Aida Seif el-Dawla is a die-hard secular activist, and Heba Raouf is an Islamist who has worn the veil since she was 13. Different in almost every way, they stood shoulder to shoulder at a recent rally, united in anger over a new flashpoint in reform efforts here: attacks on women.
Government supporters are suspected of a series of attacks against women at a protest by reformers last month against a referendum on multi-candidate presidential elections that they claimed would only solidify President Hosni Mubarak's hold on power.
While security and riot police looked on, men and women -- including protesters, journalists, and passers-by -- were beaten by men alleged to be working for the ruling National Democratic Party. The women were groped and several had their clothes partially torn off.
PHOTO: AP
"We were targeted as women, and today we respond to them as women," Seif el-Dawla, 50, said of those attacks. "We won't be hostage to fear, and we're not staying home."
Outrage over the assaults has energized women -- inspiring some to join the various movements in Egypt pushing for democratic reform and an end to Mubarak's rule.
"We are going ahead with our demands for democracy, there is no going back," she said at a June 9 rally of hundreds of men and women at the Press Syndicate, a building housing the union of Egyptian journalists.
At the same rally, Raouf -- wearing a beige khimar, a conservative form of veil draped over her head and upper body -- agreed.
Many of the women's groups supported by the government are just decoration to appease the West "by pretending they are empowering women," said the 39-year-old Raouf. "Actually what's taking place is just the giving of a female face to the regime's authoritarianism."
At a street protest Wednesday in Cairo, Rab'a Fahmy, one of the women who was assaulted on May 25, stood up on a platform above a crowd of about 150 activists, leading them in chants of "Down with Mubarak."
About a third of the protesters were women. They and many of the men wore buttons declaring "The street is ours," the new slogan to rally women around the reform movement after the assaults.
Manal Baheyeddin, 23, who runs a pro-reform Web log, said she had rarely joined protests until after the referendum violence.
"This was the first time something so despicable has happened here. Since the referendum, more people have been joining in with us," said Baheyeddin at Wednesday's protest.
The referendum approved a constitutional amendment opening September presidential elections to multiple candidates for the first time.
About a week after the women were attacked at the referendum protest, about a thousand men and women including journalists, activists and some who were previously not politically active, protested against the violence at the Press Syndicate, wearing black.
Newspaper columnists in opposition papers -- and even in the pro-government Al-Ahram -- asked why the Egyptian National Council for Women, headed by First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, remained silent over the assaults.
Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama said he had expected the council, created in 2000 to draw up ways to empower women -- to condemn the violence.
"It seems that the political and moral setback that Egypt is going through has put women's empowerment in a very different context, to subjugate, marginalize and exclude them from politics," he said.
Egypt has seen an unprecedented string of anti-Mubarak protests this year, led by Kifaya -- Arabic for "Enough" -- a movement formed from secularists, communists, Muslim Brotherhood members.
"I was never a freedom fighter, or have any political history," Nawal Ali, a reporter who was badly beaten and her clothes were torn on referendum day, said at a June 9 news conference.
"Nobody can afford to be passive anymore, the flood is coming, and no one would be spared. We all have to say no," she added.
Among the women present were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamist group, who rarely take part in meetings with secularists and leftists.
Separately, Egypt's prosecutor general said Saturday that 500 Muslim Brotherhood members were arrested last month for demonstrating illegally.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese