Feminist author and activist Nawal El Saadawi relates to Women’s eNews the somewhat paradoxical character of Suzanne Mubarak, Egypt’s former First Lady.
Though Ms Mubarak is often lauded as a proponent of women’s rights, Ms. Saadawi argues that she instead endeavored to consolidate the Egyptian feminist organizations, and did so with the sole purpose of exerting control.
One of the more significant moves in this respect was Ms. Mubarak’s creation of the National Council for Women, an umbrella organization that oversaw approval of nearly ever women’s group in the nation.
“Suzanne Mubarak killed the feminist movement so she could be the leader,” Saadawi said.
Just as the Egyptian Revolution had uniquely charged implications for its female participants, so, too, does the prospect of its failure.
Saadawi points to the well-known and near-universal fragility of the post-revolution state; one wherein an exhausted populace, having realized its initial goals, is all too prone to abandon its momentum and pave the way for a regime of equal or even greater autocracy then the one they removed. Time and time again, women are the first to suffer from this atrophying, most notably, in the Middle Eastern context, in Algeria and Iran.
Though quick to point out the distinctions between the Egyptian Revolution and those of the aforementioned nations, feminists worldwide put incredible stress on the importance of caution.
“I think about what happened in Algeria,” said Hoda Badran, chairperson for the Alliance of Arab Women. “To stop this, we have to demand our rights.”
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