Revolution is not over for women in Egypt

Women who stood in protests during Egypt's 18-day revolution experienced a very different Tahrir Square on International Women's Day.

Several hundred activists gathered in Cairo on Tuesday for a peaceful demonstration to promote women's rights.

But according to Lauren E. Bohn, a Ms.Magazine blogger who witnessed and recorded the event, the "part-celebration, part-demonstration soon turned violent when throngs of men arrived to harass the women."

Women were verbally attacked, groped, and eventually rushed out of the square by the men. 

The Christian Science Monitor reported that the men yelled things like, "Go home, go wash clothes,” and “You are not married; go find a husband.” Others said that now is not the time to demand inclusion.

But for the women who fought with men as equal partners in the revolution, now is a better time than ever to demand inclusion in planning Egypt's future.

Just weeks ago, an article in The Washington Post stated that during the anti-Mubarak protests,"Egyptian women who were in the square were treated with a tolerance they hardly expected. Woman after woman marveled at that."

It isn't difficult to understand why the women who openly participated in every aspect of the revolution would expect to be involved in the daily politics of the country they risked their lives for.

I truly believe that the sense of empowerment Egyptian women felt as they celebrated the end of Mubarak will fuel them through their next revolution: gender equality.


I just hope that stories like this don't discourage Muslim women in the Middle East and North Africa who also want to fight for democracy.