By Azza Heikal Feminism and women's lib are two terms that preoccupied the world during the last 60 years. However, women as well as men have changed their attitudes and perspectives. While in the West women were calling for freedom and equality, in the East women were fighting for their identity and existence. Though the Western experience proved to be a failure, the approach in the East was very challenging. To give an example, in the West marriage faced problems, since a lot of children were born with no homes or families to belong to. Besides, abortion caused many deaths for young girls and also humiliated the emotional relationship between men and women. Many wives suffered due to the aggressive attitude of their husbands and they also faced hardship in and outside of their homes. Career women became equated with masculinity, as if success in work deprives women of their femininity. Although the result of equality between men and women enabled the latter to reach pre-eminent positions, family ties were falling apart. By contrast, women in the East developed a more moderate and liberal approach, due to culture and religious contexts. Nonetheless, their calls for emancipation from backwardness were strong, founded on the essential and vital role of women. Women are different from men, but this does not mean that they are inferior or less capable. The contextual history of the East seeks a man-woman relationship based on sharing rather than equality per se. In other words, each has a role in life, as both complement the other. Equality is only possible in work and practical life, but sharing is the key to a balanced social, personal and family life. Women have been colonised for centuries, East and West, and their emancipation is not yet realised. Many of their injuries, however, are about to be healed. Men need a liberation of their minds, to see women anew and to read them differently. If the last century was one of women's liberation, eventually this new century may mark a step towards man's emancipation. The emasculation of women has to be reversed, so that men can think like women and act like gentlemen. This week's Soapbox speaker is professor of English literature, Ain Shams University.
