Samah Abdelaty
“Egyptian women have become bolder. They are more willing to stand up for their rights” Samah Abdelaty is an investigative reporter with Al Watan newspaper. She actively defends human rights in Egypt. |
Samah describes at length the setbacks and challenges women have faced since the revolution: harassment, lack of representation, political turmoil and physical insecurity. On the positive side, women have become much more active. |
Interview
Interviewed in Arabic on 8-may-2012 by Tatiana Philiptchenko
Translated by Makar Barsoum. Transcription by Tatiana Philiptchenko. Q: Where were you on the 25th January 2011? On the 25th I had no assignment, I was there out of curiosity and to watch. When I left home I heard that there will be demonstrations, I wanted to watch them. But when I saw the people on the street, I decided to create my own assignment. Q: Did you participate in the demonstration that day? No, because my role as a reporter is to cover the demonstration not to participate in it, and that’s very important for me. On the 25th of January 2011, I was amazed at the number of people and the streets there were going through. In Cairo there are certain areas where demonstrators go to such as Tahrir Square, Ramses street. But that was the first time I saw demonstrators on other streets like Mohammed Ali street, Ataba square or Port Said street so I wrote an article that evening that was titled “Streets that see demonstrations for the first time” and it was about how those streets reacted to demonstrators chanting anti Mubarak slogans. Q: Did your personal life change since the revolution? Yes, very much. Before the revolution I felt I was living tasteless boring days: every day was a boring day with nothing new. After the revolution it started getting exciting: every day they were new events: I started keeping a personal journal, which I have never done before. From the first day of the revolution I started to keep a journal on what was happening and how I was reacting to the events, my feelings towards them; I am still keeping it up to date. Some of my colleagues suggest I publish these memories into a book. I am doing it because this is an important period and I need to keep a record of it. It is very helpful even in my work: a lot of time I go back to my journal to keep a sense of what was happening on a particular date. Q: As far as women are concerned, do you find their conditions, better, the same or worst than before the revolution? Women conditions are now worst than before the revolution. Before the revolution things were under control, people knew what were their duties and their rights, what’s permitted, what’s not; the chaos on the street was not there. There was law and order even if it wasn’t ideal. Now there is no order or security, no respect for women. There are some laws or decisions that were taking by Suzanne Mubarak to promote women’s rights that are being rolled back just because it was Suzanne Mubarak who promoted them and now she’s gone regardless of whether those laws are good or not. We now have to face harassment in the streets; it’s becoming difficult to stay out late. I personally still do it but other women are afraid to go out at night. There’s the famous incident of the girl who got pulled down on the street and lost her blouse during a demonstration: the picture went all over the world: Egyptian people were blaming her of being out there demonstrating, although it is her right to be out there demonstrating. I have also become more active in society itself, I went out with a women’s only demonstration of 10 000 women in support of “the girl in the blue bra” [1]. When I participated in this demonstration, I was not acting as a journalist; in fact I left my press card at home before going. I was acting as an Egyptian woman. When you are a woman in Egypt you will be humiliated because you are weaker, because there is no security on the streets, there’s nobody to protect you or stand up for you. It’s very difficult to get your rights and if they don’t respect your rights: it’s very difficult to get them back. If you add to that I am a journalist in a society that has a sexist view of women and is deeply suspicious of reporters you can imagine the difficulties I face because I have to go in the streets and mix with the people and security forces. I am in the line of fire of those forces who do not distinguish in their brutality between men and women. But physical violence affects women more since they are the weaker sex. Q: What dangers the revolution faces now? The lack of security for the people, and I believe this is by design. The outlaws who attack or terrorize people are all known to the police, they are controlled by them and they used to use them before and during the elections. And now the regime is using them as a mean to make people approve of whatever the regime does to return the law to the law and order. This is the biggest danger or threat that people are facing. It s not the lack of food or fuel but a lack of security. Q: What role social media played in the revolution? They played a very big role in preparing for the revolution, during the revolution and after the revolution. Before social media there was hardly any solidarity between the people. But social media created a parallel media where people could express themselves as opposed to the official media, which was controlled by the state. This created an atmosphere where people could be opposing the regime, and it prepared the grounds for the revolution. Facebook when it came created a whole new tool for communication between people. You could now renew contact with friends that you hadn’t see in years; now most people stopped using blogs and are just using Facebook where they publish their status and say what is on their mind. I use to be an avid follower of the blogs, following the blogs of many of my friends but when Facebook started I almost stopped completely using blogs because most of my friends are just writing on Facebook. So I have my Facebook account always open: I check it from the moment I wake up until the last thing I do before I sleep. This has created very strong means of communication and organizations between people. When an invitation goes out on Facebook for a demonstration: all of a sudden you have thousands of people who have access to it and the power of having all those people aware of what’s going on is amazing. That was one of the main components of the revolution on January 25th 2011. I got the invitation for a demonstration on Facebook on January 25th, 2011: I was told where it would go, where it would march, I was told step by step what they were doing and where they would be and what they will be doing. (continued on the right) |
Q: What is your opinion on the eight women in Egyptian the parliament today?
I was totally against the parliamentary elections. I thought it was a big show and that there were a lot of irregularities happening. Take for example the fact that: the Muslim Brotherhood which is an illegal organization created this new party called: “The Justice and Freedom party” to go into the parliamentary elections. The law says that you cannot have a political party based on religious principles; the Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamic movement so it cannot be a political party. So they went around the law and created “The Justice and Freedom party”. As far as women are concerned: First, I personally feel I am against the Muslim Brotherhood and these women are from the Muslim Brotherhood. Then, they haven’t really done anything, these women have been used as a means of saying as: we have women in the parliament. But they have no role in the political discourse. For example then when you have one of these women that comes out and says that “the people in Tahrir Square are outlaws or thugs”. This is ridiculous: it is Tahrir Square who brought democracy to Egypt and who put them in that spot, so my opinion of these women is very low, they do not relate to women’s movement in Egypt and they are just being used by the Muslim Brotherhood. Q: What Benefits, if any, did women gain from the Egyptian revolution of 2011? I speak in my name and the name of women since I am a woman. As far as I am concerned women have become bolder. They are more willing to stand up for their rights and hope in changing things. In December 2011, there was the demonstration in support of the girl in the blue bra. Before going to the demonstration I was very depressed thinking that nothing will change, so I went to the demonstration thinking there will be very few people, but I was surprised to see all these women on the street. When we started chanting slogans many people on the street gathered around us. I felt afterwards that we could make a difference and change things. When I went back home: I heard that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces had issued apologies for this beating; I felt that we as women can make a difference with our actions that we are no longer a marginalized group so we are now more aware of our rights and willing to fight for our dreams. Q: Lots of media are saying that women are sidelined now. They participated in the revolution, they were in demonstrations, they spent whole nights in Tahrir Square, they helped take care of the injured, and now that the height of the revolution is over, are women back in a traditional role? Is their role minor today? This is partially right, this could apply to some women but definitely not to all of them. You have women who are still very active, I’d like just to mention a couple of names such as Asmaa Mahfouz (2) and Nawara Negm(3) who are extremely active in the ongoing revolution. And you have lots of female university students who are very active too. There was a demonstration lately in front of Ministry of Defense and there was many women students participating in this demonstration although this are dangerous areas to demonstrate in. So you have lot of women and feminists participating in the revolution. Q: Where were you on the 11th of February 2011, the day it was announced Mubarak resigned and what were you feelings that day? I remember this day very well, it was an unforgettable day. We were in the newspaper on that day. On the 10th of February, the day before he resigned there was a very strong rumor that he will announce his resignation. And on the TV the announcer came and said that there will be an important message in a little while and we waited for his resignation speech (we thought he will say that he was leaving): instead Mubarak came on TV and gave a very depressing speech and said that he will stay and everybody got frustrated, this was not at all what everyone was expecting. Then we thought that Mubarak will stay until July 2011 and that was that. Then, on the 11th February in the morning we heard that there was one demonstration that went on the TV Maspero building on the Nile and another demonstration that was going to the President palace in Nasr city. I was in the newspaper downtown; I decided to stay there even if it was a Friday. Then the anchor on TV said there will shortly be an announcement so I thought I might go slowly home, have a shower, and put my pajama on and wait for the announcement on TV. Just a bit after, a colleague of mine said Omar Suleiman is giving a speech (his famous speech on February 11th announcing Mubarak’s resignation), there was many people around the TV in the newspaper, I couldn’t hear the speech but as soon as I understood that he was announcing the departure of Mubarak: I took a camera and went towards Tahrir with a colleague who took a flag with him. Tahrir is about four minutes walk from our office. All people on the street were saying to each other “Mabrouk” (Congratulations in Arabic) we heard people screaming of joy and people singing: we couldn’t even get to Tahrir because there was so many people. So we went over to Qasr El Nile and then Maspero (symbolic places that witnessed major demonstrations during the uprising). I felt at that moment a huge weight that left me. It was an amazing feeling; I felt there was a new Egypt. This was the best feeling of communal joy I ever felt, feeling all people around me happy. [1] http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/12/20/egypt-tahrir-square-army.html [2] http://asmamahfouz.com [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nawara_Negm |
