Author: Jasmine Elnadeem

A week ago I was in a group discussing human rights from various perspectives. A girl started to speak and pointing out that she defends women’s rights, but “she is not a feminist”.

Then I began to hear the following: “I’m sorry if this seems rude but why are almost all feminists either lesbians or physically unattractive. Its true! Isn’t feminism really just about ugly women who hate men trying to get some kind of sick revenge?”

“I have this image because the word ‘feminist’ itself has such an unpleasant ring to it, plus I’ve never really met any woman who claimed to be a feminist that hasn’t had severely disturbing/militant opinions about how other people should live their lives.” He added

For many people, the term feminism has a negative connotation. Feminism been blamed for everything from destroying the family to women drinking more alcohol, to hook-up culture. Imagine a stereotypical image of an angry, ugly, fat, man-hating, bra-burning, unattractive woman with hairy armpits screaming irrationally about imagined insults.

As a result, women find themselves prefacing statements about the need for equality and civil rights for women with the caveat of identifying themselves as feminists, and you will hear the famous saying: “I’m not a feminist, but…”

This is a shame, because feminism as a philosophy has a good deal to offer to both men and women.

I noticed also that the feminist statements are often disguised behind (I’m not a feminist, but I believe men and women should have equal rights. I’m not a feminist, but I think that women deserve to get the same pay as men do for the same jobs).

People who say that may not know that they are feminists or may be intentionally shying away from the label of “feminist”.

Hating men does not come in to feminism and is not its definition. Nor does it mean that feminists can’t be feminine. It makes no logical sense to assume that all feminists are masculine or, as is sometimes thought, that they want to be men. Why would a woman who spends her time defending the rights of women and supporting the idea of equality between sexes want to be a man? And what about men who are entirely comfortable with calling themselves feminists? Do they look to their own sex with hatred?

Maybe some feminists hate men, some other women who don’t call themselves feminists hate men too, and some men hate women. But most feminists don’t hate men.

The meaning of feminism varies from person to person, but in its most basic form, feminism is the belief that men and women are equal. For me, feminism is a way to examine and challenge the dominant power structures in society and the ways that these different forms of oppression intersect to maintain the status quo.

And about accusing feminists that they are angry women, we have to admit that everyone is angry sometimes, especially when you’re dealing with injustice. It’s natural to feel angry when you’re being discriminated against or repressed in some way, no matter what group you belong to. When dealing with women’s issues, it’s natural to feel angry some of the time.

We still need feminism when women are still discriminated in the workplace; they are not given the same rights, wages or time off as their male counterparts, and females are judged by their looks instead of their experiences or skills.

We still need feminism when women may feel uncomfortable or unsafe walking down the street because of sexual harassment. When classmates, friends, family or even we ourselves are sexually assaulted or raped and are afraid to come forward because of the fear that we will not be believed or will be blamed. We still need feminism when teenagers are taught nothing about sex in schools except not to have it, and consequently, many young women have unintended pregnancies.

By: Jasmine Elnadeem

“Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, she doesn’t have what it takes. They will say, Women don’t have what it takes.”
Clare Boothe Luce

I have always wanted to be the woman who doesn’t feel the need to talk about her gender issues, but not all our wishes come true.

Do I have any obstacles participating in the community due to my gender?

Gender?

The first word that pops up in my mind is Equality, which means that I think about gender as equal rights between men and women. Gender is also Norms, social norms. What is expected from me as a woman?

Being a girl, I’m confronted with lots of stereotypes and behavior that pushed me to challenge, to grab my pen and express the things I wish to do, to speak my mind.

As a female, limits were made by my family regarding my dreams and passion.

I still remember when I was a little girl; when young boys swear and use tough language, their behavior is often tolerated as normal for their age. Families assumed that they are trying to act big. Grown men spice up their vocabulary with occasional profanity and it is mostly acceptable. On the other hand, female actions are expected to be more restrained than their male counterparts.

All of that affected my choices in my life like what to study, what to wear and who will I choose as a life mate (husband).
It also had a big impact on my personality, independence and on the type of my daily activities and hobbies.

These issues related to my gender as a girl affected me in achieving my goals.
Sometimes I catch myself thinking of how my life would have been like if I was born a boy instead of a girl. I tell myself that being a man might be easier than being a woman – at least here in the Middle East.

Many times I have experienced that people looked at my gender before they looked at my work.

As an Egyptian girl I have always been a little different from other girls of the same age. I have always thought of being independent from my family and to live on my own. I have always wanted to take responsibility of myself and to be free of the traditions and away from social dogmas that claim that a girls place is at home, but it is not really acceptable to see a girl living alone in general.

I like to talk about a challenge of inherited culture which includes several bad habits that portray women as a human being with less rights than men (Double standards), and the wrong explanation of religion which puts women in a lower degree than men.

My dream is to see gender equality and freedom of speech implemented all over the world, in particular the Arab countries.

Nowadays Egypt is facing various challenges: namely the closed mentality that is brought about due to a huge deficit in democracy and human rights.

The progress for women is hindered by gaps in public knowledge about basic rights as well as by institutional weaknesses in Egypt’s government.

Egyptians stress basic needs when they talk about human rights, and this conception of human rights informs popular attitudes on women’s rights.

Most Egyptians interviewed by journalists, say men and women have equal rights in an ideal world, but in reality these rights are not ensured in today’s Egypt—for women as they are for men. The general sense that men and women should have equal rights does not translate into an attitude where they have the same roles and responsibilities in life. Both men and women see women as having the primary responsibility for taking care of the home and raising children, while men serve as the primary breadwinners.

In all Arab countries, males have traditionally been the providers, females the homemakers.

People argue that there aren’t enough jobs for everybody, so women need to sit at home, and let the men work, so every family will have at least one income!!

Even when we have the right to work and are educated, women’s job opportunities are not equal to those of men. In Egypt for example, women have limited opportunities to work in the private sector because women are still expected to put their role in the family first, which causes men to be seen as more reliable in the long term

Women don’t get jobs to work or become productive. They have jobs so that society can indulge in the lie that both genders are enjoying their full rights. The majority of women have jobs that are not mentally challenging. Their employers always keep in mind that they won’t stay long enough to hold any managerial position.

My dream is to see men and women working together, swapping ideas, sharing power, but in my country women are still struggling to minimize the gap between what their annual salary is compared to their male counterpart within the same profession.

The wage gap is determined upon a number of variables. These variables include the median wages of both gender that work full-time and throughout the entire year, their education and skill levels, the number of men and women entering the workforce, and the strength of the economy at that point in time. Women are continuously being hired less compared to men, being given fewer training opportunities compared to men, and are being given smaller pension and benefits packages relatively to men.

On the other side, sexual harassment in workplace is a problem being addressed in many forums and feminists have raised concern regarding this burning issue.

Due to economic pressures and increased educational opportunities many women are entering the work force. They have to work to supplement their family income and at times have to support the family as well. Single women have to earn their livelihood. Pressures are many and added to it sexual harassment is an additional problem they have to face.

The sexual harassment of women in the streets, schools and work places of the Arab World is driving them to cover up and confine themselves to their homes.

The harassment, including groping and verbal abuse, appears to be designed to drive women out of public spaces and seems to happen regardless of what they are wearing.

– A better tomorrow for women!!

Being Female – is it affecting my future? Should I copy male behavior to get a successful career? Or will female values begin to be embraced and appreciated with the increased number of highly educated women in society?

I have no doubts that women have a lot of obstacles in the Middle East, but it’s up to us how we choose to handle these obstacles. We can either see them as problems that are oppressing us or we can see them as challenges, this is a choice we have to make ourselves as women.

First of all I am a human being and if I have some goals I’ll work on achieving them. Life always comes with obstacles whether you are a man or a woman. I think that if we rise above the gender issue and become qualifies aware and educated we can reach much more than we are aware of. I realize that women in the Middle East are facing more obstacles in their way to their goal, but I believe that if you really want to achieve a goal and work hard for it, it can become a reality. Obstacles are there to be overcome. The knowledge we get from this will make us stronger as human beings.

So I see many strong women, which makes me confident that women are made of certain strength. So obstacles or no obstacles women can do a lot of great things. The key word is to believe in your self. Because if you don’t believe in your self who should?

So to all women – keep fighting for your dreams- not because you are woman but because you are human beings that have a lot to give to the world.

By: Jasmine Elnadeem

It all started when I saw her smile in a picture and I noted that she is beautiful woman. But the shock came when I knew that she is no longer with us, and how – Murdered!

When her relatives spoke about her, they did so whispering and from those whispers I managed to know that she did her best to raise her daughter with love, also instilling a feeling of self confidence in her. She knew the meaning of pain and wanted her loved one not to experience this feeling. She provided her with all she possibly could. But her unexpected, tragic and violent death leaves a lonely child, and a mum will not have the chance that every mother should have to see her daughter growing up and have the opportunity to be part of her life.

The woman who was killed was also a daughter and a sister.

Years pass quickly and the murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment, everyone was happy till my last visit to Malta.

My several visits to Malta gave me the possibility to understand the Maltese language, and I could comprehend a Maltese programme that spoke about prisoners who had a life sentence.

As a journalist I wanted to compare these kind of programmes in Europe with those in my country (Egypt), and to know how is the life of murderers in prison.

I would like to point out that I’m against capital punishment but with such a brutal murder like this one, I started doubting my belief to be against.

The savage cruelty shown by that murderer must be alien even to the realm of beasts. The killer was no stranger or thief but the father of the child, which shocked me twice.

The father instead of drawing a beautiful portrait for his child to illustrate to her a nice and beautiful life, he chose to draw an ugly, bloody portrait by stabbing her mother not once or twice but 49 times.

Unfortunately in my career I got used to hear several kind of stories that could be similar in part or another. The law in Egypt still has capital punishment, which gives some families satisfaction when they see the murderer die, (“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”.)

In my opinion sentencing murderers to die because of their crimes is not correct, it is like giving them a quick death. Instead they should ponder on what they did wrong and pay for it by serving time in prison.

Murderers by their actions remove themselves from society and should no longer be part of it. They can’t be rehabilitated because unlike thieves they can’t return to their victims what was taken from them, so life imprisonment will be always the punishment meted out to the most serious, namely willful homicides.

Returning back to the T.V. programme, as the murderers themselves noted, these convicts have more rights than we law – abiding citizens. It seems that the EU with its notion of human rights – which are also applied to the prisoners of the EU member states – forgot that human rights don’t mean an overly comfortable life for criminals and murderers because we will give them a reason to commit crimes.

The murderer who committed this bloody crime was describing his day in prison:
How he gets up in the morning , eats breakfast, does some exercises with his colleagues, and washes his room, then drinks coffee quietly whilst reading the newspaper.

And his day didn’t finish like this, but as he said he has multi choices for the rest of the day. These could be visiting his colleague or chatting with him, seeing a DVD or navigate the internet.
This seems to look more like a well deserved retirement than a prison sentence.

The rest of the murderers were saying how easy it is to get a gun or smuggle drugs in prison without getting caught.

At the end of this programme I felt that the punishment is in fact forcing good citizens to pay for these criminals food and DVDs in prison, while prisoners don’t do anything to earn a living for themselves. Even in the wild, people have to do some work like hunting or building shelters.

In spite that criminals are contained within secure prison areas, it doesn’t mean that they should be treated as if they are on a vacation. Work is a part of life.

If human rights institutions applauded the presenter of the programme for showing that the prison in Malta respects human rights, the presenter forgot that the real human (the families of the victims) with his programme didn’t see real justice.

Justice will not make the families of the victims forget their beloved ones but at least, if justice used the sword it carried, it will help these families continue their lives knowing that the criminals are serving in prison for their crimes.

By: Jasmine Elnadeem