Arab Women’s political Situation After Revolutions
“Case Study Egypt”
Arab Women’s political Situation after Revolutions
“Case Study Egypt”
PhD Thesis Summary
Lamis Ahmad (Saifey)
Arab Women’s political Situation after Revolutions
“Case Study Egypt”
PhD Thesis Summary
My researches focuses on women’s political participation and representation in Egypt. The choice of theme for my research was informed by my identity and experiences as an Arab Palestinian woman and the impact of the Arab revolutions, particularly the revolutions in Egypt on women’s rights and emancipation.
My research proposal is to investigate whether Arab women had gained or not the political equality that they deserve and asked for within the new government after the revolutions? Egypt will be the case study in this research, since Egypt is one of the biggest countries in the Middle East, it always had a major political role in area and the recent changes in Egypt will have an influence on other countries on the area. This research will be studying the development of women’s political roles before and after the revolution of 25 January, it will investigate the government’s moves and plans to improve women’s political participation in the transitional government. For this I use feminist theories, especially feminist liberal theories, as theoretical approach for understanding the current situation of women in Egypt after the revolution and develop a field research of women in decision-making positions and women activists.
The thesis is organized in four distinct chapters and a conclusion. The chapters are organized symmetrically, so that the first and fourth chapter focus in the situation in Egypt, with the first chapter detailing women’s mobilization and organizing in Egyptian history and the fourth chapter focusing on recent Egyptian history, particularly on the aftermath of the Egyptian revolutions, as seen through the voices and experiences of Egyptian women interviewed as part of a field research. The second and third chapter detail the theoretical framework and the methodological approach of the thesis, namely a qualitative-centered feminist methodology used to investigate various variables relevant through the lens of a liberal feminist framework.
Chapter 1:
This chapter details the history of Arab feminist movement focusing on Egypt’s feminist movement and women’s movements. The feminist movement in Egypt was born in 1919, when a number of veiled upper-class women protested against the British occupation at that time, feminism being deeply connected to the fight against colonialism. In 1923 the Egyptian Feminist Union was founded: the first feminist organization in Egypt, member of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance.
The 1940s was the period of the resistance of Arab societies against imperialism and in this context a lot of women’s activists at the time aligned with left idealist, while in 1942 the Egyptian Women’s Party was established. In 1948 Doria Shafik founded the Daughters of the Nile association, an organization fighting for access to basic services and political rights (AHDR, 2005).
Until the 50’s in Egypt there already existed a wide variety of women’s movements and groups, depending on their ideological and social position “It is during this period of the 1940’s that the women’s movement took in different directions: the aristocratic charity-oriented “ladies of the salon” affiliated with Princess Chevikar; Doria Shafik’s Bint El-Nil, a mixture between charity, feminist consciousness-raising and political protest; the Lagnat al-Shabaat (Committee of Young Women) founded by Ceza Nabarawi and Inji Aflatoun to revive the fading Egyptian Feminist Union as it attracted “pro-communist women who were prevented by the government to establish an organization of their own” (Nelson apud Al-Ali, 2002, p. 8), while also seeing organizing efforts by Islamist and simultaneously welfare-oriented “Muslim Women’s Society” created by Zeinab Al-Gahzali (Al-Ali, 2002, p. 8). In 1956 women in Egypt were granted political rights in the Constitution and during the 1957 elections Rawya Atiya was elected the first woman parliamentarian in the Arab world (Abu-Zayed, 1998).
However, social and economic factors were and still an obstacle for most women in Arab countries to run for office or have significant political participation. What followed was a period of state feminism, up until the 70’s with particularly labour laws changed so that women could enter the workforce in more favourable circumstances. The right to vote was also gained. Thus the time between 1956 and 1979 was a new stage for women: they started to participate in public life in new ways, by starting their own businesses, by entering the parliament, and thus becoming increasingly visible. During the 1960s, women’s groups were engaged with the only legal political organization of the time, the Arab Socialist Union, and many of them were carrying out welfare activities (Sullivan, 1987).
Other changes regarding women's situation also happened in Egypt, as well as in other Arab countries at the time countries. Women had been part of the national struggle revolution and anti-colonization struggle. This had created a context where women were active and mobilizing and organizing at a time when the Egyptian republic was being built and their contribution to the national struggle was recognized. Marvat Hatem characterizes this period lasting from the early 50’s for at least two decades as one marked by state feminism. She underscores the meaning of state feminism as central to understanding the developments in Egypt at the time regarding women’s situation: “It referred to government efforts to remove the structural basis of gender inequality by making reproduction a public, not a private concern and by employing increasing numbers of women in the state sector.” (Hatem, 1993, p. 231). The Nasser regime with its state feminism produced mixed results (Al-Ali, 2002, p. 8-10). In terms of women’s mobilization and organizations, these decreased in activity and importance, since the state became the main avenue for implementing new reforms and the only main remaining cause was suffrage (Hatem, 1993, p. 233). At the same time the legal and civic status of women overall improved in many areas
After a period without mass mobilization starting from the 80’s, the end of the 20th Century is characterized by the NGO-ization of feminism and gender inequality marking all spheres of society. While older charitable women’s organizations from the beginning of the 20th century attracted a great number of women and were organized in connection to national emancipation, millennial NGO’s echo international development approaches, are marked by the professionalization of activists and a dispersion of agendas and small target groups (Jad, 2004, pp. 34-38).
Arab women are facing many challenges, from discriminatory laws and policies, to social and cultural challenges that have entrenched male domination. Patriarchy as an ideology prevails within the society and the state; and this is reflected both in the stereotyping of women and in the unequal access to participation in all community and life fields, discrimination and inequalities of power dynamics, biases against women in the public sphere, religious beliefs, gender based violence, gender roles. Other factors are also important challenges: high illiteracy rates, unequal access to education, the continuous discrimination against and violations of women and girls' rights , unequal access to health care and related services. Moreover, economic challenges as well, are one of the most important challenges, since women are the poorest in the Arab societies as well as in many other countries all over the world. This situation is caused by high rates of unemployment among women; low-paid, insecure, part-time, home-based and informal work; “traditionally” economic activities that are low skilled;, limited access to property rights and land; low utilization of technology; unequal access to resources, bank credit and loans; limited participation in self-employment-micro/small enterprise ownership. Inequality between men and women in the sharing of power and decision making, discrimination against women in decision making positions came to be reflected in laws and policies which are not usually gender sensitive.
Chapter 2:
In this chapter I present the main ideological and theoretical positions present in feminism and develop a presentation of liberal feminism. Feminism is a wide concept which covers a large variety of feminist political theories that can be divided along multiple lines (historical, geographical and ideological).
The framework I use for this chapter focuses on some of the main ideological feminist approaches and particularly liberal feminism. Liberal feminism is considered as the most widely employed branch of feminism and it has a long tradition. It is based on the idea that all people are equal and should have equal rights regardless of their gender, as well as equal opportunities policies. Liberal feminism has used liberalism as a basic starting point in order to achieve its main goal, which is equality for women, the basic principles of liberal thoughts is that, all individuals are born equal, rational, then able and free to choose for themselves, rule of law, and equal opportunities (Arneil, 1999).
Liberal feminists believe that the major problem of gender inequality is the domination of political institutions by men. Liberal feminist work on transforming the existing structure, in order to share the power inside the institutions equally between women and men (Jaggar, 1983), and it is on this particular aspect of liberal feminism this chapter develops on, particularly concerning women’s access to state institutions holding political power: the Parliament and the Government.
In the sphere of international contexts liberal feminism focuses on democratization and its relation to gender equality, particularly through the enforcement of universal rights and the importance of gendered representation. The feminist liberal position is that liberal democratization is deeply tied to increasing gender equality, through changing traditional, religious and traditional oppressive contexts. Such a position is reflected by Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart (2005) in their in-depth comparative study on the relation between liberal democratization and an increase in gender equality. Their research identifies policies that are conducive to greater gender equality, stating that “Equal opportunity policies reflecting common classical liberal beliefs may prove more popular than strategies designed to achieve affirmative action, gender parity, or positive discrimination for women.” (Inglehart and Norris, 2005, p. 31) One particular factor Inglehart and Norris focus on is women’s political representation and women as political leaders. Women’s presence in governing is important for a variety of reasons, one main argument being that “It could well be that the experience of having many women involved in political life could shift public opinion in a more egalitarian direction, dispelling traditional stereotypes about men making better political leaders than women.” (Inglehart and Norris, 2005, p. 139).
From my observation, I can see that unlike the history of Western feminisms, which has been explored in great detail over the last few decades, histories of Middle East women’s engagement with feminism are rare. Although when liberal feminism arose in the West, it had it’s counterparts in the Middle East countries, particularly among professional middle-class women, and when it comes to women in Arab countries, it is noticeable that the inequality problems that women face are similar and different at the same time.
Women in Arab countries have more problems in the public sphere as a result of the strict family and society traditions, in addition to the unfair laws and specific realities and relations to the Western World. Some of the main factors contributing to Arab women subordination are customs and legal constraints and that’s one the important reasons why Arab women still have a noticeable discrimination in the public sphere, and one of the most important elements in order to achieve a just status for women in Arab world is to have equal chances in the public sphere, which until the moment they still don’t have and which can only be achieved if gender discrimination is fought against. Arab women’s subordination mainly come from social customs and traditions, and from the legal constraints, this custom which see women’s place only at home, and still reject to see women in leading position, as well as laws which deal with women as a second class citizens and they are in general unfair to women, and eliminate women’s chances to get to high positions. In order to have a fair situation for Arab women the best start can be from laws and working on changing the stereotypes of women’s roles in the society and have increased participation in decision-making.
Feminists in Arab countries have created a movement that is a bit different from Western Liberal positions and functions in a different context. However, Liberal feminism has played an important role, and still does in many feminist communities in the Arab world, with a contemporary presence in Egypt of “a liberal feminism that relies heavily on the secular discourse of rights as both constitution-based and as derived from the principal UN human rights instruments.” (Abu-Odeh, 2004, pp. 153-154). “When addressing family law for example and the need to change it, the liberal feminist thought is very present: mainstream feminists have always engaged in and supported their tactical agenda of reform advocacy with an elaborate discourse on liberal feminism” (Abu-Odeh, 2004, p. 174). This is a contemporary liberal feminism, where the public sphere is understood as political and where political claims are made regarding the need for a change is Egyptian family law and state policies regarding the family.
Women’s political participation in politics has long been a liberal feminist tenet. As well, women have always faced difficulties in accessing political power and decision-making positions: “Women who want to enter politics find that the political, public, cultural and social environment is often unfriendly or even hostile to them. Even a quick glance at the current composition of political decision makers in any region provides evidence that women still face numerous obstacles in articulating and shaping their own interests.” (Shvedova, 2005, p.33). While these obstacles are often specific to a place and time, women all over the world battle difficult circumstances when it comes to political participation, and some scholars argue for an approach focusing on identifying and tackling the main common issues and problems that women face when attempting to enter parliaments and on conquering adversities. (Shvedova, 2005).
It is interesting that women’s representation and political participation are central to liberal feminists, but the idea of quotas, present in Egypt’s electoral system and important to my analysis, is different from classical liberal thought. In classical liberal thought changing the formal framework and particularly removing formal barriers women faced in attaining representation was considered sufficient. For example, grating women the right to vote or run in an election is in classical liberal thought enough to ensure equality, with women then having to enter the electoral competition and prove themselves. This “competitive equality” has been since challenged and strong feminist claims and mobilization have pressured for an equality “of result”. The main feminist argument has been that formal removal of barriers do not lead to further representation, since women still face direct discrimination and social barriers. Through quotas and other similar policies compensatory measures are taken to ensure true equality (Dahlerup, 2005, p. 145 ).