Salwa Bakr
“As women, we have to struggle to have the right position in society” Salwa Bakr is a well-known Egyptian writer. Much of her work describes the marginalization of women in the society. Salwa is published by The American University Press in English and also available on Amazon. Picture courtesy of Haleem El Shaarani http://www.flickr.com/photos/10654944@N04/sets/ |
Salwa speaks to the hardships women fact and is very critical of the plight of women in Egypt. She talks about the intrinsic conflict between modernity or secularism, and the traditional ways in Egypt. Arab World Books: salwa_bakr Wikipedia: Salwa_Bakr |
Interview
Interviewed in English in Cairo in the spring of 2012 by Tatiana Philiptchenko.
Q: Where were you on the 25 th January 2011? My son told me I should be in Tahrir Square. There was a demonstration of the young people from the 6th of April movement. I told him I don’t trust the young people downtown. He went without me in the morning. At 7 o’clock in the evening I watched TV and I ended up going to Tahrir Square too. From that time I was in Tahrir Square everyday from morning until midnight until Mubarak left. Many of my friends slept there but I couldn’t sleep there because it was a dirty place. From this time until now, I have been in many demonstration that took place. Q: Why? Because this revolution let Egyptian restore their spirit, their deep spirit from fifty years ago (from the time of Sadat). My generation: we dreamed a lot, we dreamed to change this country, to bring social justice and this new revolution of 2011 let us dream again. We want to touch it and not let it escape from our hand. Q: Did the revolution change anything on the ground today? The demands of the revolution are not achieved until now. But the most important thing for Egyptian people is that eighty million people are speaking about politics. We regained our political space. Now, if you are with a taxi driver you can speak about political affairs. Before the revolution, we could only speak with them about folklore, football, cinema but not politics. My son, before the revolution, never spoke about political affairs. He was mostly interested about hip hop, music, sports. Since the revolution he is keen to discuss about politics. Q: Did you life change since the revolution? I am not afraid after the revolution. Before, I was afraid every time. I was in prison in 1989. It was easy to be arrested in the street under Mubarak. It was easy if someone tells something about you to get in trouble. I can express myself frankly now. I can say I am leftist without fear now. It’ not only for me, for the Muslim Brotherhood people too: we can all talk freely now. Q: More than one year after the revolution, what do you think is the situation of Egyptian women today? It is better. From the beginning of the revolution, many women from all classes participated in the revolution, rich and poor. I am astonished about that. I think that the majority of women in Egypt suffered a lot because we have an umbrella of bad anti women ancient values in our society. If you see a professional woman interviewed on local TV. After she is asked about her professional achievements, the journalist will ask here for sure if she cooks for her husband and children? These questions means society denies the role of women outside the house. If I have short hair: my family asks me: “What is this miserable haircut? You should go to a hairdresser.” The definition of women in our society is we should be modern prostitute that means: to work for one man and his children. And the first role is a sexual role. So the majority of women suffered from this situation because in every field you can find very brilliant and efficient women. It’s important to know that in Egypt, 22% of women are the breadwinners of their families. Here’s a typical story of how many people in Egypt think, it’s a story of a woman I met in prison who had killed her husband: She worked outside her home as a domestic for eight hours and then she returned home to cook and clean for her family. At night the husband wanted to make love. She refused because she was too tired. And because of this he wanted to take another wife and he told her she was ugly and that she wasn’t a good wife, so she killed him. I think the majority of Egyptian women are eager to a new and different dealing with them in society: this is why they were in the revolution. Q: How about woman’s representation in parliament today? Women tried to express themselves and tried to say “we are here as citizens” during the revolution. I think this is a positive achievement. In parliament, it’s a different thing. Many women have not enough money to get elected. They have no real supporting groups to support them in the elections. The women who succeeded so far were supported by the Nour Party. I think in the coming years there will be a great role for women in political affairs in Egypt. (continued on the right) |
Q: What is the greatest danger to the revolution?
The greatest danger is that the United States and Israel will support the old Mubarak regime which is still working until now. I think this is the biggest danger. This revolution needs a lots of experience to face these dangerous matters. Q: You have been pushing for women’s rights in your writing? I am interested in women’s issues. I am even interested in women’s issues even more now. I wrote about these women wearing Niqab. I am interested about these women. I discovered that the cover is not religious it is a social cover because they live in marginal and different environments, so they protect themselves like that. They use the Niqab as a defense like ancient roman fighters. I am interested in this issue more than before the revolution. I discovered that these women are strong, they understand many things even if they are not educated. Q: What are the factors that have contributed to slow down the development of women in Egypt? Egyptian women achieved real benefits many years ago. In 1956, Egyptian women got full political rights. Egyptian women are in university since 1925. Egyptian women are in many different fields. They got close at a certain point in modern history to be citizens with full rights. Before the revolution (during Mubarak reign) many of the benefits they gained began to disappear in twisted ways. For example: In advertisement for jobs you will find phrases like: "for men only"; you never saw things like that before. In the government, the ministers were all the time men. Before the revolution it was anti women but not in a frank way. In the Mubarak era there was change in the laws for the benefit of women not because they wanted too but because they wanted to show the western world they were giving women some rights. We, as women, want to gain real rights to be real citizens and have all the rights by constitution. We need a different education to play a great role in this and to change the mind of the people about women. As women we have to struggle to have the right position in society. To be present in all high ranking positions in Egypt. I ask that we have the right to be in the army for example. We should be in every field. We should struggle for this. Q: What do you think about the current talks on the islamization of Egypt? The real problem is not in the possible Islamization of Egypt, the real problem is the secular people. They present themselves in our society as a secular but in fact they believe in ancient values. These people have schizophrenia: how can I believe them when they speak about human rights? if their behavior at home, for example, convinces me as a citizen they are not saying the truth. For example many women who have degrees and get married soon discover that even if they work for six hours outside the house that when they come home they still have to do many hours of house chores with no help from their husbands. Therefore, many decide to just stay at home and may be even wear the veil to make their lives easier. Q: What is your opinion about the virginity tests performed on some female demonstrators during the revolution? Virginity test is terrorism towards Egyptian women. They tried to scare women not to go to demonstrations or being activists. I don’t think this will work. This is a cheap method from the military to scare women. Q: Lots of your literary work emphasis on Egyptian women. What are your feelings now on woman’s situation in this country? Egypt is an ancient country and people here have a long experience in dealing with authorities, especially women. The situation of Egyptian women today is miserable. The majority of Egyptian women are from the countryside, they are farmers, the experience of agriculture work is not an easy one. It is a rich experience and down to earth. It is easy for women to change and to have positive elements to change in a short time. I am optimistic at last. Q: Are arts such as music, murals, literature are having an important role to play in this revolution? These things are great but in my view if there’s no education from the beginning: there will be no positive result from all this art. The main problem in Egypt now is education. If a child has never been exposed to art, how do you want him to be impressed by it? So, there will be not result if art is not integrated into early education. Q: Can you describe who is the Egyptian woman? The Egyptian woman is the Nile River. |
