Remembering the Revolution's Great-Grandmothers: Hamieda Khalil, Hoda Sha‘arawi, Safiyya Zaghlul and the Revolutionaries of 1919

Women Demonstrating in 1919

I've posted previously about resemblances between Egypt's revolution of 1919 and the ferment that brought down Husni Mubarak. Yesterday's big march by angry women evokes memories of another march some of their great-grandmothers may have joined, the first great demonstration by women during the 1919 Revolution (sometimes called an uprising by the British Occupation it sought to end, but always thawra to Egyptians.)

With the crescent-and-cross flag

Women had played a role from the beginning of the troubles, and on March 14, 1919 a woman from Cairo's Gamaliyya district, Hamieda Khalil, was killed, the first woman martyr of the revolt. Two days later, on March 16, Hoda Sha‘arawi organized a demonstration consisting entirely of women, at least 300, to march and protest. March 16 is now celebrated as Egyptian women's day. Much of what little is available about Hamieda Khalil is in Arabic, or in general accounts of women in the Revolution, and I don't know if she was ever photographed.

Hoda Sha‘arawi

On multiple occasions, however, I have posted about the pioneering Egyptian feminist Hoda (Huda) Sha‘arawi, who famously stepped off a train in Cairo in 1923, returning from a feminist meeting in Europe, without her face veil. She became the heroine and patron saint of Egyptian feminism. But as the 1919 march shows, she was an activist long before she took off the veil.

Hoda Sha‘arawi & Safiyya Zaghlul

Another early activist and feminist was Safiyya Zaghlul, wife of nationalist leader Sa‘ad Zaghlul; her husband's forced exile to the Seychelles by the British was the spark that ignited the 1919 Revolution. Sha‘arawi and Safiyya Zaghlul are shown together at right.

These women were the pioneers. I'm sure they'd applaud yesterday's March, but also be appalled that things have not progressed more and may in fact be moving backward.

Egypt: The Women's March

Today, some 10,000 women of all ages and background marched in downtown Cairo to protest military violence directed at women, including the now famous woman beaten and stripped by the military police in what Secretary of State Clinton called the "systematic degradation of women." The photos confirm the presence of young and old, clad in Western garb, hijab, or even niqab, many of them carrying the photo that went around the world.


Meanwhile the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces issued its latest communique (number 91) as it always communicates, by posting an image on its Facebook page. (Text is in Arabic.) They promised to investigate and punish those responsible for the notorious "virginity tests," and those responsible for the Maspero killings.

Um, your generalships, sirs, the "virginity tests" outrage took place last March. Thank you so much for your prompt attention. These are clearly not just the young activists of Tahrir: SCAF has riled Egyptian women. Their communique suggests that after days of suggesting that the photo was a fake, they really are starting to catch on to what happens when you kick a hornet's nest, or kick a woman whose abaya you've pulled off in a video that's gone around the world.

Here's one of many videos of the march. A line of men protected the women marchers. Not all Egyptian men are like those who so disgraced the uniform.

The Future of Tourism in Egypt if Islamists Have Their Way: Is There One?

This young lady (photo courtesy The Arabist) is quite fetching to be sure, in what is sometimes dubbed a "burkini," but is she really the future of tourism in Egypt? Will American, British, French, Italian and Israeli tourists (I won't even bring up the Germans) be content to dress accordingly on Egypt's beaches (perhaps, since in some scenarios the males will all be somewhere totally separate), while sipping nothing stronger than lemonade, drawn solely to learn about the ancient culture, where the statues of pharaohs and their queens may be covered with cloth to protect their modesty, while the statues of gods and goddesses are hidden because they're graven idols? And where couples may be asked for marriage certificates when checking into hotels? In a country where tourism is a major source of hard currency and where the tourist infrastructure is extensive, it seems unlikely, But some of the Islamists who are feeling giddy with victory in the first phase of elections are talking about creating a "sin-free" tourism sector, banning not just alcohol and bikinis, but mixed bathing and perhaps more. Some Islamists, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, are trying to downplay the idea,  and given the country's economic plight, torpedoing the tourist industry hardly seems wise. The Islamist who was recently quoted as saying "They came to see the ancient civilization, not to drink alcohol," may misunderstand why people go to resorts like Sharm al-Sheikh or Hurghada, both of which are sorely lacking in ancient monuments, and  known purely as beach resorts.

Sharm al-Sheikh, for Now

Now, I think that that paragon of journalism The Daily Mail is going too far in proclaiming "The end of Sharm al-Sheikh?," and I'm sure Egypt's hotel industry will weigh in on these issues, As will the ruling military, which, I believe, may have some investments in the tourist sector.

In danger of extinction?

It's true, of course, that Hurghada and Sharm al-Sheikh are almost utterly alien to most Egyptians who haven't been there and who couldn't afford them anyway; the tourists aren't wearing bikinis in Egyptian villages or downtown Cairo. (So don't share this link with any rabid Islamists. It's a collection of YouTube videos of bikini contests in Hurghada.)

Cover up, Isis! You too, Horus!

The talk about censoring or otherwise concealing ancient Egyptian monuments seems equally counterproductive. If people are coming only for the ancient culture and not the beaches, are you going to hide the ancient culture? It naturally and disturbingly calls to mind the Taliban blowing up the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Since Egyptian gods and goddesses tend to be wearing loincloths and headdresses and not much in between (hey, it gets hot there in summer, and there was no A/C),  I suppose it is inevitable that some people are going to want to cover them up, even if they weren't already idols to begin with. Yet even the classic Isis/Horus madonna-and-child at left, extremely well-crafted as it is, will be taboo.

The cognitive dissonance between "they should come for our ancient culture" and "the ancient culture is pagan and evil" is going to be a problem as well.

Not too long ago Zeinobia printed this cartoon on her blog, which nails it down pretty well: the man — judging by the dome I think he represents Parliament — is shackled with balls and chains representing Egypt's problems (food issues, unemployment, poverty, abuse of women, etc.), and he has visibly empty pockets, but he is shouting about getting rid of bikinis.

They'll be ok with this though:  no bikinis here.

No Bikinis Here; Just Belts or Bronze Age G-Strings

Mona ElTahawy on MSNBC Yesterday

Mona ElTahawy, following her beating, sexual abuse and arrest in Cairo late last month, and recovering from a broken arm (which is being surgically reset today) and a broken hand from the beatings, appeared on MSNBC yesterday. As always, she expresses herself so clearly I need add no comments:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Aliaa ElMahdy Revisited: As the Real ElMahdy Says She's in Hiding, Pakistani and Tunisian Actresses Try to Gain PR By (Sort of) Daring Photos

I really am not a dirty old man, and for the record I've only posted once, directly, up to now about Aliaa ElMahdy's notorious posting of nude photos of herself, though I've referred to it in passing in discussing the cases of Samira Ibrahim and Mona ElTahawy, both victims of violent sexual  abuse and thus hardly the same thing, though they received, at least in the first case, less international attention. I also try to keep this blog PG-13 and keep controversial material in the links, with due warnings. But it seems to keep coming up still, and it may be time for an update, and some commentary on my part.

The immediate storm in the Egyptian media and blogosphere faded with the confrontations in Tahrir and the elections, which overshadowed it, so I've kept away from the story. Now, however, tabloid headlines in various countries are proclaiming a "Pakistani Aliaa ElMahdy" and a "Tunisian Aliaa ElMahdy," even though the real Aliaa is apparently underground for her own protection.

No, those press reports of growing Islamist strength throughout the region are not attempts to cover up some sudden outburst of female nudity: the tabloids aside, it's not happening. Both of these latest claimaints are actresses apparently seeking publicity and neither of their photos is all that revealing (about PG-13 on a US film rating). Neither of their pictures reveals more than the Cosmopolitan covers on display in the checkout lines in this country, not to mention European magazine covers, whereas the real Aliaa, who left nothing to the imagination, now says that she's gone into hiding due to threats against her life. The fact of the matter is, she, at age 20 and perhaps unwisely, took much bigger chances and is paying a much bigger price (but with a less commercial motivation) than a couple of actresses already known for daring roles, who appear in suggestive but not really naked poses. The comparison is a reach, since Aliaa ElMahdy was far more offensive to societal values and has a lot more to lose. Assuming she really has gone underground, given the electoral results (my next post coming up this morning), she may have good reason.

Aliaa ElMahdy

A website called CyberDissidents.org recently published what it described as an interview with Aliaa ElMahdy. It would seem to be her first public comments since an interview with CNN when the story first broke. In that interview she talked openly about her sex life, losing her virginity at 18 to an older man (not her current boyfriend), and other issues that are taboo in Egypt and, along with her proclaimed atheism, transgressed just about every boundary. Now she's more circumspect.

CyberDissidents.org: You've paid a heavy personal price for publishing your picture. Who is threatening you and why?

Aliaa Elmahdy: Individuals, unions and Islamists.  They are afraid that I might influence others and change the position of women in Egyptian society.  One woman who reported me to authorities said that she is afraid of my influence on her children. She is afraid she will lose control over them.

CyberDissidents.org: Has the political revolution in Egypt also sparked a social revolution? 

Aliaa: Not yet. 

CyberDissidents.org: What does freedom mean to you?

Aliaa: Freedom means doing what you want and making your own choices so long as you don’t hurt others.  Real freedom to me is not a gift.  I can say I’m free because I practice my freedom even though I know I can be hurt for doing so. 

She did deny that she is the young woman shown in a YouTube video being kicked out of Tahrir Square and apparently beaten.  The video is disturbing whoever the young woman may have been, and I'm not embedding it here. It may explain her going underground, though.

I'll say more about the debate over Aliaa later, but first, her actress "emulators," though again, the pictures don't reveal much. I'll link to them but not publish them here only because I'm not their publicist and I know publicity stunts when I see them.

Pakistani actress Veena Malik seems to have an unusual career track for a Pakistani actress: after a career in Pakistan, lately she mostly acts in India, first on TV, now with aspirations in Bollywood. She appears on the cover of the Indian edition of FHM Magazine, apparently naked but with her arms and legs strategically placed. Noticeably, she has "ISI" tattooed or Photoshopped on her (strategically positioned) arm, which is of course the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence. This is causing a furor in the Pakistani social media, and I imagine it got ISI's attention as well.  Uri Friedman at Foreign Policy discusses the issue here. She has denied that she ever posed nude, claiming the cover must be photoshopped, but the Magazine Editor insists he has both video proof of the photoshoot and e-mail evidence she saw the pictures beforehand. Though I edit a very different sort of magazine, I tend to assume magazine editors have their legal bases covered. I also think India Today in the last link nails it: publicity stunt. Maybe she got cold feet when she learned of the reaction in Pakistan. She seems to spend most of her time in India and it's a Cosmopolitan cover level of "nudity" at best, so she's hardly the Pakistani Aliaa ElMahdy.  (If you must see the cover, all three links above reproduce it.) Though she might want to stay in India as long as her visa permits, unless she can come up with something else "ISI" could stand for.

I'm also unimpressed by the "Tunisian Aliaa ElMahdy." Actress Nadia Boussetta has appeared on her Facebook Page and, apparently, will appear in Tunivisions Magazine posing wearing a vest open down the front, but covering all but cleavage and her navel.You'll see more skin at the Oscars, or almost any beach; including, I might add, many Tunisian beaches catering to French, German and Italian tourists.  Calling this one "semi-nude" as many are is rather misleading if not downright deceptive outside of Afghanistan.  (Note that the last link, BikyaMasr in Egypt, transliterates her name "Bostah," but the Tunisian sites show it's Boussetta.) She has told the media that she intended no political statement (link in French) and seems to be pretty honest that she's just promoting her film, Hekayat Tunisia (Contes tunisiennes, Tunisian Stories), which, according to this article about worries over censorship in the new Tunisia, had already been raising hackles with Islamists for its candor. At least she's honest about doing PR for a movie, and frankly, the average Arab movie poster shows more. Only tabloid newspapers and Islamists would consider these "nude" pictures. The latter is particularly inoffensive.

I do, of course, recognize it takes a certain courage even for an actress to defy the conventions of her society. But I suspect their motives are pretty much aimed at promoting their careers. Aliaa ElMahdy's daring, whatever you may think of her judgment, is of a totally different scale, and may have denied her a career. She dropped out of the American University in Cairo, she told CNN in the link above, because her parents cut off her tuition when she moved out of their house. She is now apparently in hiding, though she or her boyfriend Kareem Amer occasionally post links or photos to social media.

While I don't want to emphasize her story overmuch, or fuel some of the more prurient discussions out there, she does represent an unprecedented defiance and transgression of the rules. Since it has been several weeks since my first post on the subject, it may be worth surveying, briefly at least, much of commentary on her act, which has been extensive.

Mona ElTahawy's post at The Guardian, "Egypt's Naked Blogger is a Bomb Aimed at the Patriarchs in Our Minds," is a frank discussion of her daring, and concludes:

When Mohammed Bouazizi, fed up with humiliation, repression and poverty, set himself on fire in Tunisia last January, essentially taking state abuse to its logical end, he ignited the revolutionary imagination of the Middle East and north Africa. Aliaa Mahdy, fed up with hypocrisy and sexual repression, undressed. She is the Molotov cocktail thrown at the Mubaraks in our heads – the dictators of our mind – which insists that revolutions cannot succeed without a tidal wave of cultural changes that upend misogyny and sexual hypocrisy.

One of the most extended discussions by an Arab woman on the subject is Maya Mikdashi's at Jadalyiyya, "Waiting for Alia." It deserves to be read in full. (Like Mona ElTahawy's post it reproduces the picture of Aliaa, uncensored, so be aware.) Among the key points:

The idea that female bodies are sacrosanct, and that somehow they are “protected” from overt sexualization in Egypt is false. Contrary to what many of Alia’s detractors and what many commentators on the Arab world have said, female bodies have long been the site of struggle, interrogation, harassment, and commodification throughout the region. In particular, Cairo is famous for being the premiere public ass-pinching, breast-grabbing, and body-rubbing capital of the Arab world. The fact is that a woman (unveiled or not) cannot walk down a crowded Cairene street or take a public bus without expecting, and thus constantly guarding herself against, sexual harassment. In recent months, females involved in protests at Tahrir Square were subjected to “virginity tests” by the military junta. The “virginity tests” were administered via the age-old method of inserting two (male soldiers') fingers into each woman's vagina. These women were violated in order to ascertain whether they had engaged in consensual sexual activities. Of course, the real point of these virginity tests is not to actually see if someone is a virgin. The point is to humiliate, threaten, and to demonstrate and reassert control over a body and through that individual body, the body public and the notion of “public morality.” The point is to terrorize, and the aim of terrorism is always to instill fear (and hope that that fear will incite self-policing) in a civilian population . . .

Of course, the female body is not only a site of political control and the regulation of patriarchal public morality. It is also a primary vehicle for making money. The horizontal and vertical cavalcade of visual imagery and signage that is ubiquitous throughout the city will have awed anyone who has been to Cairo. In Cairo and in Beirut, the little sister with a Napoleon complex, the public display of the sexualized female body is everywhere. Women in various stages of undress writhe and pose in film posters, advertisements, and publicity campaigns for female pop stars.

Mikdashi posts several videos and still pictures of video sexuality, lingerie ads, lurid movie posters and such, to prove her point that defense of the female form is not quite so obvious as ElMahdy's critics suggest.

(Let me add as an aside that though it's become shorthand for the entire world, I'm a little bothered by the "nude Egyptian blogger" label: she is known for only one blogpost, and I have no idea what she may have been wearing when she posted it.)

One of the best (at least of those I can reproduce on a PG-13 site) cartoon comments I have seen is this one by Kaveh Adel:

Most of you will recognize the emergence from conservative dress, through the feminist symbol, which Aliaa transforms into the Ankh, the Ancient Egyptian symbol of life. Adel's title is "From  Non-Existent to Life for Aalia AlMahdy." I hope that does indeed prove to be the outcome of her act.

Hoda Sha‘arawi

At least one blogger, Ashraf Ezzat, has argued ("Cry for Freedom by a Nude Egyptian Blogger") that Elmahdy's defiant act is somehow in continuity with the daring act of Hoda Sha‘arawi (1879-1947) appearing without her veil in 1923; my concern is that this will lead to a "slippery slope" argument among Islamists who think Hoda Sha‘arawi's act leads directly to Aliaa ElMahdy's.

There have been some efforts to persuade other Arab and Muslim women to emulate Aliaa, not counting the publicity seeking actresses mentioned above. A large number of Israeli women did pose nude in solidarity, though they showed a lot less than Aliaa did, at least in the linked photo, and they no doubt helped convince many in Egypt the whole thing was an Israeli-Zionist plot. Otherwise, publicity-seeking actresses excepted, she did not start a groundswell of nudity. A Facebook Page calling for "Nude Photo Revolutionaries" to post in solidarity went nowhere; a British-based feminist activist hasn't had much better luck.There are some posts in sympathy by a Tunisian woman living in Italy and an Iranian woman living in Denmark (where, in the minds of Islamists, everyone is naked all day and also drawing cartoons of the Prophet); both look like professional studio shoots and neither goes beyond toplessness, and rather demure at that, and I see no need to link: it's hardly a daring act in Italy or Denmark. Apparently one woman inside Iran did post a photo of her topless, not showing her face, but she took it down within 48 hours saying the authorities had discovered her real identity. I hope she's OK, and will not otherwise identify her (no longer extant) site.

Now to Aliaa's case itself. My remarks about the anodyne and rather Cosmopolitan-cover nature of the Pakistani and Tunisian actresses' "daring" photos comes not from disappointment but from dismay at the notion that they have done something as risky and transgressive as Aliaa ElMahdy. Do not, however, assume therefore that Aliaa's picure is somehow pornographic, though I have to get a little more specific in discussing it, and therefore if you're uncomfortable with the discussion, don't proceed, there's nothing here that should shock a mature adult.  Her picture is naked, yes, but not overtly sexual. The photo itself would seem mild in any Playboy from the 1970s or later, and downright lame in this century, to Western, jaded eyes. I'm still not going to print an uncensored version, since I don't want the MEI blog being banned in those countries that don't already ban it (Syria and Iran, last time I looked), but it's hard to talk further without a censored one, so one appears below. (Warning: clicking on it will take you the uncensored, fully nude, NSFW original.) The black circles are not there in the original and are not what she wanted the world to see, but as you can see from what is shown, she is not posing erotically, despite the mesh stockings, or seductively: her expression shows, I'd guess, both apprehension and defiance. The fact that, unlike her Pakistani and Tunisian alleged emulators, or even her foreign supporters posting topless pictures abroad, she hides nothing, is part of the whole transgressive nature of her act. 

Aliaa ElMahdy censored

[Again: clicking on the photo will not enlarge it: it will take you to an uncensored version.]
If you are one of the few people who have not yet seen her original and now heavily visited website, and if you don't feel awkward (she is only 20, and as the father of a daughter I do a bit, but have made the sacrifice for professional blogging reasons), then do so (click on the PG-13 picture at left for the original photo alone, or for the whole web posting, link here, but both sites contain full frontal female nudity, latter site  both female and male, and both are most definitely not safe for work).

This is not a pornographic picture. It's a picture of a young woman standing there, not wearing clothes. Most classical sculpture is more erotic.  Not everyone gets that, and here I have to be a little graphic, so if verbal discussions of nudity bother you, stop here. Annoyingly but not surprisingly when it first appeared, some commenters (mostly women and Westerners) praised her for her daring; many, predictably, of both sexes denounced her as a tool of the devil; some (mostly male) liberal Arabs suggested she would fuel the Islamists' wrath and therefore denounced her; and, completely missing the point, some younger Arab males have complained that her breasts aren't big enough. Let's look at that rather adolescent comment.

I cannot think of a more obvious way to completely miss what this young woman was trying, however awkwardly, to say. "Big enough" for what, exactly? She is not trying out for Playmate of the Month, or trying to be some silicone-enhanced starlet; she is not asking you to look at her breasts, or focus on her breasts, though she is welcoming you to look at them if you choose to: she is saying, simply, this is me, this is my body, and I'm not ashamed of it, and I don't give a flying fuck whether you think my boobs are big enough or not, because I'm not doing this for you; I'm doing it for me. It's about freedom, not whether some horndog Arab male thinks her tits are big enough for his masturbatory fantasies. The Internet is big: look elsewhere. Boobs are all over the place. Get your kicks there, not from her political statement. The derogatory remarks about her breast size make her point more than anything.

Unlike the actresses above (whose nonexplicit photos with hands and vests concealing their breasts call more attention to their hinted-at breasts than Aliaa's photo) and the occasional European-based women whose "solidarity" has been expressed by professional studio shots that show, at most, their breasts, this photo is not focused there or on any other body part: she's just there, naked, looking at the camera. In fact, if she'd only shown her breasts, I suspect it wouldn't be so controversial: as Mikdashi's post linked above notes, partially though not completely bare breasts are common in Arab movies (and more so in their billboards), lingerie ads, music videos, and much more. The fact that she displays her pubic area is the really transgressive act. Again, she doesn't flaunt it or call attention to it, but it raises alarm bells. But she's just there. Nothing flaunted, nothing concealed. But a lot of Arab commenters won't say this, because while breasts are taboo, down there is somewhere beyond taboo.

That's one of many things her sexist commenters are missing. She's saying, "hey, this is me, and who I really am," not, "hey guys, look at my big boobs." She's not showing them off, or bragging about them.  They're just part of her. Really. I shouldn't comment on a 20-year-old's body or you will think I'm a dirty old man, but she, and if you must know, they, her breasts, look pretty normal or average to me.  She's a young, slender, and attractive (sexually and otherwise), woman, but no more or less so because she is easily seen naked.  I blame Hugh Hefner for the American focus on big breasts (not that there's there's anything wrong with them, mind you, just they're not essential: a woman is not her mammary glands); in Egypt, I think it's the film industry and their highly suggestive billboards. This is what Aliaa is rejecting, not encouraging. She's not trying to titillate you (pun fully intended). Cool off, guys, you're totally missing her point. She wants you to think of her as a whole person. Stop salivating about breasts, boobs, tits. Look at the woman.

Most won't. That's one way her message may fail. "Nude" and "sexual" are equated in, not just the Arab world, but still in large parts of my own country.  Not so many years ago some Internet blockers were blocking breast cancer sites because of the word "breast." I hope that doesn't happen to this post,  which also includes words like "nude" and "naked," "tits" and boobs," and even worse: but that's a reminder that we're not that far away from where Egypt is.

Since I'm already deep into the subject, and have probably already offended some readers, let me say a few more things. Whether or not this daring act was wise will, of course, depend upon one's individual definitions of what is acceptable; it was unquestionably daring, and it captured the imagination of many female Arab feminists as well as the international media. But most of those praising it are female and outspoken feminists already (Mona ElTahawy, Maya Mikdashi, both excerpted above) or Western men and women with Western assumptions. While the wisdom of the posting is disputable, there are Arab pornographic sites and personal sites that show as much or more: she posted it to the whole web, and made it political. She really has thrown the bomb into the minds of many people.

She may not be the new Hoda al-Sha‘arawi, though I am unsure that's a completely irrelevant metaphor. I just hope she does not regret, as apparently she already may, her profoundly transgressive and defiant fame. She is forever the "nude Egyptian blogger," whatever else she may do after the age of 20, though she hasn't blogged much and, for all I know, was clothed when she did.

Justice Delayed: Samira Ibrahim's Day in Court Postponed

Samira Ibrahim's case against the Egyptian military before Egypt's State Council, which was expected to be heard yesterday, has been postponed until December 27.

If you don't recognize the name of Samira Ibrahim, it's because this young Egyptian woman has not gotten that much press, outside of the human rights community, in either the Western or Egyptian media. Both of these institutions have been far more concerned with reporting on Aliaa ElMahdy, the so-called "Nude Blogger," who posted full-frontal naked pictures of herself. Samira Ibrahim wears hijab and apparently has Islamist political leanings, and is thus not as newsworthy. (I myself haven't named Samira before, apparently.) Except that while Aliaa ElMahdy deliberately chose her highly public profile and notoriety, Samira Ibrahim made a courageous choice to protest what was inflicted on her. Of the numerous (at least seven, possibly dozens) of  young women who were arrested in Tahrir in March and subjected by the military to so-called "virginity tests," in which they were subjected to physical examination "to see if they were virgins," prodded naked with male military personnel looking on, Samira was the only one willing to pursue justice in the courts. Leaving aside the obvious objection that the question of their virginity had no bearing on any judicial case, the public violation of these women, in the presence of male soldiers and others, is an outrage. When an unidentified general told the media that "these girls are not like your daughters or mine," suggesting promiscuity in the Tahrir encampment, he just made the insult greater. Yet only Samira, who wears hijab, is fighting back.

More on the postponement of her case here; and a detailed (and thus rather graphic) account of what was done to these women, compiled by Human Rights Watch, here.

But Samira is quite capable of telling her own story, as she does here. Some of her opinions (as on Israel, for one thing) may not evoke your sympathy, but the rest of her story should evoke both sympathy and anger. Arabic (colloquial Egyptian) with English subtitles. (I think I've embedded this so the English subtitles will come up automatically; if they don't, click on the "CC" closed-captioning button on the lower right which should show up if you move your mouse down there.)




Yet another account of Samira's story is here. The postponement of her case is possibly a sign the authorities are either waiting to see which way the electoral winds are blowing, or perhaps just procedural, but it raises concerns about a further delay in justice. Samira, of course, was not the only victim; just the only one to face down the system and demand justice.

Though Samira Ibrahim, hijab-wearing Muslim victim of invasive and abusive "virginity tests," and Aliaa ElMahdy, the "Nude Blogger" and self-proclaimed atheist, would seem to be polar opposites, at least one Cairo graffiti artist has managed to link them together:

For all their differences, both these very different Egyptian women are gutsy enough to put a lot on the line, though unlike Mona ElTahawy, whose gutsy publication of the details of her own beating and sexual abuse I praised recently, they don't have a US passport to fall back on.  But Samira may be the gutsiest of all, since she's taking on SCAF and calling what the Army did to her before the courts.

Back in 1923, when Hoda Sha‘arawi stepped off the train in Cairo after a women's conference in Europe and did so without wearing her veil, she started a movement. I'm sure Hoda Sha‘arawi could not have envisioned Aliaa ElMahdy (though an Islamist might say it's a slippery slope from no veil to no clothes at all), but I'm quite sure she would have applauded Samira Ibrahim's fight. Though the hijab would surprise her. Hoda Sha‘arawi has a major street in downtown Cairo named for her. Will Samira Ibrahim? Or even, in some (quite) distant future, Aliaa ElMahdy?

On the Beating and Sexual Abuse of Mona ElTahawy

I was going to post this yesterday but my original version was too angry and profane. I'm going to try to do this more calmly. The subject is still adult and some of the Twitter posts in screen caps need a language warning.

We all know, sadly, that in the midst of Egypt's revolutionary fervor, there has also been a horrific pattern of abuse of women. The horrors of the "virginity tests" "conducted" on women protesters in the Egyptian Museum last spring remain the most notorious case, since these "virginity tests" are usually known by rather cruder names involving the word "finger," and were inflicted by members of the Egyptian Armed Forces. When the hue and cry were in full cry over Aliaa ElMahdy's nude photos recently, one commenter noted on Twitter:

Egyptian feminists have done much to publicize the prevalence of sexual harassment in the Egyptian street (83% of Egyptian women say they've experienced it), and the sexual assault on CBS reporter Lara Logan on the night Husni Mubarak was toppled (though conducted by thugs in the street, not under official auspices), drew much Western attention, though of course Egyptian women did not find it that unusual. In this week's troubles two Western female reporters have claimed sexual assaults while reporting in Egypt; French reporter Caroline Sinz was attacked by a mob of young people and sexually molested; and the well-known Egyptian-American columnist, feminist and author on women's issues Mona ElTahawy was arrested and abused by Central Security Forces troops inside the Interior Ministry. Since Mona ElTahawy is both a dual citizen and has an international audience, this is creating lots of bad (and fully deserved) press for Egyptian authorities. It's hard to imagine someone they could have beaten and sexually abused who could do them more harm: A Muslim Egyptian feminist journalist with an international audience. And they deserve every bit of opprobrium they get, not just for what was done to Mona ElTahawy, a high-profile person with a US Passport, but to the victims of the "virginity tests" whose voices we will never hear and who are told by their society that they should blame themselves. She came out of it with a broken hand and a broken arm, and she's telling the world about it:



The abuse was inflicted by young members of the Central Security Forces. Eventually the Ministry of the Interior transferred her to Military Intelligence, where she has made clear there was no abuse, just hours of interrogation. She was held for some 12 hours, with her injuries untreated.

I suspect it's no longer "journalism" that should be called the "first draft of history," Twitter is. Her description gives a real-time sense of the nightmare, though this is not for the timid. Mona tweeted her own arrest and beating before losing her phone:


After her release she described what happened with obvious anger. Strong language warning here, though clearly justified, even mild, under the circumstances.





And finally, after the fact (language warning again):





I, for one, am looking forward to it. I think they finally [messed] [okay, fucked] with the wrong Egyptian woman.

Two Words You Didn't Expect to See Together: Angelina Jolie and Gertrude Bell

I came across this over the weekend and originally planned to use it as something light to start the week with on Monday morning, until the bloodshed in Egypt made that singularly inappropriate. To lighten all the gloom, however:

When I first saw the headline, "Angelina Jolie Attached to Middle East Biopic GERTRUDE BELL; Ridley Scott May Direct", I thought, oh, surely not. On careful reading I read it as maybe Jolie just wanted to direct a movie about Gertrude Bell; but on more careful reading, I find that no, indeed, my first reading was accurate, she wants to play Gertrude Bell herself. (Also here.) All the articles seem to refer to Bell as "the female Lawrence of Arabia," which may be how they sold the script. I'm not sure if that's more unfair to Lawrence or to Bell, who were both rather amazing figures of the British imperial era. Bell, of course, was the figure in the British Arab Bureau during World War I who helped midwife the birth of Iraq as a British mandate and then managed to, um, arrange the "election" of Feisal ibn al-Hussein of Mecca as King of Iraq, since the French had kicked him out as King of Syria and his brother ‘Abdullah had already become Emir (and later King) of Transjordan. Bell deserves a great movie of her own; I hope it is as widely seen and as brilliantly done as the 1962 Lawrence of Arabia, but sticks closer to the actual facts. Will it?

Well, Peter O'Toole was nearly a foot taller than the real T.E. Lawrence, but otherwise there was some physical resemblance. Perhaps this is what led to the idea of casting Angelina as Gertrude: the fact that they look so much alike? Yeah, that must have been it:

Angelina Jolie

Gertrude Bell

My first thought was that if she is in fact planning to play Gertrude Bell, this would rank right up there with John Wayne being cast as Genghiz Khan, in 1956'  The Conqueror, a movie so famously bad it isn't available on DVD even today, and is famous only for so many of its actors dying from cancer (including the Duke), since it was filmed at a Utah site downwind from the Nevada nuclear tests, then still frequent and above ground. Even Howard Hughes, who made it, supposedly hated it.

Genghiz Khan
(No Doubt Exactly
What He Looked Like)

John Wayne as Genghiz Khan

 
My biggest fear: Wait, says Hollywood. She was "The Female Lawrence of Arabia?" as our own publicity says? "She knew Lawrence of Arabia? She worked with him? If we've got Angelina on board,why not go for the whole "Brangelina" enchilada and sign Brad Pitt to play T. E. Lawrence?  But then there should be some romantic interaction and maybe a sex scene ..." (No. NO ONE would buy into that.)

Gertrude Bell deserves a major movie. She's a bit too much of an Empire-builder and manipulator for modern times perhaps, but she did things no other woman did in her era, or could have done. She invented Iraq. Created its Government, and chose its King. Imperialism at its height, but she accomplished at least as much as Lawrence, but lacked his skills at writing and networking.

I can tell you that I will be closely following the production of any movie about Gertrude Bell, and look forward to reviewing it here. Angelina Jolie can act, and might do a great job,but there will have to be a lot of deglamorizing by the makeup department.

And she certainly deserves better than this, which if released today would probably start a war with Mongolia:

Multiple Stories on Arab Women's Roles Today, From All Along the Spectrum

As I'm still busy clearing my desk for the banquet tonight and the Annual Conference tomorrow, I thought I'd do a lengthy portmanteau list of links to a number of recent stories, from just about every angle imaginable, about the changing and uncertain roles of women in the age of Arab revolution. Barring something that can't be ignored, this may be my last post till Friday, so I've given you a lot to read.

Women have played a major role in the Arab Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt at least, and with the emerging political strength of Islamist parties Arab feminists are trying to make their voices heard. So are female Islamists. When I say these stories range widely, I literally mean they range from a candidate who wears niqab (the full veil covering the whole face) to the first Arabic magazine to run an Arab woman in a bikini on the cover.

• We'll start with Egyptian politics. The Jerusalem Post recently addressed the question. As they note, one Islamic scholar and self-proclaimed Presidential candidate, Hazem Salah Abu Isma‘il,has been saying he would impose Islamic dress on women and arrest any woman wearing a bikini. Though he has had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, they have distanced themselves from his candidacy.

• Indefatigable Egyptian blogger Zeinobia recently did her own roundup of women in the Egyptian Parliamentary elections which I'm going to quote for several items; she encouragingly calls her post "#1," so I hope there will be many. She begins with a poster from the Salafi Al-Nour Party shown at left. Now, Al-Nour attracts those Islamists who feel that the Muslim Brotherhood is way too liberal and permissive. As Zeinobia notes, Al-Nour held a conference on women at which all the speakers were men. It's that kind of party. (Not a partying kind of party, in other words.) Though they don't much approve of women in politics and such, the law says party lists have to have a certain minimum number of women candidates. Okay, so Al-Nour has women candidates. According to this political poster, one of them in this district is apparently a rose. (Bottom row, center.) Not only is she last on the list, they published a picture of a rose rather than show her face

• Somewhat related perhaps, Zeinobia also mentions that a candidate named Bahia Mohammed has become the first woman wearing full niqab to register as a candidate. As this longer account notes, she has her husband's permission. She's running as an independent, not for one of the religious parties.

• Shifting towards the more liberal side of the spectrum, the old and historically secularist Wafd Party doesn't put a rose on its poster, it puts the actual candidate (right), but since she's an attractive candidate and also blonde, that has had its own impact. Nihal ‘Ahadi is apparently drawing insulting comment through social media and is being labeled a member of the former ruling party.

• Meanwhile, an Egyptian woman has started a Facebook page urging men, if they're so convinced women should wear hijab, to try it themselves. (Another account here.)  Unfortunately the Global Voices links don't currently work for the Facebook pages, from either their English or their Arabic posts.

• While we're still in  Egypt, try fitting this into the links above: Egypt now has ten television channels devoted to nothing but belly-dancing videos. (Story is from Lebanon's Al-Akhbar.) And people expect the Islamist to do well in the elections. You square that circle for me if you can.

• While, in Egypt, candidate Abu Isma‘il is promising to arrest any woman wearing a bikini,a lot of the Internet is abuzz with the story that, for the first time (I haven't checked this against archives from the pre-Islamist era, so earlier instances may be posted to the comments), an Arabic magazine has put an Arab woman model on their cover wearing a bikini. Admittedly, my link is to that paragon of British journalism, The Times Daily Mail, but it appears elsewhere as well. Now it seems that model Huda Naccache is in fact an Israeli Arab from Haifa, 22, and not only that, has been chosen as Miss Israel for the "Miss Earth" contest. Now I've heard of Miss World and even blogged about the Arab-American who was Miss USA for the Miss Universe contest, who was rather improbably labeled a Hizbullah mole despite her swimsuit pictures. I've never heard of the "Miss Earth" contest. (If there's a Miss Earth as well as a Miss World and a Miss Universe, is there a Miss Solar System?) Lilac is an Arabic magazine published in Israel and circulated in the Palestinian Authority (not Gaza I suspect, at least this issue), and Jordan. Israeli bloggers are treating this from a different angle, arguing that Israel is hardly an "apartheid" state if they chose a Miss Israel who is an Arab. She's an Israeli Arab from Haifa, of course, not from the occupied territories. Purely for educational/anthropological/historical/cultural purposes, as I also did with Miss Universe candidate Rima Fakih, I reproduce as a cultural artifact with no prurient intent whatsoever, the cover of Lilac at left. If you want more pictures, you'll have to click through to the Daily Mail.

What's the moral or lesson of all these anecdotal issues? None I can think of, except that, as the Chinese say, women hold up half the sky. Arab men sometimes underrate that, and old stereotypes die hard. Are ten belly-dancing channels a step forward, or backward? Is Huda Naccache in a bikini a revolutionary or a stereotype, and whichever, how does she relate to the candidate for Parliament in niqab? As the father of a daughter, though not one who will grow up in the Arab world now emerging, I'm not sure, but there are many very different and seemingly incongruous things going on at once here.

A Study That Goes Where Angels Fear to Tread

Most of us are aware of the sort of heavily funded study that comes out telling us something everyone already knew, and resent it if they had more funding than we do, but sometimes someone genuinely produces a study which, if fairly intuitive in its content, does say what most are reluctant to say, does go where angels fear to tread. The Population Reference Bureau has just come out with a study entitled, "Facts of Life: Youth Sexuality and Reproductive Health in the Middle East and North Africa," by Farzaneh Roudi-Fahimi and Shereen El Feki. The link goes to the press release/summary page; the whole report (PDF) is available here.

No one familiar with the region will fail to recognize the problem. A fifth of the Middle Eastern population is between 15 and 24; in many countries half the population is under 25; in most, it's at least under 30. The phenomenon of "Arab Spring" is in part the result of the frustrations of young people who do not remember their previous President or King; who are educated beyond any of their forebears but despite university degrees have few job prospects; who, in a society where youthful marriage was once universal, must defer marriage because they cannot afford an apartment or setting up on their own. Everyone knows this, and everyone also knows, but few talk openly about, the fact that deferred marriage in a society in which sex outside of marriage remains a major taboo adds an additional layer of frustration. An increasing religious conservatism in the past few decades has actually closed outlets that may have existed a generation or more ago.

I'm pleased to see that two female scholars of Middle Eastern background have been willing to go there.  They are not preaching promiscuity or advocating a Middle Eastern Woodstock; rather they are noting that there is a woeful lack of education among young people, especially young women, to the extent that even the onset of one's first period comes as a crisis. All this seems obvious enough, and given the constraints of a conservative society, it is probably better to advocate greater education rather than greater freedom, though the two may not be unrelated.

Unfortunately, the title itself may prove more polarizing than it should. Religious conservatives will oppose the very idea of the study, or portray it as an attempt to intrude Western mores into the Muslim world; many young women will shy away from the subject altogether, considering it taboo; and sadly, too many single young men will snigger and try to find "the good parts" of the report. (There aren't any.) Over this and the coming years, however, we are going to see a lot more discussion of the role of the youth in not only the Arab revolutions but the economic and social problems that confront the region. This study reminds us what we all once knew: that for the adolescent and young adult prior to marriage, social and economic issues are not the only, or even perhaps the central, issue on their minds.

I Guess it Could Get Worse; It Just Did

The whole Gay Girl in Damascus hoax should have caused enough embarrassment by now to just simply let it die. But there's more. There are allegations that a defender of the hoaxer was, in fact, yet another sockpuppet of the original hoaxer, since the postings came from his ISP address. He defends himself, but at this point the story needs to end. Pay no more attention to this, or this guy, or this site, or this site's defenders. It's distracted us all from what's really going on in Syria, and that verges on the criminal.

I, for one, will not mention this blogger again unless it is determined he (formerly she) is a conscious agent of the Syrian government. He has certainly been an unconscious one. Shame.

I have to make a presentation today at noon at the World Affairs Council of DC on the Egyptian Unfinished Revolution, so my posting today, other than this one, will be late-ish.

"Amina" Evaporates into Sockpuppetry; The Tragedy in Syria Remains Real

A week after the blogging community (and not just Middle East bloggers, including me) were horrified by word that Gay Girl in Damascus blogger Amina Arraf had been abducted by security men, the story has gradually been eroded by growing skepticism and now has apparently entirely evaporated. The author of the blog appears to be neither gay, a girl, nor in Damascus. Other than that, says the  confession on the blog, "While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on this blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about." Other than that, other than not being gay, or a girl, or in Damascus, or abducted, it was all "true and not misleading"? HUH?

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

The brief confession signed by Tom MacMaster includes the lines, "This experience has sadly only confirmed my feelings regarding the often superficial coverage of the Middle East and the pervasiveness of new forms of liberal Orientalism." Whatever exactly that means, the creation of an imaginary sockpuppet blogger and then the claim that said blogger has been abducted would seem to offer little to really educate Westerners out of their  ignorance (undisputed: it's the reason for this blog, which bears my real name and identity and my employer's real name and identity) or to help the plight of gays, women, or dissidents in Syria; if anything it may have focused the security forces' attention on those very communities. It also plays into the regime's hands: this particular "dissident" was apparently a man and woman living formerly in Georgia and currently in Edinburgh, Scotland but traveling in Turkey. I can see the regime claiming, if they are clever enough to capitalize on this, that the "dissident movement" is a creation of the West, just as "Amina" proved to have been.

Okay, I'll admit. I was fooled. So were nearly 15,000 followers on the Free Amina Abdalla Facebook site. Before I comment further, let me echo theirs:

Be assured administrators of this site - who were friends with "Amina" online - are just as angry as everyone else over the revelation made by Tom MacMaster. This foolish and cruel hoax has distracted from the real issue in Syria - that the Syrian people are sacrificing their lives for calling for an end to a regime that silences, disappears, tortures and murders its people, a regime that has repeatedly fired directly into peaceful demonstrations. Thousands of political prisoners are being held by authorities, with many of them undergoing torture right now. The world should know about the courage and suffering of these innocent Syrians and stand with them.

Someone behind that blog knew Syria pretty well, and wrote convincingly. I'd been reading "her" blog even before the "abduction" and had even linked to it. Credit must go to those who smelled something fishy early on: by last Wednesday there were already red flags, raised first (so far as I am aware) by NPR's Andy Carvin, followed soon by Robert Mackey at the NYT's the Lede (link is to an updated version.) Liz Henry was also on the case early on, and as near as I can tell she, along with The Electronic Intifada,  are the people who finally ran this thing to ground. Read their posts for the evidence. Some other reactions here. 

It gets still stranger. A lesbian-oriented website called The LEZ Get Real which helped promote Amina has also published an apology. But The Electronic Intifada investigation has also raised questions about the existence or non-existence of the purported Executive Editor of that website, "Paula Brooks", whose real world identity seems a bit thin. Are we completely in sockpuppet (linked above, but essentially a false online identity) country here? [Later Update: "Paula Brooks" was a guy, too. Are we learning about some new Internet fetish here, or what?]

Of course like anyone moderately familiar with the culture of the Internet I realize that what you see is not, always, what you get, and that the idea of the "sockpuppet"  can rarely be excluded. The famous New Yorker cartoon of some years back, at left (I hope The New Yorker copyright lawyers will see this as fair use) summarizes it perfectly.

Anonymous blogging is fine. Many of the finest bloggers in the Middle East either started out, or remain, anonymous for good, survival-related reasons; but I assume when I read them that their basic personas are real; even if I don't know their names. The guys are guys; the women are women; the young people are young. Those that have unveiled their real identities in the age of revolution have pretty much matched up with their anonymous persona. I didn't care if the "Gay Girl in Damascus" was really named Amina or not: as her story crumbled a lot of us waited, fearing she was a real person who'd used a fake name and stolen somebody else's Facebook photos, but might in fact be in a Syrian jail. As online sleuths demolished first her photos, then her not very detailed biography (searching Virginia and Georgia records for her claimed background and finding no records), it became clear that both her photos and her name were fake. A 2007 blog under the same name offered fragments of autobiography, with a birth in Staunton, Virginia, and being raised in Damascus and Virginia. That blog admitted it included fictional elements. (It does, however, show a familiarity with the real Shenandoah Valley, especially the Harrisonburg-Dayton-Bridgewater area. If I have anything to add to this overall investigation it is to say that her (fictional) childhood town of "Riverport" is almost certainly Bridgewater, a town I know well. The description, the neighboring towns, the river and the Old Order Mennonites pretty much nail it.)

But as long as there was a chance there was a real person, with another name and another photo, in a Syrian prison (or worse), I didn't want to pile on. But now that we see this as a complete invention, with no real person involved, I want to see more than a brief apology that says we meant well. Harm has been done to the communities involved and, worse, the international press has been diverted from a humanitarian horror in Syria by a blogger-driven diversion.

What makes it worse is that I contributed to it, and inadvertently committed the prestige of The Middle East Institute and Middle East Journal as well. So did a whole lot of other good folk and true, who are hoping for real change in Syria. Shame on these insensitive hoaxers who. whatever their misguided intentions,  may have cost lives among the real people who live in the real Syria. There are real gay girls in Damascus and in Syria, but you cannot speak for them. We are not they. During the Tahrir days, many Westerners said "We are all Egyptians."  No we aren't, and no we weren't; our butts weren't on the line and nobody was threatening us with live ammunition. Pretending you're a frontline dissident is like pretending you're a Medal of Honor Veteran: it steals from those who really are, and it demeans you.  Fiction hurts those whose butts really are on the line, and all Syrians who are living a real nightmare and are really being abducted. Shame.

Could the Amina Story Be Some Sort of Hoax?

The reported abduction of "Gay Girl in Damascus" blogger Amina Abdullah Arraf has provoked concern and outrage around the world, including on this blog, but today the story took an unexpected term with some Internet speculation that Amina might not even exist. NPR's  Andy Carvin lays out the evidence and cautiously comes down on the side of her really existing; Robert Mackey at the NYT's The Lede also reviews the question.

I think it goes without saying that certain of the questions, such as her use of a picture that is apparently of someone else, can be explained as self-protection; her blog certainly seemed convincing and had built up a following. Perhaps I've spent too much time in the region, but my first thought when I saw these stories was that the Syrian government would very much like us to believe that she doesn't exist, which makes me suspicious about the speculation. Perhaps she camouflaged her identity for obvious protective reasons. Of course, I could be wrong, but if her blog was a hoax  it was a convincing one. I'm not convinced she's not real, but may be proven wrong of course.

Syrian Blogger Amina Abdullah is Abducted

Syrian blogger Amina Abdullah Araf al-Omari, whose blog is A Gay Girl in Damascus, was reportedly abducted forcibly earlier today, presumably either by security services or Baathist militiamen. Her cousin posted a description of her abduction earlier today and there has been one further update, and of course there is a Facebook Free Amina Page already. Also a #FreeAmina hashtag on Twitter.

As both a political dissident and an openly gay woman in a closed society she has encountered problems before; I previously linked to her account of how her father defended her when security men sought to arrest her previously.

Of course with perhaps thousands dead in the Syrian uprising so far, the disappearance of one blogger can be considered a small sideshow of an enormous tragedy. But individuals sometimes become symbols (Mohammed Bouazizi in Tunis, Khalid Said in Egypt; today was the anniversary of his death), and the online community does tend to come to the defense of its own.

A Moment for Outrage: Abuse of Women in Egyptian Custody

The Egyptian Armed Forces Council, now ruling the country, portrays itself as the protector of the Revolution, and is still held in high esteem by many of the young people who made the Revolution. I have known a great many Egyptian senior officers, and have generally admired them more than their counterparts in the political realm. But in addition to its tin ear on the referendum and earlier crackdown on the encampment in Tahrir, we now have a profoundly disturbing accusation. Amnesty International says it has testimony that women arrested in the March 9 crackdown in Tahrir were subjected to strip searches (by women but within the sight of males) and "virginity tests," the latter an invasive examination by a man in a lab coat, accompanied by the threat that those found not to be virgins might be charged with prostitution. One woman who insisted she was a virgin but whose test allegedly "proved" otherwise (suggesting the man in the lab coat was no doctor) was reportedly beaten. The exact nature of these "virginity tests" is not spelled out. I cannot, however, imagine anything that doesn't border on criminal sexual abuse.

This was picked up today by many Western and some Egyptian press outlets, but all you really need to read is the Amnesty report linked above.

Words fail me. Well, not really, but since this is MEI's blog and not my personal pulpit I try to keep it PG-13 at worst, so I can't use the words that come to mind.

If this is true, and Amnesty isn't known for fabricating atrocities, it is a crime and if carried out under the auspices of the Army, a blot on the honor of the Army and of the state it currently represents. The Army denies it, but if anyone in uniform was involved in this, the Armed Forces Council should punish them severely. The honor of a great country and the honor of the uniform demand it.