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Edited on Fri Jul-14-06 06:23 AM by onager
Well, that's the title of the original editorial, which appeared this week in one of Egypt's English-language newspapers, the Egyptian Gazette.
For those who don't know me in the Virtual Sense, I'm a male-type person currently in Egypt on a long-term work assignment.
I'm posting this partly because, from time to time, I've seen people asking about Middle Eastern feminists, and the author mentions a couple. I think it also contains some interesting--if depressing--information about the state of women's rights in the Middle East. And a little history of the Egyptian fight for women's rights, specifically.
Now about this author. You'll notice he is not REALLY writing about exercise here. This particular author gets away with a lot, considering he's writing for a govt-controlled newspaper, in a nation that is heavily under the thumb of doctrinaire Islamic clerics.
The author is Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Nasr--also a male-type person--and his columns are usually a joy to read because of his skill in getting away with this stuff. His column is called "Surgeon's Journal." He recently wrote an article on nutrition which he neatly turned into an attack on fundamentalist fanatics.
IMO, many of his comments about Egyptian society could also apply to American society today. But keep in mind that I'm a Grumpy Atheist.
And now, finally, the article itself. BTW, "veiled women" refers to the women who wear niqab, i.e., cover themselves completely including their faces and hands:
I've started to notice that the number of young veiled women coming to my surgical practice is increasing dramatically.
If you watch the old TV programmes of Om Kalthoum singing songs on stage, you'll notice that none of the women in the audience are veiled. All these women in the late Fifties and early Sixties wore European-style dresses.
Egyptian society 50 years ago was just as Muslim as it is today. Religion back then was remarkable for people behaving without exaggeration or extremism. Societal values were more respected than nowadays, before the recent advent of extremism and radicalism.
Our mothers and grandmothers were more rational than the present generation.
Radicalism first started in the Arab societies and in Egypt in the Seventies and increased steeply in the Eighties and Nineties, reaching a point of fanaticism after 2001. Many of the younger generation are intellectually confused by this.
We are a long way from the 1919 Egyptian Revolution when girls at the Saneya Secondary School decided to remove their veils and demanded more rights and freedom. Hoda Shaarawi and Quessem Amin were the leaders of the social movement that allowed freedom for women.
All the successes in the Forties, Fifties and Sixties in terms of women's rights have disappeared.
Women tell me that covering their faces opens for them the gates of Paradise. Not uncommonly, I discover in my surgery girls as young as 12 dressed in black from head to toe, preventing the rays of the sun reaching their skin. Such apparel makes it impossible for them to do any sport.
In any case, many schools for young girls don't have sports facilities.
Many women will only engage in sporting activities with other women, not in the presence of men, which is in practice very difficult. The result is that a lot of Egyptian women don't do any sport, confusing this with "correct" religious behaviour.
Their health is deteriorating, as a sedentary lifestyle encourages obesity and and the appearance of complaints like non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus...
(I'm deleting a couple of paragraphs where Dr. Nasr demands more sports programs for Egyptian females. As a side note, obesity is sort of encouraged by Egyptian culture. A slang phrase meaning "plump and pretty" in Arabic is considered a compliment, whereas thin women are liable to be slagged with an Arabic nickname meaning "rusty nail." Now back to the Doctor...)
It is sad that the black veil covering the faces of many Egyptian women prevents them from acquiring a rational and sound vision of the modern world with its new international circumstances.
History will judge our generation as being responsible for taking several big steps backwards. In a world that discusses genetics, molecular biology, cloning, computer sciences and the future of mankind, there should be no place for obscurantism and futile metaphysical discussions. We in the Arab world are guilty of allowing the younger generation to miss the coach of human progress.
The gap between the Western world and the Arab world is actually increasing. It is true that many Arab societies have every kind of modern scientific facility, but they are imitators rather than creators. The spirit in the Arab world is not conducive to innovation.
It is important to have an intellect free of taboos, obscurantism and fixed ideas, allowing people to 'fly with their own wings.' In my opinion, this is the main duty of the Arab intelligentsia in universities, cultural organizations, research institutes and the mass media.
(END)
(edited for minor typos)
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