The female faces of Egypt’s revolution
by André Azzam
Egyptian women have been beaten by soldiers and humiliated before the world but have become key players in the Arab spring. Whether Muslim or Christian, together they oppose the lies of the caretaker government and the media. Still, as new demonstrations are planned for Tahrir Square, violence against young people continues.
Cairo (AsiaNews) – Egyptian Women, deliberately ignored and put aside from the revolution since last March are now regaining their dignity and are letting the whole world hear their voice.
Not one of them was elected in the recent parliamentary elections held in two thirds of the 27 provinces or governorates. Terribly mistreated by the army in the last days, in front of the whole world, they reacted by organizing a major demonstration Tuesday in Cairo. Thousands of them crossed the heart of Cairo, walking along Maspero Avenue, where the Egyptian State TV building stands, to reach Tahrir Square to make their voice and protest heard.
Women with or without veil
Among the many veiled and unveiled women, some well know figures, like Bouthayna Kamel, candidate to the presidency. The women were surrounded by large numbers of men who decided to join them and protect their sides from any possible attack.
They were strongly shouting their protest against the recent events, which showed the world how many Egyptian women have been molested and savagely attacked by soldiers. “Women have not been undressed, it is the armed forces who unveiled their real face,” read one of the many banners, they held.
Other banners read, “Egyptian women are a red line not to cross,” “The army is to protect us, not to undress us,” “You who are silent, why? Isn’t she your sister?”, “Down with the army rule», and paraphrasing a famous poem by the late poet Amal Dongol, “No reconciliation for bloodshed”.
They were also denouncing “the rotten official information and media, directly accusing the armed forces of responsibility in all recent events, even when fire broke out in buildings like the Egyptian Institute.
In fact, no one in Egypt can accept what happened, how people, women, doctors, journalists and demonstrators have been treated.
Many women and other segments of the population, when asked, totally reject excuses presented in Tuesday’s press conference held on Tuesday by one of top generals. Instead, they are asking instead for “official and political excuses by Marshal Tantawy (acting chief of state) along with a quick investigation about the events and harsh penalty sentences”.
A group of public figures, among whom are some of the elected candidates in the Parliament, have lodged an official accusation against the armed forces, namely the general in charge of the troops downtown Cairo, as well as the minister of the Interior , the minister of Health, the minister of Information, for the death of 15 people in the recent events. This group held a sit-in front of the Supreme Court in the central Cairo. The moment they arrived there, they found groups of baltagiyya (hooligans) waiting for them, so they went to have the sit-in front of the Lawyers Trade Union, behind the court. This sit-in is maintained every day four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening.
All TV channels and newspapers, except the official ones belonging to the state have reproduced women total refusal of the armed forces excuses. The press conference held Tuesday by General Adel Emara was badly welcomed, since he used an authoritarian way shouting at journalists and threatening a woman journalist to “shut up or be expelled!” He barely recognized the way women were treated and asked people to consider this as part of a terrible situation, accusing "a third party", without mentioning who it is, to be handling the events in the framework of a vast plot and conspiracy against Egyptian state.
This same trend was adopted yesterday in another press conference by the minister of justice, «accusing external powers to destroy Egyptian revolution» and «warning against what could happen on the 25th of January, for the first anniversary or the revolution». The minister did not name any of these dark and unknown powers, just hinting that many civil society NGOs «received illicit funds from abroad». This did not answer the question raised by the famous novelist Alaa al Asswany about the huge funds received by the Muslim Brothers and the Salafists from Saudi Arabia. Mr Asswany stated recently that a check of 300 million has reached the Salafists without the authorities asking how and why.
Media lies
About the information conveyed by the official media and by the authorities, all the experts state, “We are back to the former way of distorting realities.” A famous editorialist, Salah Issa is asking about details concerning this conspiracy «so that we can share in dismantling it if ever it exists». Azza Karim, a woman teacher of sociology in the National Centre for Sociological studies is stating that «the real responsible for a new revolution is the SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces), since he had for the past period all the legislative and executive prerogatives without using them to achieve the legal demands of the revolution. Egypt does not need a new revolution as much as new waves to achieve the basic requirements». She added, “The SCAF should very quickly deliver the power to civilians”.
At the same time, many media revealed the wrong information conveyed by the official channels of TV who have been showing a group of young men testifying that they have been paid by someone from the Parliament to launch Molotov cocktails and set fire in different places.
The media were able to discover that this group of men had been arrested two days before the events and are still detained by the public prosecutor’s department. They have even given the official number of the summons warrant. Many such information accusing known persons are spread about people like Ayman Noor, or Ramy Lakah, who threatened to sue anyone diffusing such “false accusations, without any proof”.
Mrs Radwa, activist in the Human Rights field, expressed her disillusion about proceeding to the old way of cheating and lying, telling falsehoods, “Egypt will never advance without adopting a new way of telling the truth and facing realities in a positive way, instead of always rejecting the responsibility on a ‘third element’ who is always unknown”.
Many statements have expressed the strong disappointment provoked by the armed forces in their way of handling the situation. Dr Nihad Aboul Omsâne, activist women member of the Centre for Human Rights stated that “the armed forces have completely destroyed their relationship with the Egyptian people, refusing, as she said, the dual choice offered, ‘to die drowned or burned’.”
Egyptian women have the reputation to be strong, even though denied their rights or mashed by traditions and by men. With their reaction in Tuesday’s demonstration, their regained their dignity and firmly asserted their strong personality.
On FaceBook, they recently organized what is called, “Sisters of the Revolution Movement» and they shouted strongly in Tahrir Square, “No to marginalization of women and preventing them from sharing in the events and in the democratic transformation of the country». They insisted also to let the famous undressed woman (Ghada Kamal Abdel Raziq) be molested by the army regain her dignity stating, “We are all Ghada Kamal Abdel Raziq”.
The women of the revolution
The mother of Ahmad, a young man killed in the events of Mohammad Mahmud street on 19 November, has never stopped sharing the demonstrations. These last days, she was shouting in Tahrir Square, «Dear Marshal, come and see what is happening to our youth, come and explain to us what happened to Khalid Said, Mina Daniel, Ahmad, Alaa Abd al Hadi…”.
Nashwa Abdel Tawwab, widow of famous Shaykh Emad Effat, assistant to the Mufti, who was shot at point-blank range last week in the events in front of the Ministers’ Council stated that «he was expecting to die as a martyr and this is what happened», but she is still waiting to find out about the inquiry and know exactly who has shot him and obeying to what orders.
On the other side, a university woman teacher, Hind Nafeh Badawy badly injured and transferred to the military hospital dismissed Marshall Tantawy when he came to visit the wounded people in the hospital. She turned him down, as was reported by Al-Badil newspaper.
It has later been reported on FaceBook that she received bad treatments after this sequence and finally she was transferred to a university hospital. Yesterday, a complaint was lodged against this university hospital, the minister of Higher Education, the Ministry of Health and the university because many patients, among whom Hind, were denied treatment by doctors and nursing staff who maintained them with the handcuffs.
Farida is a young medical doctor who emigrated to Australia last year and shared over there many support demonstrations to the Egyptian revolution. She decided to come back last summer and fully share the movement for the changes desired for Egypt. She explained at the TV how she was arrested on her way to cure the wounded people next to Parliament a few days ago. She was beaten and harassed by army members who took her inside the Parliament premises. There she found many other people arrested, among whom a woman called Ghada, who answered back to the soldier beating her and was threatened not to come out of this in one piece. Farida tried to tell everyone not to react. Finally, an officer superior in grade, came in, presented his excuses and told them they would be released, which took a certain time to happen after their I.D. papers were returned to them.
Old and new violence
Another medical doctor, Christian Dr Mona, who is acting at the field hospital next to Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir Square explained now the campaign hospital was burned with all the medicine and equipment. Still the hospital maintained, inside the mosque premises, treatment for wounded, mainly people injured with severe wounds on the head and the face, compound fractures, wounds provoked by bayonets, as well as some people hit by bullets.
Four days ago, Alaa Abd al Hady, a young doctor in his final year of medicine, coming to help at the field hospital was shot dead in front of Omar Makram mosque field hospital. Yesterday another student, Mohammad Mustapha, engineer, from the same university died after a surgery. He received a bullet in his back in Tahrir square at Tuesday dawn. He had a strong haemorrhage that needed transfusing 38 packages of blood offered by his fellow students, but he died yesterday evening. He was a national tennis champion.
The two of them belonged to Ayn Shams University in Abbasseyya area, not far away from the defence ministry. On Wednesday afternoon, even before Mohammad Mustapha’s death, a huge student demonstration headed by the University President and the teaching staff started from the university until the defence ministry where the SCAF stands.
The question everyone is asking, why this brutality? Why people are not peacefully arrested ad submitted to a clean investigation, why this ferocious way of treating the people?
Radoua Ashour, woman novelist and teacher at both Ayn Shams and Cairo Universities, was stating yesterday, «We have not been able to protect our youth, who are the future of the country, who are its blossoming flowers. The responsible people of all this mess must be tried and convicted. She added what was stated fifteen years ago by another teacher, «They are victims, but they write history». What everyone wants, added Radoua, «is the famous slogan of the Egyptian spring revolution of January 2011, ‘Bread, Liberty and Social Justice’.”
Egyptian Students Federation is initiating a «Week for Universities’ Anger». Tomorrow, Friday, a huge demonstration in called on Tahrir square under the title «Friday of Recovering Dignity». Sixteen movements and parties are calling for it, but the Muslim Brothers and the Salafists announced they are not sharing. Late, yesterday, a counter demonstration was called in Abbasseyya square, next to defence ministry.
On Tuesday a communiqué form the SCAF suggesting a presidential election around the 25th of January to mark the revolution anniversary has not been welcomed, as if SCAF «wants to withdraw from responsibility» as many sources reacted.
Yesterday, Marshall Tantawy called the new Parliament to hold its first meeting on Monday the 23d of January at 11 am.
Until then a general feeling of worry is spread and everybody is caring about what can go on and how the armed forces will try to prevent any revolutionary movement on the Egyptian revolution anniversary for the 25th of January next.
Not one of them was elected in the recent parliamentary elections held in two thirds of the 27 provinces or governorates. Terribly mistreated by the army in the last days, in front of the whole world, they reacted by organizing a major demonstration Tuesday in Cairo. Thousands of them crossed the heart of Cairo, walking along Maspero Avenue, where the Egyptian State TV building stands, to reach Tahrir Square to make their voice and protest heard.
Women with or without veil
Among the many veiled and unveiled women, some well know figures, like Bouthayna Kamel, candidate to the presidency. The women were surrounded by large numbers of men who decided to join them and protect their sides from any possible attack.
They were strongly shouting their protest against the recent events, which showed the world how many Egyptian women have been molested and savagely attacked by soldiers. “Women have not been undressed, it is the armed forces who unveiled their real face,” read one of the many banners, they held.
Other banners read, “Egyptian women are a red line not to cross,” “The army is to protect us, not to undress us,” “You who are silent, why? Isn’t she your sister?”, “Down with the army rule», and paraphrasing a famous poem by the late poet Amal Dongol, “No reconciliation for bloodshed”.
They were also denouncing “the rotten official information and media, directly accusing the armed forces of responsibility in all recent events, even when fire broke out in buildings like the Egyptian Institute.
In fact, no one in Egypt can accept what happened, how people, women, doctors, journalists and demonstrators have been treated.
Many women and other segments of the population, when asked, totally reject excuses presented in Tuesday’s press conference held on Tuesday by one of top generals. Instead, they are asking instead for “official and political excuses by Marshal Tantawy (acting chief of state) along with a quick investigation about the events and harsh penalty sentences”.
A group of public figures, among whom are some of the elected candidates in the Parliament, have lodged an official accusation against the armed forces, namely the general in charge of the troops downtown Cairo, as well as the minister of the Interior , the minister of Health, the minister of Information, for the death of 15 people in the recent events. This group held a sit-in front of the Supreme Court in the central Cairo. The moment they arrived there, they found groups of baltagiyya (hooligans) waiting for them, so they went to have the sit-in front of the Lawyers Trade Union, behind the court. This sit-in is maintained every day four hours in the morning and four hours in the evening.
All TV channels and newspapers, except the official ones belonging to the state have reproduced women total refusal of the armed forces excuses. The press conference held Tuesday by General Adel Emara was badly welcomed, since he used an authoritarian way shouting at journalists and threatening a woman journalist to “shut up or be expelled!” He barely recognized the way women were treated and asked people to consider this as part of a terrible situation, accusing "a third party", without mentioning who it is, to be handling the events in the framework of a vast plot and conspiracy against Egyptian state.
This same trend was adopted yesterday in another press conference by the minister of justice, «accusing external powers to destroy Egyptian revolution» and «warning against what could happen on the 25th of January, for the first anniversary or the revolution». The minister did not name any of these dark and unknown powers, just hinting that many civil society NGOs «received illicit funds from abroad». This did not answer the question raised by the famous novelist Alaa al Asswany about the huge funds received by the Muslim Brothers and the Salafists from Saudi Arabia. Mr Asswany stated recently that a check of 300 million has reached the Salafists without the authorities asking how and why.
Media lies
About the information conveyed by the official media and by the authorities, all the experts state, “We are back to the former way of distorting realities.” A famous editorialist, Salah Issa is asking about details concerning this conspiracy «so that we can share in dismantling it if ever it exists». Azza Karim, a woman teacher of sociology in the National Centre for Sociological studies is stating that «the real responsible for a new revolution is the SCAF (Supreme Council of Armed Forces), since he had for the past period all the legislative and executive prerogatives without using them to achieve the legal demands of the revolution. Egypt does not need a new revolution as much as new waves to achieve the basic requirements». She added, “The SCAF should very quickly deliver the power to civilians”.
At the same time, many media revealed the wrong information conveyed by the official channels of TV who have been showing a group of young men testifying that they have been paid by someone from the Parliament to launch Molotov cocktails and set fire in different places.
The media were able to discover that this group of men had been arrested two days before the events and are still detained by the public prosecutor’s department. They have even given the official number of the summons warrant. Many such information accusing known persons are spread about people like Ayman Noor, or Ramy Lakah, who threatened to sue anyone diffusing such “false accusations, without any proof”.
Mrs Radwa, activist in the Human Rights field, expressed her disillusion about proceeding to the old way of cheating and lying, telling falsehoods, “Egypt will never advance without adopting a new way of telling the truth and facing realities in a positive way, instead of always rejecting the responsibility on a ‘third element’ who is always unknown”.
Many statements have expressed the strong disappointment provoked by the armed forces in their way of handling the situation. Dr Nihad Aboul Omsâne, activist women member of the Centre for Human Rights stated that “the armed forces have completely destroyed their relationship with the Egyptian people, refusing, as she said, the dual choice offered, ‘to die drowned or burned’.”
Egyptian women have the reputation to be strong, even though denied their rights or mashed by traditions and by men. With their reaction in Tuesday’s demonstration, their regained their dignity and firmly asserted their strong personality.
On FaceBook, they recently organized what is called, “Sisters of the Revolution Movement» and they shouted strongly in Tahrir Square, “No to marginalization of women and preventing them from sharing in the events and in the democratic transformation of the country». They insisted also to let the famous undressed woman (Ghada Kamal Abdel Raziq) be molested by the army regain her dignity stating, “We are all Ghada Kamal Abdel Raziq”.
The women of the revolution
The mother of Ahmad, a young man killed in the events of Mohammad Mahmud street on 19 November, has never stopped sharing the demonstrations. These last days, she was shouting in Tahrir Square, «Dear Marshal, come and see what is happening to our youth, come and explain to us what happened to Khalid Said, Mina Daniel, Ahmad, Alaa Abd al Hadi…”.
Nashwa Abdel Tawwab, widow of famous Shaykh Emad Effat, assistant to the Mufti, who was shot at point-blank range last week in the events in front of the Ministers’ Council stated that «he was expecting to die as a martyr and this is what happened», but she is still waiting to find out about the inquiry and know exactly who has shot him and obeying to what orders.
On the other side, a university woman teacher, Hind Nafeh Badawy badly injured and transferred to the military hospital dismissed Marshall Tantawy when he came to visit the wounded people in the hospital. She turned him down, as was reported by Al-Badil newspaper.
It has later been reported on FaceBook that she received bad treatments after this sequence and finally she was transferred to a university hospital. Yesterday, a complaint was lodged against this university hospital, the minister of Higher Education, the Ministry of Health and the university because many patients, among whom Hind, were denied treatment by doctors and nursing staff who maintained them with the handcuffs.
Farida is a young medical doctor who emigrated to Australia last year and shared over there many support demonstrations to the Egyptian revolution. She decided to come back last summer and fully share the movement for the changes desired for Egypt. She explained at the TV how she was arrested on her way to cure the wounded people next to Parliament a few days ago. She was beaten and harassed by army members who took her inside the Parliament premises. There she found many other people arrested, among whom a woman called Ghada, who answered back to the soldier beating her and was threatened not to come out of this in one piece. Farida tried to tell everyone not to react. Finally, an officer superior in grade, came in, presented his excuses and told them they would be released, which took a certain time to happen after their I.D. papers were returned to them.
Old and new violence
Another medical doctor, Christian Dr Mona, who is acting at the field hospital next to Omar Makram Mosque in Tahrir Square explained now the campaign hospital was burned with all the medicine and equipment. Still the hospital maintained, inside the mosque premises, treatment for wounded, mainly people injured with severe wounds on the head and the face, compound fractures, wounds provoked by bayonets, as well as some people hit by bullets.
Four days ago, Alaa Abd al Hady, a young doctor in his final year of medicine, coming to help at the field hospital was shot dead in front of Omar Makram mosque field hospital. Yesterday another student, Mohammad Mustapha, engineer, from the same university died after a surgery. He received a bullet in his back in Tahrir square at Tuesday dawn. He had a strong haemorrhage that needed transfusing 38 packages of blood offered by his fellow students, but he died yesterday evening. He was a national tennis champion.
The two of them belonged to Ayn Shams University in Abbasseyya area, not far away from the defence ministry. On Wednesday afternoon, even before Mohammad Mustapha’s death, a huge student demonstration headed by the University President and the teaching staff started from the university until the defence ministry where the SCAF stands.
The question everyone is asking, why this brutality? Why people are not peacefully arrested ad submitted to a clean investigation, why this ferocious way of treating the people?
Radoua Ashour, woman novelist and teacher at both Ayn Shams and Cairo Universities, was stating yesterday, «We have not been able to protect our youth, who are the future of the country, who are its blossoming flowers. The responsible people of all this mess must be tried and convicted. She added what was stated fifteen years ago by another teacher, «They are victims, but they write history». What everyone wants, added Radoua, «is the famous slogan of the Egyptian spring revolution of January 2011, ‘Bread, Liberty and Social Justice’.”
Egyptian Students Federation is initiating a «Week for Universities’ Anger». Tomorrow, Friday, a huge demonstration in called on Tahrir square under the title «Friday of Recovering Dignity». Sixteen movements and parties are calling for it, but the Muslim Brothers and the Salafists announced they are not sharing. Late, yesterday, a counter demonstration was called in Abbasseyya square, next to defence ministry.
On Tuesday a communiqué form the SCAF suggesting a presidential election around the 25th of January to mark the revolution anniversary has not been welcomed, as if SCAF «wants to withdraw from responsibility» as many sources reacted.
Yesterday, Marshall Tantawy called the new Parliament to hold its first meeting on Monday the 23d of January at 11 am.
Until then a general feeling of worry is spread and everybody is caring about what can go on and how the armed forces will try to prevent any revolutionary movement on the Egyptian revolution anniversary for the 25th of January next.
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See also
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27/08/2016 14:22
27/08/2016 14:22
