In the past two years much has been said about the role of women in Egypt’s popular uprising as well as the attempts to marginalize them in the aftermath of a revolution that is itself still a fluid work in progress. But as the one-year anniversary of Mohamed Morsi’s ascent to the presidency approaches, it’s clear that the struggle for equality will require new ideas.

The setbacks to women’s rights since the Muslim Brotherhood gained political power are many. They vary from the approval of a constitution that lacks a clear statement on women’s rights, to the decision to remove the picture of the unveiled, historical feminist figure Doriya Shafiq from school textbooks last January.

The current threats to women’s rights in Egypt are significant. Speaking about her years of work on gender and human rights issues, Gihan Abouzeid, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) consultant and managing editor of Ikhwan Papers magazine notes, “We are actually facing two types of challenges. The first is on the policy level because of the conservative religious government and how they understand Islam, and the second is on the cultural level.”

In May 2013 more than 4,500 leaders and advocates from 149 countries convened in Kuala Lumpur for the Women Deliver Conference, the largest meeting of the decade focused on the health and rights of women and girls. The Arab Spring proved to be a hot topic in panels ranging from ending violence against women to the impact of Web-based advocacy.

Featuring speakers from Women Deliver, the largest global conference of the decade to focus on the health and rights of women and girls. 

A film by Jenny Montasir
Additional footage: Women Deliver
Music: Celestial Aeon Project and Revolution Void

At a session on strategies for building a gender-inclusive democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, National Council for Women President Mervat Tallawy touched upon the current cultural challenges to women’s rights. “I’m not defending the Islamists, but I’m saying that the general mood around the world is more conservative. And this is clear in particular in the case of anything related to women, whether rights or services or freedom.” Tallawy pointed out that in Egypt the political hurdles are intensified by a strong wave of anti-female sentiment where women’s actions are policed at all times, and there is a decreased emphasis on education in favor of marriage and homemaking.

What can be done?

The experts at the Women Deliver conference all agreed that the approach taken to raise awareness and fight for women’s rights must change and movements must make more effort to reach out to people on the ground on a level, as well as pertaining issues, they can relate to. They also emphasized the need to  reach out to marginalized groups and find ways to communicate through barriers of illiteracy and culture discrepancies.

In a seminar on investing in the infrastructure for social change, Srilatha Batliwala, Associate Scholar on building feminist movements at the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) in India, underlined the importance of reflection and self-criticism at the organizational level.She emphasized that failed movements must retreat, regroup, and reexamine their understanding of the political moment. They must also consider changing tactics. “You can’t perpetually have people on the streets. They get tired. They have to earn a living, they have to eat, and they have to till their land. So in fact, movements have phases where the strategic action is actually meeting the daily needs of people. After all, that’s why the movement exists.”

In Egypt, Abouzeid stresses that nongovernmental organizations operate within a framework of harsh government restrictions and a perpetual lack of funding. But she also believes that women’s rights groups have not changed their ways enough since the revolution, often working in a reactionary way rather than developing new ideas or tackling the deeper issues.

During the 2011 18-day uprising, Abouzeid found women from every part of Egypt joined in the demonstrations because they found something in the call for change that resonated on a personal level.

“After the revolution, we had an assumption that talking about equal rights in personal law, for example, is essential both for [myself] and a woman in a very small village. This is not true. She might have her own way to get her rights: her tribe, her family, or the sheik of the mosque. So we have more work to do on the real common issues between all women and to develop their sense of empowerment to make choices, set their own priorities, and express themselves well,” said Abouzeid.

A further obstacle for all progressive organizations in post-revolution Egypt is reaching marginalized groups across social classes, outside of major cities, and without access to the Internet. Abouzeid maintains that this outreach must take into account gaps in understanding their needs, and for this more on-the-ground interaction and research will be required. The second consideration must be the high rates of illiteracy, which can be addressed by utilizing audiovisual media campaigns, along with changing a media culture dismissive of women and their plight.

The Most Difficult Question to Answer

Perhaps the most pressing problem is how to break through the cultural barriers to women realizing their rights.

Ahmed Awadalla of Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA) was invited to the Women Deliver conference to speak about his work with survivors of gender-based violence in Cairo. Awadalla believes that a vision for progress both globally and in Egypt will not only require media campaigns and education reform, but must also include the men who are raised and conditioned with negative attitudes, misinformation and stereotypes about women.

“Most men feel that that ‘women’s rights’ are a threat to their masculinity and their authority over women. I think that picture is slowly changing as more male voices are joining the struggle, especially on sexual violence topics like street harassment and rape,” says AMERA’s Awadalla.

In her closing statement at the Women Deliver MENA region panel, Mervat Tallawy insisted that while women’s right are under threat in Egypt, so are the forces that are trying to suppress them.

“We are not desperate. In Egypt we are saying the fall of the existing system will be because of women. They don’t sit still at all. Their voice is very raised at demonstrations, signing petitions—they are everywhere. We will not accept the situation. We will fight it until the end. Either they will put us in jail or they will change their attitudes,” concluded Tallawy.

Editor’s Note: Jenny Montasir is a documentary and film maker whose recent documentary on domestic violence has screened internationally. You can reach her on jennymontasir@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter: @triggerdocs