Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/30780
told Al-Masry Al-Youm, an Egyptian newspaper. And even the January 25 revolution may not be enough to change that. Such fears are being realized. Nehad Abou El Komsan, chair of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights, is indignant that women have been left out of the political dialogue since Mubarak was ousted. Deplorably, the committee to redraft the constitution excluded women, even female legal experts. The Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights issued a statement denouncing the exclusion, signed to date by 102 Egyptian women’s or- ganizations. So far, no response. Egypt’s leading feminist, Nawal El Saadawi, now 80, feels a new social compact emerged in Tahrir Square: “But how to sustain this? We learned from Algeria. Women became angry when we heard the constitutional committee had not a single woman. Then the men dismissed our state- ment, since it was only paper. So we began planning a march and we are reestablishing the Egyptian Women’s Union—which had been banned—as an umbrella organization. We must unite for political power or men will exclude us. Once we are in the streets in millions, it’s not paper.” Meanwhile, women persevere with stunning courage across the region. In Yemen, protests were sparked by the arrest of 32-year-old Tawakul Karman, head of Women Journalists Without Chains. Now released, she insists, “There is no solution [to ex- tremism] other than spreading the culture of coexistence and dialogue, skills that women master and pos- sess.” In Bahrain, when police fired teargas at Shia women in chadors chanting anti-government slogans, the women sat down, and only after the police fled the caustic fumes did they leave. In Algeria, feminists marched, chanting, “Away with the family code!” In Gaza, Palestinians rallied, demanding that Hamas and Fatah unite, while Asma al-Ghoul, a young journalist known for her defi- ant feminism, called for a secular Palestine. In Libya, the revolt is, at this writing, still convulsively violent, including little-noticed reports of mass rape by government-hired mer- cenaries. Even less known is that it all began at the Benghazi attorney gen- eral’s office with a sit-in by lawyers and judges—led by Salwa Bugaighis, a lawyer in her mid-40s. As Ms. goes to press, protests still are igniting in Jordan, Morocco, Libya, Oman, Sudan, Iraq, Lebanon and Djibouti. International Women’s Day demonstrations were staged in Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen and Egypt. Rallies are even being planned in Saudi Arabia. In Iran—which is Persian, not Arab— thousands took to the streets against the theocracy. A regional young femi- nist action alliance, Women United for the Future of the Middle East, has just formed. (See www.sawtalniswa.com/ 2011/03/wufme.) These women, who must confront first tyrants and then comrades, re- fuse to be stopped. One last example. Syria, tightly controlling of its populace, boasts of setting records for women’s advance- ment. Vice President Najah al-Attar is the first woman in the Arab world to hold such a position (however questionable her real power). Yet in February, Tal al-Molouhi, a 19-year- old high-school student, stood in court chained and blindfolded and was sentenced to five years imprison- ment. She had blogged about longing for a role in building Syria’s future. Tal is that future. Sixty percent of the population in these countries is under age 30—and more than half is female. Nebuchadnezzar, the writing’s on the Facebook wall. ROBIN MORGAN has published 20 books and is Global Editor at Ms. 3Women rally in Tahrir Square for a democratic Egypt. 22 | SPRING 2011 www.feminist.org ROGER LEMOYNE/REDUX