Naked in the Arab winter
Nov. 22nd, 2011 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nairiporter"Put on trial the artists' models who posed nude for art schools until the early 70s, hide the art books and destroy the nude statues of antiquity, then undress and stand before a mirror and burn your bodies that you despise to forever rid yourselves of your sexual hangups before you direct your humiliation and chauvinism and dare to try to deny me my freedom of expression."
Those are words of Aliya Magda al-Mahdy, a young Egyptian girl who posed nude on the internet as an expression of her protest against the hypocrisy of her society. Earlier this month another Egyptian woman filed a lawsuit for sexual harassment against the military, which caused a big scandal in the country. Now Aliya is pouring still more fuel into this issue.
(Warning: NSFW -- http://arebelsdiary.blogspot.com/)
The outcry against Aliya was swift and expected. But despite the flack she is getting for her audacity, she also has some supporters, and in the most unusual of places - Israel. Shortly after the scandal broke out, 40 Israeli women voiced their support for her cause by posing nude as well.
http://www.whatsonningbo.com/news-5813-40-israeli-women-pose-nude-in-support-of-egyptian-activist-aliaa-elmahdy.html
In a country where many women walk on the street covering their faces, the 20 year old student from the American University of Cairo dared to put her provocative photos on the web as an act of rebellion against the conservative culture in Egyptian society in regards to sexual complexes. The girl whose boyfriend spent four years in prison during Mubarak's regime on charges of insulting Islam and the president, defines herself as a supporter of secularism, a feminist, a sympathiser of liberalism, a vegetarian, an individualist and a true Egyptian - many of these things a conservative would hate in their guts. And of course her message fell on deaf ears with many of her compatriots.
She claims that through the nude imagery she is protesting against the hypocrisy and backwardness of the new rulers of Egypt, the violence against women in her society, and the continuing manifestations of racism, sexism and the sexual abuse of women in Egypt. Yet another problem that has been shunned for a long time under Mubarak.
In turn, the Israeli activists who supported her by posing nude at one of the emblematic squares in Tel Aviv (the place where the Israeli equivalent of the "Indignant Ones" staged their protests), are expressing their protest against the divisiveness that is advancing across the Israeli society. There is a widening rift between the ultra-Orthodox Jews and the secular majority. The Orthodox have made some big inroads into legislation at a local level recently. A while ago they organised a campaign against a dancing school in Jerusalem, forcing it to put thick draperies at the windows to conceal the dancing girls inside from the gaze of the passing schoolboys from the various religious schools in the neighbourhood.
The stronger the ultra-Orthodox Jews and their religious community becomes, the more they are trying to test the limits of secularism and impose their norms on the rest. And the result is segregation of the women and gender discrimination in some areas, particularly Jerusalem. There places in Israel where putting men-only buses and women-only buses is now part of this gender segregation. Some supermarkets in the Orthodox communities have separate hours for male customers and female customers. Some clinics also have separate entrances and separate waiting rooms for men and for women.
The provocation from the Israeli activists is particularly resonating, because their gender has been practically removed from the scene (literally!) by banning billboard commercials depicting female faces. There were many incidents of such billboards being defaced by ultra-Orthodox Jews, and various companies are facing boycotts. Women are now either absent from their commercials, or they are pictured standing with their back to the camera in the best case.
But secularism is still fighting back on some occasions. Last month the Israeli supreme court ordered the removal of a barrier that was running in the middle of a sidewalk in Jerusalem and was designed to separate men from women while walking on their way to religious ceremonies in the neighbourhood.
http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-08-ML-Israel-Gender-Gap/id-07ec72474ddd4f6c87b08f480c6ba785
But Aliya obviously chose a very inconvenient moment for her protest, because Egypt is in election mode now and various political movements are trying to draw dividends from her actions, most of them pointing a finger at her and playing the holier than thou game at her expense, giving her as a bad example. And this is not just the Islamists. It is the more conservative secularists as well. The sentiment there is that "society should be protected at any cost from this kind of outrage", and "if the liberals win, this woman's behaviour would become the norm for the entire Egyptian society". It is a strawman, but these sentiments are prevalent. Her message remains largely misunderstood, maybe exactly because of this hypocrisy in her society that she is talking about.
Ironically, the above vilified liberals have also distanced themselves from the young rebellious blogger. When it surfaced that she was a member of the "April 6" movement (one of the main organisations that made the Tahrir protests in January), the speaker of the movement stated that "We are conservative youth, we have always encouraged our members to be exemplary in regards to morality. How could we accept a girl among us who behaves like this?" In response, Aliya wrote this emotional response which I cited in the beginning of this post.
Like I said, this is not the first case of such form of protest. 25 year old Samira Ibrahim was one of seven women who underwent virginity tests by the military last year. She is suing the military now. She had been forced to remove her clothes and she was submitted to the horrific test by a military officer who wasn't even a doctor. He held his hand inside her for five minutes, tearing her hymen. An anonymous general confirmed to CNN that those girls had been tested in exactly the same way, and his excuse was that "These are no ordinary girls like your daughters or mine... They had stayed in camp with the protesting men, in the same tents where we found Molotov cocktails and drugs". Samira and the other girls are saying that these allegations are a cold-blooded attempt to demonize these women and to present them as prostitutes, and ultimately to shut out women from participating in political demonstrations.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/egypt/111121/against-all-odds-%E2%80%98virginity-test%E2%80%99-victim-awaits-her-v
And the protests are not stopping, even as we speak. Dozens have died over the last couple of nights in Cairo. Just a few days before the promised "democratic" elections. The new protests are against the provisions in the draft Constitution that would shield the military from any possible parliamentary oversight and would potentially put it against the future government, which is supposed to be democratically elected. And either way, women in Egypt should brace themselves for a very rough ride from now on.
As for Israel, the issue there is of a slightly different character. It is demographic. The forecasts point toward a constantly increasing influence from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Their families have 7 kids on average. Their share in society will have increased to 15% by 2025 (compared to the 9% today). Although it is hard to say exactly, about 1/4 of the 6 million Jews in Israel are practicing Judaism, 1/4 of those being traditional Orthodox and the rest favouring secularism. The Orthodox have already started testing the ground for further concessions from society, and their efforts are bringing some results that are encouraging for them. And disheartening for the rest. Because Israel has been pointed at as an example for democracy in the Middle East, and what we are seeing there now is that secularism is retreating step by step.
http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-08/news/30374288_1_ultra-orthodox-rabbis-ultra-orthodox-jews-ultra-orthodox-men
Those are words of Aliya Magda al-Mahdy, a young Egyptian girl who posed nude on the internet as an expression of her protest against the hypocrisy of her society. Earlier this month another Egyptian woman filed a lawsuit for sexual harassment against the military, which caused a big scandal in the country. Now Aliya is pouring still more fuel into this issue.
(Warning: NSFW -- http://arebelsdiary.blogspot.com/)
The outcry against Aliya was swift and expected. But despite the flack she is getting for her audacity, she also has some supporters, and in the most unusual of places - Israel. Shortly after the scandal broke out, 40 Israeli women voiced their support for her cause by posing nude as well.
http://www.whatsonningbo.com/news-5813-40-israeli-women-pose-nude-in-support-of-egyptian-activist-aliaa-elmahdy.html
In a country where many women walk on the street covering their faces, the 20 year old student from the American University of Cairo dared to put her provocative photos on the web as an act of rebellion against the conservative culture in Egyptian society in regards to sexual complexes. The girl whose boyfriend spent four years in prison during Mubarak's regime on charges of insulting Islam and the president, defines herself as a supporter of secularism, a feminist, a sympathiser of liberalism, a vegetarian, an individualist and a true Egyptian - many of these things a conservative would hate in their guts. And of course her message fell on deaf ears with many of her compatriots.
She claims that through the nude imagery she is protesting against the hypocrisy and backwardness of the new rulers of Egypt, the violence against women in her society, and the continuing manifestations of racism, sexism and the sexual abuse of women in Egypt. Yet another problem that has been shunned for a long time under Mubarak.
In turn, the Israeli activists who supported her by posing nude at one of the emblematic squares in Tel Aviv (the place where the Israeli equivalent of the "Indignant Ones" staged their protests), are expressing their protest against the divisiveness that is advancing across the Israeli society. There is a widening rift between the ultra-Orthodox Jews and the secular majority. The Orthodox have made some big inroads into legislation at a local level recently. A while ago they organised a campaign against a dancing school in Jerusalem, forcing it to put thick draperies at the windows to conceal the dancing girls inside from the gaze of the passing schoolboys from the various religious schools in the neighbourhood.
The stronger the ultra-Orthodox Jews and their religious community becomes, the more they are trying to test the limits of secularism and impose their norms on the rest. And the result is segregation of the women and gender discrimination in some areas, particularly Jerusalem. There places in Israel where putting men-only buses and women-only buses is now part of this gender segregation. Some supermarkets in the Orthodox communities have separate hours for male customers and female customers. Some clinics also have separate entrances and separate waiting rooms for men and for women.
The provocation from the Israeli activists is particularly resonating, because their gender has been practically removed from the scene (literally!) by banning billboard commercials depicting female faces. There were many incidents of such billboards being defaced by ultra-Orthodox Jews, and various companies are facing boycotts. Women are now either absent from their commercials, or they are pictured standing with their back to the camera in the best case.
But secularism is still fighting back on some occasions. Last month the Israeli supreme court ordered the removal of a barrier that was running in the middle of a sidewalk in Jerusalem and was designed to separate men from women while walking on their way to religious ceremonies in the neighbourhood.
http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-08-ML-Israel-Gender-Gap/id-07ec72474ddd4f6c87b08f480c6ba785
But Aliya obviously chose a very inconvenient moment for her protest, because Egypt is in election mode now and various political movements are trying to draw dividends from her actions, most of them pointing a finger at her and playing the holier than thou game at her expense, giving her as a bad example. And this is not just the Islamists. It is the more conservative secularists as well. The sentiment there is that "society should be protected at any cost from this kind of outrage", and "if the liberals win, this woman's behaviour would become the norm for the entire Egyptian society". It is a strawman, but these sentiments are prevalent. Her message remains largely misunderstood, maybe exactly because of this hypocrisy in her society that she is talking about.
Ironically, the above vilified liberals have also distanced themselves from the young rebellious blogger. When it surfaced that she was a member of the "April 6" movement (one of the main organisations that made the Tahrir protests in January), the speaker of the movement stated that "We are conservative youth, we have always encouraged our members to be exemplary in regards to morality. How could we accept a girl among us who behaves like this?" In response, Aliya wrote this emotional response which I cited in the beginning of this post.
Like I said, this is not the first case of such form of protest. 25 year old Samira Ibrahim was one of seven women who underwent virginity tests by the military last year. She is suing the military now. She had been forced to remove her clothes and she was submitted to the horrific test by a military officer who wasn't even a doctor. He held his hand inside her for five minutes, tearing her hymen. An anonymous general confirmed to CNN that those girls had been tested in exactly the same way, and his excuse was that "These are no ordinary girls like your daughters or mine... They had stayed in camp with the protesting men, in the same tents where we found Molotov cocktails and drugs". Samira and the other girls are saying that these allegations are a cold-blooded attempt to demonize these women and to present them as prostitutes, and ultimately to shut out women from participating in political demonstrations.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/egypt/111121/against-all-odds-%E2%80%98virginity-test%E2%80%99-victim-awaits-her-v
And the protests are not stopping, even as we speak. Dozens have died over the last couple of nights in Cairo. Just a few days before the promised "democratic" elections. The new protests are against the provisions in the draft Constitution that would shield the military from any possible parliamentary oversight and would potentially put it against the future government, which is supposed to be democratically elected. And either way, women in Egypt should brace themselves for a very rough ride from now on.
As for Israel, the issue there is of a slightly different character. It is demographic. The forecasts point toward a constantly increasing influence from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Their families have 7 kids on average. Their share in society will have increased to 15% by 2025 (compared to the 9% today). Although it is hard to say exactly, about 1/4 of the 6 million Jews in Israel are practicing Judaism, 1/4 of those being traditional Orthodox and the rest favouring secularism. The Orthodox have already started testing the ground for further concessions from society, and their efforts are bringing some results that are encouraging for them. And disheartening for the rest. Because Israel has been pointed at as an example for democracy in the Middle East, and what we are seeing there now is that secularism is retreating step by step.
http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-08/news/30374288_1_ultra-orthodox-rabbis-ultra-orthodox-jews-ultra-orthodox-men
