Feminism in Egypt isn't the same feminism that we know today, in the West. There, it operates in small cells rather than as a national movement, and Egyptian women are fighting for many of the things that our great-great grandmothers fought for more than a century ago.
Nawal El Saadawi, a novelist, playwright, and psychologist, is probably the most revered feminist leader that Egypt has. For more than fifty years, El Saadawi has spoken up on behalf of women in Egypt, showing in psychological studies the ill-effects of a repressive society and of misogyny and abuse. Her work was banned in her country for its explosive railing against the government's stance on women, questioning Islam (and other religions), and otherwise daring to fight for freedom of speech and basic human rights for women and girls.
After writing a study of women in a prison outside Cairo in 1981, she was imprisoned for crimes against the state by Anwar Sadat - released two months after his assassination. During that time, she wrote "Memoirs" on a roll of toilet paper with an eyeliner pencil, refusing to back down from what she knew was right.
A victim of genital mutilation as a child, El Saadawi campaigned relentlessly for the practice to be banned in Egypt. It finally was, in 2008, but she still rallies against it as the conservative religious continue to torture and maim young girls in this way. She has fought for Egyptian women's right to divorce, and also fought for her own right to stay married after the government attempted to force her to divorce her husband. Why? She was deemed to be unfit, because of her feminist beliefs, to be married to a Muslim man.
After seeing her work banned, dismantled, and slandered by the Egyptian government, El Saadawi still continues her activism and supports the actions of the protesters calling for Mubarak to resign. Hopefully, her leadership will finally get the respect it deserves in her own country, and will lead the small cells of feminists into the open where they can openly fight for their rights.
Democracy Now has posted an interview with her about the current unrest - check it out.
I hope she does get more respect under a new government. My fear is that government may become more fundamentalist, in which case she could be in more trouble. The situation in Egypt is too fluid right now to know for sure.
Thanks for the post, she sounds like a very interesting individual!
Hi Andy - yes it's so volatile right now, and hard to even try to predict which direction the new government will go in, once it's in place. We can only hope that seeing women on the streets fighting alongside their male counterparts is a good sign.
Thanks for commenting!