Every year as the world celebrates International Women’s Day in March, many of us reflect on how far women have come in attaining their rights – and how much still needs to be done.
Equality is still a relative term. Women are still paid less, they have to prove themselves far more than men, they are still often judged by what they wear, if they are married and if they have children or not. The list goes on.
Every now and then, women need to reassert themselves and remind sexist men out there who they are dealing with.
I recently had the great fortune to once again meet author Nawal Al Saadawi, 83, who is one of my heroes. She has paid a heavy price for the words she has written, enduring jail, exile and death threats. She was a guest at this year’s Emirates Airline Festival of Literature where she reminded all those present to be “courageous” and not fear to speak out.
The woman of the hour right now is Lebanese TV Al Jadeed’s host Rima Karaki who cut short her guest, Hani Al Sibai, an Islamist sheikh, when he ordered her to “be silent”.
The video capturing this heated interaction on air has been hailed as an example of a woman standing up for her rights.
In a recent interview, she said it was a matter of “self-respect” and explained how she had worn a headscarf out of courtesy to the sheikh, yet he didn’t bother showing her any respect when he spoke to her. If you watch Lebanese talk shows, then this is quite mild in comparison, as often there are a lot of insults hurled.
I applaud her courage for doing this. She also brought up some important points that should be discussed.
“The media in our country focuses on appearance, especially for women,” she said. “Men can continue working in the Arab world forever, but most of the time women are judged by their looks.”
It is not enough that we always have to look “young and beautiful”. Regularly female journalists are undermined, disrespected and insulted, especially when working in male-dominated cultures around the world.
During an interview I did with a religious cleric in Saudi Arabia, he ranted about how women are “animals” and should be tamed by being “hit from time to time” and he even criticised my father for allowing me to become a journalist.
When he said that, I closed my notebook, packed up my things and removed my headscarf, which he had requested I wear. Before I left I wished him a good day “talking to himself”.
He kept yelling insults at me as I walked away, but I didn’t care. I felt that I didn’t need to subject myself to any more disrespect.
At the beginning of my career, I allowed all sorts of sexist and sometimes very rude comments to slide because I needed to get an interview for the sake of a bigger story.
But eventually I saw how wrong that was. So I like to remind younger female journalists not to be afraid.
Like me when I was younger, they are afraid of losing their jobs if they speak up, and of the backlash from their communities if they stand up to certain male figures.
Women in influential positions, be it media, politics or wherever, have an important role in changing cultural norms, expectations and challenging restrictions enforced by gender.
Women must help other women and together, they can “shut up” obnoxious male figures who would otherwise feel they can treat women as they please.
You just have to look at history and see that truly, behind every great man was an even greater woman. If there was no man, that was OK too, for then women made history themselves.
rghazal@thenational.ae
On Twitter: @Arabianmau
