Egypt is one of the world’s oldest civilisations. It was first Arab country to come into contact with the West and opened up to modernisation in the beginning of the 19th century, which brought with it advancement in such issues as women’s rights, education and politics.
“Hence, it was a shock that Egypt ranked at the bottom of a Thomson Reuters Foundation poll on women’s rights in 22 Arab states as the worst place to be a woman,” said the London-based daily Al Quds Al Arabi in its editorial on Wednesday.
Egypt scored badly in almost every category of the survey, which consisted of a set of questions based on the provisions of the UN Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and was addressed to 336 gender experts.
Questions included issues of gender violence, discrimination, reproductive rights, political rights and social status.
Figures showed that a whopping 99.3 per cent of women in Egypt are victims of harassment whereas 91 per cent were victims of the traditional practice of female circumcision.
Egypt still shows elevated rates of trafficking of women, law that discriminate against them and diminished freedom, all of which demonstrated the unbearable situation women there face.
“The figures revealed in the report are a source of sorrow and shame for us,” the paper said. “However, it shouldn’t be taken as an opportunity to issue prejudiced interpretations.”
A number of news outlets reporting on the poll erroneously linked the deterioration of women’s rights to the Arab Spring.
But calling for people’s rights doesn’t contradict claiming women’s rights, just as submission to dictatorships doesn’t guarantee women’s rights.
For its part, the Egyptian daily Al Ahram wrote in its editorial on the subject on Wednesday: “There’s no denying that women’s hardships have indeed increased in recent times in light of the political and security instability.
“But to gauge the real situation of women in Egypt, one should ask whether these aberrations that women have had to endure at the hands of some Egyptians has become the accepted norm across Egyptian society.
“Of course not. Following the revolutions in the past three years, Egypt is more aware and prepared to tackle pressing issues including women’s roles and rights,” the paper said.
“The Egyptian society is still in the transitional phase and this is no time for judgements. The Western milieus that seem so preoccupied with the tragic situation of women would have been better advised to demonstrate fairness and objectivity in dealing with the issue when the whole of Egypt, including women, suffered under the Muslim Brotherhood rule,” the newspaper concluded.
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Scuttling Iranian deal is counterproductive
Prospects for attaining a nuclear deal between Iran and its six big negotiators – the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus Germany – are dwindling as cracks appear within the 5+1 bloc. France is taking the most conservative stance, asking Tehran to make more concessions before it signs off on an agreement, wrote columnist Mazen Hammad in yesterday’s edition of the Qatari newspaper Al Watan.
The fact that the negotiations have been delayed by 10 days, to resume on November 20, with a lower level of state representation, does not augur well, he wrote.
The postponement of these talks has created “a gap that the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has managed to exploit to renew his attempts to scuttle the deal before it is signed”, Hammad wrote.
Mr Netanyahu must remember that, under the former US president George W Bush, Washington stalled other attempts to reach a deal with Iran. These attempts simply allowed Tehran to develop its nuclear programme further, away from international inspection, the writer said.
“The best way to prevent Tehran from building a nuclear bomb has to be based on a negotiated settlement that stipulates the reduction of the level of uranium enrichment and allows for stringent inspections on Iranian nuclear facilities,” the author concluded.
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Federalism might be the solution for Libya
In most, if not all, civil wars, foreign interference is a given, but Libya seems to be an exception, as evidence from the ground shows that the state of chaos that the country has reached is the making of Libyans alone, according to the Dubai-based newspaper Al Bayan.
In an editorial yesterday titled “The responsibility of Libyan elites”, the newspaper blamed Libyan politicians for their general weakness and for their failure to contain armed militias and restore the venerability of the state.
“Since the revolution, which toppled a regime that already held Libya back decades in terms of development, Libyan elites wasted many opportunities to build the nation,” it said.
The free availability of weapons in the country – the result of the looting of the old regime’s stockpiles – is certainly complicating the Libyan government’s task of bringing armed militias under its control, the paper noted.
But the central government has a duty to find solutions to these challenges.
Perhaps Libya should explore the federal system as a potential solution, the paper suggested.
“Federalism might be a rational option for Libya, but it is one that should be agreed by all, not enforced by the power of weapons, money, thuggery, the tribe or the province.”
* Digest compiled by The Translation Desk
translation@thenational.ae
