As I expected, I was exposed to intimidation for my different opinion, for we no longer accept difference and we no longer know dialogue, especially when it comes to religion, where either you are with them or you are an infidel that deserves stoning. Last week I wrote about the Iranian Chador; that strange attire that began to spread among our women because it is cheap and because of the skill of its distributors. Women in Egypt wear it unaware of its political inclination and different cultural and sectarian nature, which is a clear penetration of our culture and waste of the identity of the Egyptian woman.
Most of the replies I got took the side of religion and ignored the issue of identity and the absence of an Egyptian role in disseminating culture. They did not see it as a sign of our weak culture and our willingness to take after some phenomena around us without thinking. I read replies like: "The chador covers a woman's body, unless you prefer nudity" and "You must be against the veil" and "What is wrong with Shiism when we all love the prophet's family" and "Iran is a superpower. We wish we were like Iran".
I will not respond to every viewpoint individually, but I will rather say again that the issue is not religious. Is there no attire that can cover a woman's body other than the Iranian chador? Either we wear the chador or we go naked? Is there nothing in between? What about the identity that the Egyptians have always been proud of? Why do I see women giving it up so easily? They accept male superiority and talk about the brave veiled women of the 1919 Revolution. How about the brave women who have fought for their emancipation from that superiority and from the veil? Has all what Hoda Sharawi and Cyiza Nabarawi fought for in the 1920s gone in vain? I fear such strange thought would penetrate our culture, as we have always been a moderate nation. Why have we suddenly turned to extremism? Women of Egypt wake up!
