Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/tag/arab-spring/page/2/)
The author was imprisoned after participating in a nonviolent protest and carrying a sign that read: “Only in Syria: the thinking mind is imprisoned.” Since her Jan. 9 release, she has felt a responsibility to share the stories of those she left behind in that prison cell.
A massive gathering is planned today in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to mark the second anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution. Activists working to curb mob sex assaults won’t be celebrating. They’ll be watching for these assaults and victims who need help.
Syrian women in the struggle against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime are outraged by the rise of fundamentalist Islamists in the opposition. These men, they say, are marginalizing women who helped bring the revolution to this brink of victory.
Two years after the start of the Arab Spring, Hajer Naili interviews three post-revolutionary women about the increasingly radical Islamist forces that are smothering their hopes. “I don’t even know what their aims are,” says one woman.
After three weeks of sometimes violent revolt against Morsi’s pro-Islamist power grab, Egypt is slated to hold a vote this weekend on a controversial draft constitution. For women concerned about divorce rights and FGM, the spotlight falls on the loosely worded Article 10.
The new Islamist government isn’t shoring up abortion access, but a women’s rights activist says the loss of access to public abortion began five years ago, when the Ben Ali regime began cutting social costs and privatizing services.
Credit: Minnesota National Guard on Flickr, under Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 2.0).
(WOMENSENEWS)–
Egyptian women’s rights activists have only bad options in the current power crisis. If the Islamists in parliament hold power, they could erase years of legal gains for women. But if the military has its way, a police state could re-emerge.
Assad’s military and pro-government militias are said to be regularly using sexual violence against men, women and children with impunity during the current Syrian conflict.
Egypt’s revolution is now often described as hijacked and women’s legal rights are seen as vulnerable to an Islamic-style promotion of marriage and family. But in a show of their own force, women keep braving the deadly dangers of street protests.