Al Shabaab forced us to wear their type of veil and now they order us to shake our breasts.… They first banned the former veil and introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women’s chests. They are now saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat.
In fact this excessive interest in covering up women’s bodies is not confined to the extremists in Somalia. In Sudan the police examine women’s clothing with extreme vigilance and arrest any woman wearing trousers. They force her to make a public apology for what she has done and then they whip her in public as an example to other women. Some weeks ago Sudanese journalist Lubna al-Husseini insisted on wearing trousers and refused to make the public apology. When she refused to submit to flogging she was referred to a real trial and the farce reached its climax when the judge summoned three witnesses and asked them if they had been able to detect the shape of the accused’s underwear when she was wearing the trousers. When one of the witnesses hesitated in answering, the judge asked him directly, “Did you see Lubna’s stomach when she was wearing the trousers?” The witness gravely replied, “To some extent.” Lubna said she was wearing a modest pair of trousers and that the scandalous pair she was accused of wearing would not suit her at all because she is plump and would need to lose 20 kilos in order to put them on. But the judge convicted her anyway and fined her 500 pounds or a month in prison.
In Egypt, too, extremists continue to take an excessive interest in women’s bodies and in trying to cover them up entirely. They not only advocate that women wear the niqab but also that they wear gloves on their hands, which they believe will ensure that no passions are aroused when men and women shake hands. We really do face a phenomenon that deserves consideration: Why are extremists so obsessed with women’s bodies? Some thoughts might help us answer this question.
First, the extremist view of women is that they are only bodies and instruments for either legitimate pleasure or temptation, as well as factories for producing children. This view strips women of their human nature. Accusing the Somali woman of fraud and deception because she was wearing a bra is the same as charging a merchant who conceals defects in his goods and makes false claims about their quality in order to sell them at a higher price. The idea here is that a woman who accentuates her breasts by using a bra gives a false impression of the goods (her body), which is seen as fraud and deception of the buyer (the man) who might buy (marry) her for her ample breasts and later discover that they were ample because of the bra and not by nature.
It would be fair to remember that treating women’s bodies as commodities is not something found only in extremist ideologies but often happens in western societies, too. The use of women’s naked bodies to market commercial products in the West is merely another application of the idea that women are commodities. Anyone who visits the red-light district in Amsterdam can see for himself how wretched prostitutes, completely naked, are lined up behind glass so that passersby can inspect their charms before agreeing on the price. Isn’t that a modern-day slave market, where women’s bodies are on sale to anyone willing to pay?
Second, extremists believe women to be the source of temptation and the prime cause of sin. This view, which is prevalent in all primitive societies, is unfair and inhumane, because men and women commit sin together and the responsibility is shared and equal. If a beautiful woman arouses and tempts men, then a handsome man also arouses and tempts women. But the extremist ideology is naturally biased in favor of the man and hostile to the woman, and considers that she is primarily responsible for all sins.
Third, being strict about covering up women’s bodies is an easy and effortless form of religious struggle. In Egypt we see dozens of Wahhabi sheikhs who enthusiastically advocate covering up women’s bodies but do not utter a single word against despotism, corruption, fraud, or torture because they know very well that serious opposition to the despotic regime (which should really be their first duty) would inevitably lead to their arrest and torture and the destruction of their lives. Their strictness on things related to women’s bodies enables them to operate as evangelists without any real costs. Throughout human history, strictness toward women has usually been a way to conceal political abuses and real crimes. Somalia is a wretched country in the grip of famine and chaos but officials there are distracted from that by inspecting bras. The Sudanese regime is implicated in crimes of murder, torture, and raping thousands of innocents in Darfur but that does not stop the regime from putting on trial a woman who insists on wearing trousers. It is women rather than men who always pay the price for despotism, corruption, and religious hypocrisy.
Fourth, the extremist ideology assumes that humans are a group of wild beasts completely incapable of controlling their instincts, that it is enough for a man to see a bare piece of female flesh for him to pounce on her and have intercourse. This assumption is incorrect, because humans, unlike animals, always have the power to control their instincts by willpower and ethics. An ordinary man, if he is sane, cannot have his instincts aroused by his mother, sister, daughter, or even the wife of a friend, because his sense of honor and morality transcends his desires and neutralizes their effect. So virtue will never come about though bans, repression, and pursuing women in the street, but rather through giving children a good upbringing, propagating morality, and refining character. Societies that impose segregation between men and women (such as Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia) do not have lower rates of sexual crimes than other societies, according to official statistics. The rates there may even be higher.
We favor and advocate modesty for women but before all else we advocate a humane view of women, a view that respects their abilities, their wishes, and their thinking. What is really saddening is that the Wahhabi extremism spreading throughout the world with oil money, which gives Muslims a bad name, is as far as can be from the real teachings of Islam. Anyone who reads the history of Islam fairly has to be impressed by the high status it accords to women, because from the time of the Prophet Muhammad until the fall of Andalusia, Muslim women mixed with men, were educated, worked and traded, fought, and had financial responsibilities separate from their fathers or husbands. They had the right to choose the husband they loved and the right to divorce if they wanted. Western civilization gave women these rights many centuries after Islam. Finally, let me say that religious extremism is the other face of political despotism. We cannot get rid of the extremism before we end the despotism.
Democracy is the solution.
October 19, 2009
Nora and the National Squad
This week I wanted to write about an Egyptian woman by the name of Nora Hashem Mohamed, but the great victory of our national soccer squad over Algeria cannot be ignored, so I decided to write about the two subjects together.
There’s nothing special about Nora Hashem Mohamed. She’s like millions of other Egyptian women: brown-skinned, moderately attractive, and poor. She’s married to a simple laborer named Hani Zakaria Mustafa, with whom she has two boys and fights a daily battle to make a living and bring up the children. One day Nora suddenly felt ill.
The match between our soccer team and Algeria’s was a battle of destiny during which the Egyptians showed their mettle, forgot their differences, and stood united behind the national team. When the Algerian media took part in some vulgar ridicule of the team, Egyptian commentators responded with a torrent of stinging insults, and when the Algerian singer, Warda, announced she would support the Algerian team, many Egyptians were angry and asked, “How dare Warda support the Algerian team when she’s been living in Egypt and enjoying its bounty for decades?” Some Internet bloggers demanded that Warda be barred from Egypt to punish her for her failure to support our national team.
At first Nora attributed her exhaustion to lack of sleep and too much housework and she kept it a secret from her husband, Hani, so as not to add to his troubles. But her illness worsened until she took to her bed. At that stage Hani insisted on taking her to a private clinic and paid a docto
r to examine her. The doctor advised that she be taken to the hospital immediately.
President Mubarak enthusiastically attended one of the national team’s training sessions and spent time with the players to encourage them in the match. The truth is that President Mubarak is well-known for his patronage of sports. One might remember that when 1,400 Egyptians died in the famous ferry accident, the president’s grief for the victims did not prevent him from attending a training session for another battle of destiny, in that case the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.
When Hani Zakaria and his wife, Nora, reached Imbaba Chest Hospital it was two o’clock in the morning. The doctor quickly examined Nora, said her condition was normal, and then left. Hani tried to discuss the case with him further but was not allowed to meet the doctor. Hani went back to the receptionist and begged him to help find treatment for his wife. The receptionist then told him straight that if he wanted his wife to be treated he must pay 2,000 Egyptian pounds right away.
During the match with Algeria, despite deliberate rough play on the part of the Algerians, our players displayed the highest level of self-control, and the deep piety of Egyptians was evident during and before the match. Millions of Egyptians prayed to God to have the Egyptian team score at least two goals and the singer, Ehab Tawfik, appeared on television, asking all the viewers to pray for the team and saying that in Egypt there are many righteous men whose prayers God would definitely answer.
Hani was amazed when he heard the amount of money required of him, and asked the receptionist in a soft voice whether Imbaba Chest Hospital was still a government hospital. The receptionist told him it was still a government hospital but he must nonetheless pay 2,000 pounds. Hani said he was poor and didn’t have that amount of money. The receptionist didn’t answer and proceeded to read some papers lying in front of him. Hani began to beg the receptionist to let his wife be treated.
On the morning of the day of the match, the well-known sports commentator, Yasser Ayoub, said on television that if the Egyptian team beat Algeria and qualified for the World Cup finals then every player on the team would receive a reward of six million pounds from the state and from the football federation. When the woman presenter showed signs of surprise at the amount, another sports commentator said the players on the national team would deserve more than that because they would have brought joy to the hearts of Egyptians.
When Hani despaired of persuading the receptionist at Imbaba Chest Hospital to help him, he took his wife, who was now staggering from exhaustion and fever, and went with her to Omrania Chest Hospital, where a doctor examined her and said he suspected she had swine flu. He added that he couldn’t treat her in the hospital because it was not equipped to deal with such cases, and advised Hani to take his wife to Umm al-Masriyyin Hospital, which did have the right facilities.
President Mubarak isn’t the only sports enthusiast. His sons, Gamal and Alaa, share his passion and the two of them made sure they went to the stadium to support the national team. Most of the ministers and senior officials went along, too, including the health minister, who sat right next to Gamal Mubarak. We saw how happy they all were when Amr Zaki scored the first goal against Algeria.
Hani thanked the doctor, took his wife, Nora, and hurried to Umm al-Masriyyin Hospital, where he begged the officials to save his wife, who had started to spit blood, but the doctor there assured him that his wife’s condition was normal and did not require hospitalization. He advised Hani to take her back to Omrania Chest Hospital because it specializes in such cases.
After the first goal, despite much effort and fighting spirit, our players were unable to score again for a full ninety minutes, and the faces of the senior officials sitting in their box showed exasperation. Alaa Mubarak could not control himself and even waved his hand in remonstration when our team missed a number of clear opportunities to score.
Hani retraced his steps, almost carrying his wife to Omrania Chest Hospital, and for the first time raised his voice in anger at the doctor. “Why did you send me to Umm al-Masriyyin Hospital when this is where she should be treated?” he asked. The doctor said that his diagnosis was correct and that the people at Umm al-Masriyyin Hospital avoided treating patients. He asked Hani for an official paper from Umm al-Masriyyin Hospital certifying that Nora’s condition was normal and not serious. At that point Hani apologized to the doctor for his sharp words, took his wife back to Umm al-Masriyyin, and asked them for the document on his wife’s condition. In fact this time they treated him kindly and said they would do the necessary tests for his wife, but he would have to come back at eight o’clock in the morning because the person responsible for testing was not at the hospital (it turned out later that she was there but felt overworked and had asked her colleagues to turn Nora away by whatever means possible).
The match was almost over and into extra time when Emad Moteab scored the second goal for Egypt and all of Egypt danced for joy. Dr. Hatem al-Gabaly, the minister of health, forgetting the dignity of his office and the fact that he was on live television, leapt from his seat and embraced Gamal Mubarak to congratulate him on the great victory.
Hani took his wife back to Omrania Chest Hospital to leave her there until morning, when he would come back and take her to do the tests at Umm al-Masriyyin. Nora’s condition had deteriorated so much that she was put on an artificial respirator, and she drew her last breath before she was able to have the tests done to diagnose her condition. Nora Hashem Mohamed died before she reached the age of twenty-five, leaving a husband and two young boys. Perhaps we are the only country where people die this way, but the tragedy of Nora Hashem Mohamed should not mar the serenity of our joy at victory over Algeria. God answered our prayers and made sure we scored two clean goals. We made the Algerians taste defeat and, God willing, we will crush them in the next match. Congratulations to Egypt for reaching the World Cup and may God have mercy on the soul of Mrs. Nora Hashem Mohamed.
Democracy is the solution.
November 15, 2009
Defending Egypt’s Flag
On November 14, 1935, Egypt was seething with protests against the British occupation and a large demonstration set off from Cairo University with thousands of students chanting slogans in favor of independence and democracy. The students lifted up one of their colleagues, Mohamed Abdel Magid Mursi, from the faculty of agriculture, and he was holding high an Egyptian flag when English troops opened fire on him and killed him. As soon as the Egyptian flag fell to the ground another student, Mohamed Abdel Hakam al-Garahi, from the faculty of humanities, rushed to pick it up. An English officer threatened to kill Abdel Hakam if he took a step forward but Abdel Hakam walked on, carrying the flag. The officer fired at him and hit him in the chest. He was taken to hospital, where he breathed his last. All Egypt turned out to say farewell to the martyr, who preferred death to seeing the Egyptian flag fall to the ground. On the first day of the war of October 1973, dozens of Egyptian soldiers gave their lives so that the Egyptian soldier, Mohamed Efendi, could plant the Egyptian flag in Sinai for the first time since it was occupied. So the flag is not just a piece of cloth but a symbol of the nation, of honor and dignity. I thought about that when I saw my country’s flag trampled underfoot by the Algerian thugs in Sudan, with some of them taking pleasure in throwing it under cars, driving over it, tearing it up, and burning it. The brutal attacks on Egyptians in Khartoum revealed several facts:
First, it’s common at soccer matches for fights to break out between the supporters, but what happened in Khartoum went way beyond fights over soccer. Algerian air force planes had brought thousands of armed Algerian thugs to Khartoum with a specific assignment: to attack and insult Egyptians. The testimony of the victims all indicates that the purpose of the attack was to humiliate Egyptians. What else could it mean when Algerians took off their underwear in front of Egyptian women and chanted in unison, “We’re going to screw Egypt”? What was their purpose in forcing Egyptian men to lie down on the ground even after assaul
ting them with knives and swords? What was their purpose in carrying banners reading “Egypt is the mother of whoredom”? Does this despicable behavior have anything to do with soccer? This rabble cannot represent the great Algerian people who fought with us in the war of October 1973 and whose martyrs shed their blood alongside ours. So why this insistence on humiliating Egyptians when the Algerians had won the match? I would understand it if this was the work of an army of foreign occupation, but it is truly saddening that it should be the work of Arabs. Would any Algerian allow his sister or his mother to be subjected to this kind of intimidation and outrage? The sight of the Egyptian victims weeping on television at the indignity and humiliation cannot be erased from the memory of Egyptians until we bring to account those responsible for this criminal assault.
Second, Egypt is the biggest Arab country and the greatest source of human talent in the Arab world. It was Egyptians who brought about the renaissance in many Arab countries. The universities were set up by Egyptian professors and the newspapers were set up by Egyptian journalists. The institutes of art, cinema, and theater were set up by Egyptian artists. The cities and houses were built by Egyptian architects, the hospitals were established by Egyptian doctors, and even the laws and constitutions there were mostly drawn up by Egyptian law professors. The Algerian national anthem itself was composed by the Egyptian composer, Mohamed Fawzi. Egyptians’ special status has made the relationship between Egyptians and other Arab peoples a composite, including love and admiration most of the time and sometimes some touchiness and tension. During the period when Nasserist Arab nationalism was on the rise, Egypt supported the Algerian revolution with money and weapons and defended it at international forums. Egypt also sent its army to support the Yemeni revolution and went to war to defend Palestine and Syria. At that time the feelings of the Arabs toward Egypt were of pure love, but as soon as Egypt stopped performing its pan-Arab mission and signed the Camp David agreements with Israel, all the resentments against Egypt came to the surface.