So Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked Egypt the worst Arab country for women’s rights in a poll that included 336 gender experts assessing women’s rights in the 22 Arab countries.

You can learn more about the survey here.

Now I am not going to refute the results of this survey, or express my surprise that Egypt ranked lower than Saudi Arabia despite the fact that our fellow Saudis are still fighting for their right to drive and work and travel without a male relative’s consent and finally got to vote in elections after a long fight with the law. I won’t —despite my skepticism about the research methodology of the survey and the massive general bias against Egypt given the current events — throw conspiracy theories around.

I will, however, proudly and loudly say: Hats off to us, Egyptian women.

Yes, hats off to every single Egyptian lady who didn’t bother with the glaring stares from society and marched right up the streets claiming her right to simply roam the streets freely and refused to be kept at home. Hats off to you, who wasn’t deterred by horror images of mass sexual harassments and held your ground in Tahrir Square and made your voice heard. Kudos to you, who stood against every family member who told you to stay home safe and joined your brothers in armor to protect them in Itihadeya when mobs of oppressors stormed in trying to hush our voices. Congratulations if you’ve stood against terrorist voices trying to convince you your whole being is haram and your only rightful place is home and refused to dress according to someone else’s set of values, not your own.

And definitely hats off to you, the mother who despite the hardships and harassments, went off to work to provide for her family while her darling husband sat home twiddling thumbs and waiting for his wife to get home to beat on her and feel manly.

Congratulations if you made a career and became successful despite the fact that your husband doesn’t lift a hand to help out around the house or with the kids. You’re a champ if you’ve fought social stigmas and became the person you chose for yourself; be it a movie star, a singer, an artist or a ‘manly’ job everyone told you was too tough for a fragile woman. You make me proud if you’ve fought conservative Islamists and raised your voice high against female oppression and called for women’s rights. Hats off if you’ve stood your ground against the military and told them no to virginity test despite their attempts to scare you into silence. And I am impressed if you’ve ran in the parliament against all sorts of political sharks and squeezed yourself a place in the politics — not to mention the brave Bothaina Kamel and Nawal El Saadawy who ran for presidency, assuring every little girl she can be whatever she decides to be.

And mostly, hats off to the simple rural girl who fought voices telling her to just be fertile and look pretty and decided to get an education so she can be a better mother to her kids than her own mother was.

A standing ovation to you if you’ve looked after your father, lent an ear to your mother, supported your husband, pampered your children and still managed to have a good laugh about it all with your friend over a cup of tea.

Hats off if your husband laid a hand on you and you decided to put an end to abuse even though society will regard you as a divorcee outcast and you still went on and became a single, but proud mother.

I am proud to be part of the long heritage of women who kicked bottoms at work and made it home in time to prepare lunch for her kids and their friends and managed to keep her sense of humor as society secretly and publicly judged every move she makes.

We might be the worst country for women to live, but we’re definitely some of the strongest, proudest, smartest, toughest and most resilient, loyal and giving women out there. So hats off to you, Egyptian lady, who despite it all held your head high and made it through the toughest of days, and apparently nations, and still managed to smile and be the all around awesome beings that you are.