Silent No More: The Women of the Arab Revolutions - Building Gender Balanced Business

“If these countries continue to neglect the rights of the great majority of their citizens, then what good do these revolutions do?” – Moroccan activist Saida Kouzzi

In Tunisia, Islamist party El Nahdha’s leader Sheik Rashed Ghannouchi has said that women need equality and supports the country’s Personal Status Code (which bans polygamy and child marriage, and allows women birth control, abortion rights, and equal pay)

But even women in countries with progressive laws like these worry that their rights will be taken away if Islamist groups start calling for Shari’a law

Egyptian women are also concerned about potential set-backs, having already noted some worrying signs:

• The committee tasked with proposing constitutional amendments after the fall of Mubarak didn’t include even one woman
• The civil group that provided recommendations to that committee was called the Council of Wise Men
• The committee’s proposed Article 75 included a statement saying that Egypt’s President “cannot be married to a non-Egyptian woman,” effectively limiting the presidency to men
  New Prime Minister Essam Sharaf appointed only one woman to his Cabinet

Women’s rights advocates worry that if they are silent now, then they will never be heard

“Some people are saying, ‘Now is not the time for women’s rights, disability rights, children’s rights’. They claim, ‘Once there’s democracy, there will be democracy for everyone.’ But history has told us that women wait, wait, wait — and then our rights never become a priority issue.” — Egyptian activist Hadil El-Khouly

Women activists want their rights to be considered intrinsic to the demands for social justice and democracy, but most are aware that they will have to continue to fight for change

To read the full article in Time, click here