Who would have thought that a multi-state wide struggle for democracy would actually worsen the lot of women? Not many. But the truth is that the "Arab Spring" has made even some of the slightest advances in women's disappear.
One of the countries where women have suffered the worse setbacks is Egypt, a place where women's condition and rights were not stellar, but had improved under Mubarak's tenure.
Now, women are faced with some of the same problems that are more prominent in countries like Saudi ARabia and Kuwait, where women are not only segregated, but have few if any rights.
Of the 22 Arab states that have undergone some sort of revolutionary push toward democracy, five of them, including Syria and Yemen, have resulted in a worsening of the situation as far as women are concerned.
One of the more terrifying prospects for Egyptian women is the return of a taboo that was widely in distribution throughout the country. Infibulation and genital mutilation had been banned by the Mubarak regime, and although the practice remained common in the rural areas, in the capital the practice had been significantly curbed. Nevertheless, almost 91% of the female population in Egypt is forced to undergo female genital mutilation. In addition, sexual violence and public harassment has risen considerably since the revolution two years ago, as has been well documented by the press. 99.3% of the women in Egypt said they were harassed or feared harassment in the near future.
Another hidden reality of the Arab Spring in Egypt is the resumption of forced marriages and female trafficking.
In Iraq too, women have seen a painful and steady erosion of their rights.
The only place where women's rights have bettered or have been upheld since the "Arab Spring" are respectively, the Comoros Islands and Tunisia.
Source : France 24/ 11.12.13
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