Rasha Kenawy
“Before the revolution, I wanted to flee the country and immigrate, now, I am not leaving, I am staying here to change it” Rasha is a librarian and an administrative coordinator. She is also an activist involved in the El Pergola Puppet Theater. |
Rasha explains how people in Egypt have lost their fear and how women today can take their causes to the streets. |
Interview
Interviewed in English in Cairo on 6-May-2012 by Tatiana Philiptchenko.
Q: Where were you 25th January 25th 2011? I was on the street following an invitation on Facebook calling for a demonstration for change. I was next to the Syndicate of Journalism in downtown Cairo. There were officers everywhere. They were around us. From time to time, they will take a few people and put them in their cars and then release some. We were calling people in Tunis. Congratulating them and telling them that now we hoped it would be our turn (to have a revolution). Then we had our march and they threw some teargas bombs on us. There were people but it was the usual people marching in the demonstrations of the last years. The rest of the people were afraid. They were afraid to get imprisoned or to have problems. We called them but they had no courage to come down on the streets. Q: What did you feel when Mubarak left on February 13th 2011? I felt I should have been on the street more. I felt I should have been a martyr myself. Q: Did you feel that something was going to change? I felt everything was going to change. Q: You felt things were going to change ? Now, a year after,what has changed? And how did it change? What has mainly changed, and it is something positive (great), is the fact that nobody feels fear anymore. Everybody is capable of expressing their opinion, to oppose and resist and we fear no one. In the past, we were Moukawamin(1), it was forbidden to speak, to raise your voice, to express your opinion. In the past, you could take part in a demonstration but your face had to be covered so that no one can recognize you, even your family had to be kept in the dark. Otherwise, at the end of the day, you would be followed and taken to the police and as a girl, you don’t know what could have been done to you there. But today it’s not the case anymore, you go out on the streets knowing that there will be many of you and you are not alone (by yourself). One more thing that is important as well is the feeling that as a woman you can take it to the street to express your presence. You feel “I have my rights, I am Egyptian”. We used to say that only guys will go out. Today we say “No, Egypt doesn’t only belong to you. No, Egypt is ours as a whole, women and men, we women are also Egyptian”. So this feeling that the country is also ours gives a great sentiment of belonging. “WOW” Before the revolution, I wanted to flee the country and immigrate, now, I am not leaving, I am staying here to change it. Deep down inside us, a lot of things have changed. You feel like you love your country more because you were weak, you ask yourself why haven’t we revolted earlier (with our uprising, there were changes) why did it take us so long to realize that our uprising could lead to changes. It’s a difficult feeling. Q: Is the Egyptian woman’s situation today better or worse? It is better because the Egyptian woman started to believe in herself, she became conscious that she can participate in society, that she can bring changes. The ones that felt fear don’t feel it anymore. The women that believed that only men could demonstrate are the same one that take the streets today to express their opinion. Today, the girl starts her own business and knows she can move things and change them. Even though women are at the parliament today (talking about the four women of the Muslim Brotherhood), they don’t represent us. The first thing these women asked in parliament is to take away some of the rights we have. (continued on the right) |
Q: In your opinion, what is the biggest problem that the Egyptian woman will face today? There are two main problems: the first one is the woman’s lack of self-confidence. The second is the religion and its misinterpretations that handcuffs women’s freedom and liberties while it is not the case if we understand the religion well. We are women that have been educated on a male culture and mentality (patriarchic society) that we cannot get rid of. We still have that mentality that men are supposed to rule us. The quotas that they were cancelled (quotas of women representation in parliament, 78 seats were reserved for women) were the biggest mean that could help us. When we integrate women in politics nowadays thanks to a law, it will make women present themselves in the future without the need of a law. But we still had to integrate them in the first place. Women have to be told: Get into politics, practice politics. You represent an equivalent role the men. When this happens and they’ll have this right, then in the future, women will be elected as a candidate with no considerations to the gender. Q: In your opinion, are women fully part of the ongoing revolution in every aspect? Look, there are older women and housewives that have retreated because they are busy with their home and children. But, it was them that have impacted the revolution. They have thrust the revolution towards its success. It’s these housewives participation that made a difference, and everybody followed. These housewives have retreated because they felt that right now it wasn’t worth it, especially with all the anarchy (chaos) that we are in right now. The young women and men are still present and participating but it’s not the case of the women over forty years old and older women. But not all of them, just some. Keep in mind that it is our first experience in the political world. That’s why the results are so deceiving. Q: Did men have a hand in this? are they pushing women to go back to their traditional role? On the contrary, the men that were with us during the revolution call us and ask us: where are you? Come, participate, you have to be present. They get in touch every time there is a conference to take part in it. We still touch bases from time to time. However, the Muslim Brotherhood are trying to push us away. While they were by our sides in Tahrir Square, the same way they have put aside the elected women of the parliament (they pushed us aside). But us, as opposed to them, as a young assembly of young men and young women, men ask us for our help in everything. There is one more thing I want to add to this point., the most important one. If there is a woman that was put aside or marginalized, she did it herself. Someone could try and push me away but I would fight, I will stay here, impose myself and continue to participate. Q: How do you see of the future of Egyptian women? If it stays like this, and if the Muslim Brotherhood domination continues, I can’t see or imagine a future for us. Because if the person representing us is weak, regardless of our strength, we will stay weak. But if the next elections are successful, and we choose the right person to help us go through the transitory phase, then I can imagine that women will be equal to men and that the latter will have to fight for their parity with women. Egyptian women have a fighting spirit, they persevere and don’t give up easily. The Egyptian woman is determined to accomplish things. She took her chance in Tahrir Square. Every young woman that was there is determined and asserts that she wasn’t there without a goal and purpose. “I was in Tahrir Square, I have to do something for my future”. So we are all determined to do something. I would like to be working in the Minister of Social Affairs. We all dream of being active and to change things through our ideas. (1) “Partisans of the opposition” in Arabic language |
