The United Nations describes International Women's Day celebrated on 8 March of every year as a commemoration of "the story of ordinary women as makers of history". Al-Ahram Weekly takes the occasion to reflect on the progress made in the battle to emancipate woman kind Traps of empowerment What, asks Fatma Khafagy*, may be the gender of political reform? Debates surrounding reform in the Middle East have addressed the issue of gender and women's empowerment. Experts like Marina Ottaway, who talk about the "women's rights trap", have argued that a country cannot be democratic if it discriminates against half of its population. Yet the real obstacle to democracy in the Arab countries is not discrimination against women but the fact that the entire population has only limited political rights. The problem has less to do with giving women the same rights as men, more with reforming the political system in such a way as to grant the entire population the full gamut of civil and political rights as delineated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and relevant conventions. In the majority of cases, when women are treated equally or assigned important policy and legislative positions in non-democratic countries, they fail to make progress towards democracy; they tend to only exert themselves in the effort to preserve their own positions, and to maintain the status quo in order to remain in power. There is no guarantee that in giving women positions of importance, any given society will bring about democracy. In Egypt women occupy several important positions in the media, yet they have failed to bring about major changes in media policies. Nor have they managed to alter stereotypes of the woman in the media. To put it in a nutshell, while a country cannot democratise so long as it excludes women, it would be delusional to think that giving women the same (limited) rights as men in an autocratic setting will bring a country closer to democracy. The two battles -- for women's rights and for democracy -- are equally important, and they must be fought together. This line of thinking seems to be particularly true of Egypt. The majority of women's rights advocates in government and civil society have focussed on analysing gender gaps and calling for bridging them in health, education, the economic and political spheres. Their point of reference concerns what men have, and their aim is to help women have the same. This has done little to mobilise men who themselves have little to say for themselves -- an objective that requires evidence of women bringing about good governance. In Egypt as in comparable countries, competition among women at the top tends to be fierce, with the older chasing the younger as if to mark territory, and no effective mechanism to control corruption -- of which many women of status are in fact beneficiaries who actively ignore the battle for democratic reform. The legal sphere provides both positive and negative signals. The current Constitution, issued in 1971, provides for equality between men and women in all fields whether political, social or economic. It stipulates that all citizens are equal before the law, and holds the state responsible for supporting women in combining their reproductive and productive roles. On the other hand Egypt ratified the Convention of Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1981. But it still refuses to sign the Optional Protocol of CEDAW. It had four reservations on CEDAW. The first concerns Article 2 on gender equality, on which Egypt stated that it is willing to comply provided that such compliance does not run counter to Islamic Sharia. The second concerned Article 9, paragraph two, which gives women equal rights with respect to the nationality of their children; new jurisdiction has since rendered the reservation null and void, however. The third reservation, on Article 16, concerns gender equality in matrimonial and family relations both during a marriage and on its dissolution. And the fourth reservation, on Article 29, concerns the submission to an arbitral body of any dispute that arises between states concerning the interpretation or application of the convention. In 2001, Egypt presented its third and combined fourth and fifth reports to the CEDAW Committee. The concluding remarks of the committee recommended lifting reservations on CEDAW, intensifying awareness raising programmes, eliminating negative stereotypes of women, especially in the media, affirming the multi-dimensional and cross-cutting nature of HIV/AIDS, raising the number of women at all levels of decision-making and addressing issues like violence against women. There have been positive amendments to some discriminatory laws in the last few years. The rape law was amended to punish the rapist even if he is willing to marry the victim. Women can leave the country without their husbands' approval. And the khul' grants women the right to divorce irrespective of the husband's consent, providing that they forgo their financial rights. The family court law was also issued to facilitate procedures and implementation of court rulings concerning the family. However, there are still a number of laws that constitute gender discrimination and violate women's rights such as the penal law governing adultery and prostitution. Likewise there remains a need for stronger laws to prohibit domestic violence, crimes of honour and similar problems. The legal system in Egypt is contradictory in that it guarantees women's rights in the public arena, restricting them in the private. The personal status law, for example, permits not only male polygamy but the right of the husband to divorce his wife for no good reason, and the expulsion of a divorced woman from the marital residence providing she has no children or her children are beyond custody age. Family law prioritises the reproductive role of woman, assuming that men alone are responsible for providing for the family. It places the protection of the family unit above individual rights within the family, giving men privileges to go with the role of sole provider. Likewise women are not treated as individuals but rather as wives, mothers and daughters expected to obey the patriarch; and their role, especially in the case of divorce, will bring no perks of its own. Economic rights are further determined by the woman's position within the family. Because the family remains the basic unit of Egyptian society, family structure and relations play a significant role in determining women's economic opportunities (what kind of jobs they should take, how many hours they can work, how close their workplace should be to their homes, whether they can take jobs that require travelling, etc.) Women are expected to have jobs that do not contradict their role as wives and mothers. A deeply embedded belief that the woman's most important role is that of mistress of the household limits women's opportunities in the public sphere. Though the government has declared its commitment to increasing educational and work opportunities for females and expanding the scope of their political participation, the personal status law works in a contrary manner, perpetuating the status quo and thus making it difficult for women to combine productive with reproductive roles. Based on erroneous interpretation of religious precepts, such laws reflect cultural beliefs and tend to have a power preservation nature. Yet the problem is not always with the law alone. Often it is the application of the law that undermines women's rights. Judges in many cases are influenced by the same patriarchal biases of society and to which they were subject during their early socialisation. They have little sympathy with a woman who initiates divorce, or one who suffers abuse at the hands of her husband. Their verdicts reflect such biases all too often, and the fact that no woman judges can bring change to the judiciary system, especially with regard to family law, only makes the situation worse. Because the law is mostly implemented by men (in the police and justice departments), women who have court rulings that give them custody rights, to alimony, for example, are often unable to implement them. Likewise, though the labour law does not discriminate against women, they are often denied top managerial posts; women who have temporary contracts are often denied maternity leave. Girls are socialised to consider marriage life's mission, because a woman does not have status unless she is married. As a result, women tend to accept and tolerate injustices that take place in the family. Many women, especially from low- and middle-income classes, tend to sacrifice their individual rights for the sake of preserving the marriage. Control of women's sexuality is another obstacle to their practice of rights. Religious extremists place the blame for excessive libidinal drive on women alone, with the result that FGM is universally practised and, increasingly, veiling as well. Many such factors create further obstacles of their own. Several stakeholders can contribute to meeting the challenges at hand: civil society, government bodies, regional and international organisations. The secular feminist movement in Egypt is fragmented, its various arms weak and isolated with very little coordination between them. They lack a unified agenda, failing to agree on even the outline of project on which they can work together. In addition, they are subject to an Islamist critique that condemns their work as anti-Islamic evil -- the implementation of a Western agenda. Yet a change in the personal status law will affect the lives of every class of women in Egypt, and it is something that should be approached collectively. Because millions of women suffer the brunt of this law, millions can be mobilised in the battle to reform it. Women's groups and NGOs must forgo the leadership competitions in which they tend to engage, arguing about who should lead women's liberation in Egypt. In this regard Egyptians might learn from Moroccans, who have made significant advances in the last few years, mobilising a strong movement to alter the moudouna of personal status law and enhancing female political participation; they also have a good model for rotating leadership. The government should start with amending laws that discriminate against women, consulting with women's groups and civil society at large and fulfilling the stipulations of the Constitution regarding facilitating the combination of both the productive and the reproductive role. There are important positions that women are deprived of occupying, and the government should open them up without scruples. It should also control religious fundamentalism, preventing the media from spreading misconceptions that result in the subordination of women. And international and regional organisations should work along parallel tracks, funding NGOs and women's groups in the hope of building a sustainable and powerful women's movement; and they should fund on the basis of women's groups' priorities, not their own. One wonders why international organisations fund the government to undertake tasks NGOs can do better, something that tends to weaken civil society, especially in the light of the lack of trust between it and the government. We need to stop talking about women's rights and start working towards the rights of all citizens including women. The battle for reform, democracy and good governance remains essentially a human rights battle, and Western concepts about the importance of bridging gender gaps constitute an inappropriate methodology that has cost us many valuable years already. Bridging gaps is relevant only when the minority and not the majority is excluded. And how to bring the majority back to the mainstream is a battle for both women and men. * The writer is the director of the Ombudsman Office of the National Council for Women.
