other issues that could be more relevant to greater groups of women and men in our society. We keep narrowing down the discourse till it became only about sexual harassment against protestors.

SOURCE: AP/ Khalil Hamra

No critique

Everyone has comments on how everyone is doing their job yet everyone is silent about it. Not quite silent they speak behind each other’s backs. They vent out in small groups in cafes. All that is bottled up comes out in the form of gossip rather than constructive criticism that could revive the movement and save it from itself. The lack of criticism is a criticism in itself!

No reading..No writing

There seem to be a lack of commitment to self education. There are no groups working on gaining knowledge or producing it except for some scholars who write some papers. However, activists seem to have lost interest in reading other feminist work or writing their own theories even if in Facebook notes. It doesn’t have to be scholarly but you have to have something to say. A different world view to present. A stand point from which you challenge reality and it should be documented somewhere so that others could read it and build on it.

We teach we don’t learn

Arrogance is a sin and for a good reason.  We keep going around the world lecturing, speaking in conferences, going around telling others how to do things. Do we listen as much? Do we invite others to speak to us about their experiences? Are we even curious? We ask others to stand in solidarity, do we extend it? 

Dealing with authority

We don’t have a clear strategy to deal with authority. Do we talk to them? Do we boycott? Do we strike deals with political parties or not? Many central questions that seem to be answered haphazardly. Recently, I was asked to speak at a hearing in the Shura Council. Asking around, I found out that my fellow feminists refused to go. Nevertheless, they agreed to appear with members of the Shura Council on Television. This perplexed me. Are we or aren’t we speaking to those in power? Are we using the media to advance our message or are we being used by the media for sensational news?

“I will support you no matter what” syndrome

We don’t like the way some of us do things but we go anyway. We participate in conferences, workshops, marches and demonstrations that we don’t approve of. I found myself going and criticizing, going and mocking, going and disapproving but always there. Because we have to stand by each other no matter, do we really have to?

The events are overwhelming. We are running from this meeting to another to this protest and that march. There is often little or no time for reflection. But maybe for the sake of the movement it’s time to ask ourselves some serious questions. It’s time to reflect. I hope that this article spurs a conversation in the Egyptian feminist movement.

With all the love, respect and in solidarity.

Dina Wahba is an Egyptian women’s rights activist who participated actively in the Egyptian revolution and has been involved in several initiatives that aim at promoting women’s rights and women representation in the political life post revolution. The Women without Borders/SAVE team met her at Trust Women Conference in London, 2012.

Solidarity with victim of Delhi Gang Rape

"TWN are horrified and disgusted by the brutal beating, gang rape and death of a 23 year old university student on a bus in New Delhi, India. Violence against women and girls is a crime, legally, morally and ethically as well as being a worldwide problem.

The attack occurred December 16 while the women and a friend were riding home on a bus from seeing a film. 

The attack has highlighted the many problems of how India deals with the crime of rape. UN figures quoted in the Washington Post reveal that three-fourths of the perpetrators of India’s 24,206 rapes in 2011 are still at large, and that’s not even including the rapes that go unreported, which are thought to be the majority of cases.

TWN would like to extent its sympathy to the family of this woman and continues it call for greater resources to be deployed in the combat of this heinous crime."

The Training for Women Network in Northern Ireland has long been a partner of Women without Borders/SAVE 

Breaking the Silence on Violence

The 1989 Montreal Massacre converted November 25 into a rallying day for campaigns fighting violence against women. Today is White Ribbon Day and the first day of the annual 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women.Although we may see Western societies as gender equal, the hidden reality is that 45% of all women in Europe are estimated to experience gender-based violence at least once in their lives. These campaigns can help raise awareness and reverse this trend, says Emelie Laurin

First published in Polemics

On this day in 1989, an enraged gunman shot 14 women engineering students to death in a classroom in Montreal. The tragedy became known as the Montreal Massacre, and has for the last two decades been a galvanising force for movements aimed at the elimination of violence against women.

Today is the first day of the annual 16 Days of Activism to End Violence Against Women. First organized by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, New Jersey, in 1991, the campaign brings groups from all over the world together in speaking out against all forms of gender violence.

Two Austrian dailies  recently published articles about an increase during 2009 in the amount of women and children seeking help in ”Wiener Frauenhäuser”, an organisation in Vienna that provides shelter and support for women and children experiencing domestic violence and abuse. The articles speak of an increase that amounts to 26 more women and 57 more children than in 2008, adding up to a total of 583 women and 571 children during 2009 seeking refuge in one of the four shelters provided by the organisation in Vienna. A rough 50 percent of the women turning to ”Wiener Fraunhäuser” during 2009 were migrants. Another shelter is planned for 2012.

In armed conflicts, women and children are ruinously targeted in campaigns of violence that are clearly gender – based, be it physical abuse, sexual violence, genital mutilation, forced marriage, trafficking and murder.

On our home ground, we repeatedly hear boasts of the emblematic features of our continent’s progress in eliminating gender inequality and promoting human rights, and we can find plenty of women holding top-level decision making positions. Since the end of the Balkan Wars in the 1990’s, there is also no real armed conflict to speak of. Yet, in our society, violence against women and children at the grass roots level – that is within the walls of family homes – is the most common violent crime and the greatest violation of human rights one can find in Europe today. In 2008, more than a thousand women in Austria reportedly fell victim to sexual violence according to the Statistical Database of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

Appearing among the top 20 states of the Human Development Index apparently does not affect a state’s risks of showing up on indexes measuring less becoming trends. Considered to be a highly developed country demonstrating a low level of gender inequality, Sweden made it to number one on a list of countries reporting remarkably high levels of rape and crimes of sexual violence, according to a study conducted by the European Union in 2009.

This rather disturbing result was explained by the higher tendency in Sweden to report crimes of sexual abuse, but also by the prevailing values and norms relating to the society’s stereotypical notion of sexual violence. Contrary to what many still believe, sexual violence rarely involves an unknown man attacking a woman in a public, dark place. Rather, sexual violence and other gender-based violence occur in daily life, in situations where the victims are very much at home. In Europe, 45% of all women in Europe are estimated to experience gender-based violence at least once in their lives.

Today is not only the beginning of the 16 days for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, but also the end of the White Ribbon Campaign for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. White Ribbon is a campaign specifically organized by men working to reduce violence against women by educating men and boys.

The 16 days campaign, by contrast, aims not only at emphasizing the fact that gender based violence is a violation of human rights, but also encapsulates other days dedicated to highlight issues relating to Human Rights, such as World Aids Day on December 1, The International Day for the Abolition of Slavery on December 2, International Day for Disabled Persons on December 3 and the Human Rights Day on December 10. More than 150 countries have participated in the campaign so far. It was officially recognized as a United Nation’s campaign day in 1999.

Here in Austria, the ”16 Tage Gegen Gewalt An Frauen” is officially acknowledged by representatives of state and municipalities all over the country who on November 25 symbolically hoist hundreds of flags carrying the slogan ”Frei Leben Ohne Gewalt” – A Life in Freedom Without Violence – as a sign of the Austrian community’s support for the campaign.

The day is particularly acknowledged here in Austria by the lobby ”Autonome Österreichische Frauenhäuser” (Independent Women’s Refuge in Austria) which functions as an umbrella organisation for establishments like Wiener Frauenhäuser. Being the main institutions in society with first-hand experience from the field, it makes sense that these establishments send out a particularly loud clarion call during these days.

What makes less sense is that while these 16 days of campaigning pass by, more than ten percent of all women in Europe will still face violence in the home every day, and women and girls will still make up nearly the entire group of the victims of international human trafficking who are used for commercial sexual exploitation.