The Arab Women's Spring

The Arab Women's Spring

Katy Maier

During the Arab uprisings, the media has followed many stories of the courageous men who started and aided this revolution. However, what are the women doing to gain their own rights? These men face many difficulties brought on by their countries’ government, but not as many hardships as the women. Men and women of the Arab world are heavily oppressed by the controlling governments and monarchies, but women live with abuse beyond what men deal with. Females experience physical and mental damage every day in the Arab world because of their gender. They have far fewer rights than men and are fighting their own personal wars every day. To gain 21st century women’s rights in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen where laws and societal norms oppress women, female citizens must actively participate and make an effort to form a revolution.

Brave women of the Arab world are standing up and fighting for rights and laws that their home nations lack. Yemen is the poorest Arab nation and home to a lack of human rights laws including child marriage. Because it is one of the last countries in the Middle East to establish a minimum age for marriage, a high percentage of girls under the age of 18 are married off to older men who subject them to physical and mental abuse. The Human Rights Watch discovered a study in 2006 that stated 52 percent of girls under the age of 18 were married while 14 percent were under 15 years-old. These damaged girls experience sexual abuse, pregnancy and birth complications that can destroy their young bodies, and a lack of education. “Thirteen-year-old Ilham was married and died three days later due to excessive bleeding, caused by a tear to her genitals during sexual intercourse. Twelve-year-old Salwa committed suicide by throwing herself from the roof of her house, after being forced into marriage by her father, while 11-year-old Sarah was imprisoned and chained by her father in an effort to force her into marriage,” reported The Daily Beast. Tragic stories of the young girls imprisoned in marriages points a spot light on Yemen’s harsh reality.

Powerful women lead a revolution that influenced Yemen law greatly. On the 21^st of January in 2014, a 300 page report was issued by a forum in Yemen, recommending the age for marriage be 18 years old along with criminal sanctions for anyone who forces a child to marry. The report also suggested more human rights for women and children and equality between men and women. According to the Yemen Times, “Abdulrahman Barman, a lawyer for the HOOD Organization for Defending Human Rights and Freedoms, said it is unjust to say women did not play an important role during the revolution. He boasted that women’s wide participation in demonstrations amazed the entire world.” Success stories of The Yemen Women’s Union include helping an 11 year old girl get a divorce from her 40 year old husband and preventing a 12 year old girl from marriage. Activist Thekra Al-Wahedi told The Yemen Times that “women should be empowered to understand their role, focus on social issues and find suitable solutions for them. She also is a proponent of women’s solidarity, and recognizing that all females have different abilities.”

"'Whenever I saw him, I hid. I hated to see him,’ Tahani (in pink) recalls of the early days of her marriage to Majed, when she was 6 and he was 25. The young wife posed for this portrait with former classmate Ghada, also a child bride, outside their mountain home in Hajjah. Nearly half of all women in Yemen were married as children. Every year, throughout the world, millions of young girls are forced into marriage. Child marriage is outlawed in many countries and international agreements forbid the practice yet this tradition still spans continents, language, religion and caste.” - The Daily Beast

Yemen is also home to the first Arab woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Tawakkol Karman. She ignited a battle for women’s rights and child marriage laws. The Human Right Dignity Forum described Karman as “a liberal Islamist who has faced harassment and death threats, and made the sacrifice to separate from her family, including her three children, in order to fight for women's rights and press freedom.” Born in 1979 in Yemen where almost 70% of women are illiterate, Karman learned about fighting for her own rights from an early age because her father was an activist himself. She co-founded and became president of the “Women Journalist Without Chains” in 2005 and went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. Karman began initiating weekly demonstrations in May of 2007 that lasted for about three years. These peaceful sit-ins in front of the cabinet in Sana’a, the “Tuesday Protests”, aimed to gain human rights and press freedom. Karman made her voice heard in 2011 with organized rallies demanding for President Saleh’s resignation. An arrest due to protesting caused an even greater uproar as crowds of people demanded for her release. Karman’s determination and strength empowered her fellow citizens and initiated the first large uprisings in Yemen.

North East of Yemen and across the Red Sea is the African country of Egypt. Women are fighting a similar struggle in Egypt as Yemen; they are doomed with public scrutiny, oppression, and injustice. On March 9^th of 2011, thousands of men and women participated in a sit-in at Tahrir Square in the capital of Cairo to protest the powerful Egyptian regime. During the peaceful protest, seven women were arrested and detained by the military. The women were stripped, beaten, and given invading virginity tests which involved a military doctor examining the women’s hymens. Of the seven women was Samira Ibrahim, a 24 year-old marketing manager who later filed a case against the military and virginity tests. Ibrahim told Daily News of Egypt that her fight “is about the honor of Egypt’s women and in Egypt the law isn’t implemented on the ones with power.”

Samira Ibrahim is a warrior that experienced demeaning acts against women and sexuality. After she brought this case to court, the accused military doctor Ahmed Adel was declared innocent in March of 2012 despite the fact that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces admitted that tests did occur. Ibrahim stopped at nothing to gain her justice. She told The Guardian, “I insist on getting my rights and will not leave it, no matter the cost. The future of Egyptian women is in danger… I've decided to file an international lawsuit and it is my right as a citizen since my rights are lost here.” She demanded the cleared case to reopen by taking it to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights leading virginity tests to successfully be decriminalized in December of 2012. Named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2011, she “represents the model of how to stand up to fear, and the impact she has made reaches far beyond Egypt. It takes just one woman to speak out, and thousands of others around the world will listen and feel inspired to act.”

 

            After the successful removal of Ben Ali from the country and the fall of the regime in Tunisia, there was much concern as there was celebration. Women and activists throughout the country questioned what this would mean for women’s rights. The former regime took advantage of women’s rights and after the uprisings it was feared that those rights would be taken away with the new constitution. The new assembly with the responsibility of creating a new constitution was voted for in 2011 and 89 of the 217 the seats went to the once-banned Islamist party of Al-Nahda. Al-Nahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi posted his view on polygamy on Facebook previous to the elections. He stated that “the problem in Tunisia is that a young man is unable to marry even a single woman, let alone many wives.” Samir Dilou, an Al-Nahda spokesperson, “called polygamy a ‘fundamental principle’ of his party's political programme…‘We are determined to add this right to the Tunisian Constitution’” (Aljazeera.com). Fortunately, the draft of the new constitution has provided equal rights and duties among men and women and the State’s protection of women’s rights. Tunisian activist Bochra Bel Haj Hmida told Tunisia Live that “the positive thing is that for the first time the constitution talks about the position of women…the principle of equality between the sexes is still absent. This is not a coincidence since there are people who are against equality.”

            Lina Ben Mhenni is amongst the many female activists that were skeptical of the Tunisian elections and new constitution. She told The Guardian in 2011, “I do not think we can start something new while keeping the old elements. To talk of a revolution we have to cut totally with the past and with the old regime.” Ben Mhenni is a young cyber activist and known for her blog “A Tunisian Girl” that is written in English, French, and Arabic. From the beginning of the uprisings she traveled throughout Tunisia, taking videos, pictures, and interviewing people in an attempt to shed a light on the corrupt regime. Lina Ben Mhenni is an excellent example of the important role social media has played in the uprisings. “She became one of the most important reporters of the revolution, regularly interviewed and quoted by the international correspondents who belatedly recognized the importance of the demonstrations, which ultimately provided the spark for the Arab Uprisings that spread across the Middle East,” stated +972 Magazine that named her a person of the year in 2011. 

The women that speak out in the 21^st century Arab world have more courage than any man, for they face more threats and punishments because of their gender. Despite harsh criticism from the media and the danger of being a feminist, the women who inspire changes in the world are the ones that make themselves heard. To make a difference in a society that tries to silence the voices of women, females must consistently fight and never weaken. Women like Tawakkol Karman, Samira Ibrahim, and Lina Ben Mhenni are wonderful examples of the empowerment that can overcome oppressive laws.

“Activist Samira Ibrahim reacts after the verdict of a military court, in Cairo, Egypt, 11 March 2012. She now vows to take her case to the international courts." - The Guardian

“Police officers detain an activist from the women's rights group FEMEN during a protest against the arrest of their Tunisian member named Amina Sboui, in front of Tunisia's Ministry of Justice in Tunis, May 29, 2013.” - VOA News

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