For Egypt’s women, the Arab Spring does not spell freedom

18.04.2012                      26.Nissan. 5772                     Tag 11 des Omer

Analyse:

For Egypt's women, the Arab Spring does not spell freedom

They hold only two percent of seats in the new parliament, compared to 12 percent during the Mubarak era.

Dr. Nihad Abu al-Komsan has no doubt that Egyptian women have lost in the revolution. For all of a month she served as chair of the Council for Women established by the Supreme Military Council, until it became clear to her that the council was nothing more than window-dressing aimed at presenting an illusion of equal rights but in fact had no power or budget. Abu al-Komsan resigned with a great deal of accompanying clamor and turned to running a public struggle for women's equality in the new constitution, which is now waiting to be written.
"Women went out to the demonstrations in order to obtain a better future. We have been surprised to discover that after the revolution we have regressed by decades if not by centuries," said Abu al-Komsan in an interview to the Elaph Internet site. Indeed, in 2009 then-President Hosni Mubarak established a quota of 64 women in the parliament, but in advance of the parliamentary elections held about a year after his fall, the Supreme Military Council revoked the quota regulation and only required every list of candidates to include at least one woman….