You’ve got My Attention, Egypt

Modern-day Egypt–that is, the Egypt that’s not associated with the pyramids or sphynx or Luxor or other motifs of antiquity–rocked onto the international scene this year with their “successful” coup d’etat back during the January 25 revolution. The world was riveted by the fact that Egypt had largely managed to overthrow ol’ Hosni Mubarak without bloodshed. But, there was bloodshed. Now, Egypt is constantly in the news again, but this time, the violence is all one hears about.

The shocking interviews, images and, most importantly, videos–have you seen the video of the infamous Blue-bra girl?–show a country that has, I hate to use such a blanket general term but I feel that in the sense of a society, gone to the dogs. Where is humanity’s compassion? How do we end up throwing cement blocks off the roofs of buildings onto civilians? How do soldiers end up shooting live bullets into crowds, or stomping and morally defiling a pious women by lifting up her clothes and stomping on her?

Whatever happens next, the world is watching. If the protesters wanted the world to watch them, they got their wish. But really, at what price? Certainly, one has a lot to protest about now, given the extreme and disgusting violence that has occured in the past few weeks, but simply protesting is not going to help. People need to calm down and think with their minds, not think as animals charging in packs and burning buildings or mowing down innocent people. Yes, protesting was the reason that Mubarak was ousted; but the protesting card can not be played every time one wants something done.

In exactly a week, I shall be back in Egypt. Although I am excited to see my husband, I am not excited at the prospect of staying indoors all the time again because people can’t ‘behave’ themselves. THe revolution has, if anything, set Egypt back. The country that I first saw in October 2010 is no more. And although it would be historically interesting to view the protests live-even more so to interview people-I will be staying away. Unlike those beastly college students who got arrested for allegedly participating in the protests in Tahrir Square (I believe that they were protesting; they can spin some sob story about the government falsely arresting them and mistreating them but they obviously exercised poor judgement. Getting caught up in a dangerous protest in one’s own country is bad enough; getting caught in a protest in a foreign country is tantamount to expulsion, threats, rumours of spying and plotting and yes, perhaps even violence).

Egypt, you have my attention. Can you try to calme-toi by next Thursday? Shokrun!

S-L-M

Egypt, the Country with Bigger Problems than a Girl and her Body

After the nude photo of Aliaa Magda Elmahdy became world wide news, everyone, it seemed, was trying to find out more about her, or at the very least, find her infamous picture. In the following 4 days since I posted about Aliaa, my blog managed a total of 1,336 views.

Why, I wondered, were so many people looking for Aliaa? And furthermore, why were they were all coming to my blog? I came to the conclusion after doing a little research: most people in the English-speaking world were not blogging or writing about Aliaa. And those who did, like CNN and the Daily Mail UK, did not include her nude photo but an altered version. I myself had not included her photo in my first posting.

Just a few days prior to Aliaa’s disrobing, I had installed a flag counter on my blog. Most visitors were American, but  it appeared that many of the people looking for Aliaa were also from the Middle East: 34 Egyptians, 16 Emiratis, 16 Turks and 14 Saudis alone had found my page. Looking to scorn and rail against her picture, or secretly wanting to view her naked body?

It is kind of amusing when one thinks about how one woman can occupy the minds of so many people. Forget the Occupy Wall Street protesters or those in Tahrir Square: Aliaa’s method of protesting not only took her probably an hour to do, but it most definitely caught people’s attention. Will her actions cause change?

Unfortunately, it might have been bad timing, seeing how Egypt is currently (yet again!) embroiled in protests. You would think, with people getting their eyes shot out and cars burning up and general pandemonium, the people of Egypt would have other things to worry about.

Taken from Aliaa's blogspot account

V.S.

Taken from the Global Post

At the moment, I think Egyptians better be more concerned about what’s happening right outside their own front door and not worry about a girl who posted a nude photo on the internet in protest. I mean, if most Egyptians feel that protesting is okay, then shouldn’t she be allowed her say too?

Public nudity in Egypt I do believe is a crime punishable under law. If the Egyptian government makes moves to punish Aliaa, there will no doubt be an international outcry. I do not wish for Aliaa to be prosecuted for such a “harmless” act, but I disagree with her getting preferential treatment just because she successfully manipulated the media. What about those who came before her (if there were any) who were punished for their crimes? It’s similar to the situation of the woman driver in Saudi Arabia who was saved from being lashed because of public outcry: why is one person exempt while the others suffer? The international world might protest and condemn a punishment, and get justice for one person, but one person is not enough: it is the laws that must be changed.

The Western world feels that it is their right to step in whenever a situation emerges that is deplorable. But if the country is not preforming, say, genocide on it’s citizens, than what right does the West have to block the country’s system of justice? If you find the law deplorable, than bring it to the United Nations, but please don’t let the laws remain and save just one person because the media has caught everyone’s attention. And what does this say about a country like Egypt, if they actually pardon someone like Aliaa? Does it show thay they do not exert enough power on the international level? And when pardoning her, would they stop and consider the fact that, if they are allowing this pardon, that maybe the law needs to be changed?

There’s a lot going on in Egypt at the moment. Egyptians need to get their priorities straight and think rationally. Ousting the military is not a bad idea, given that they have proved to be just as bad as Mubarak recently, but they cannot be ousted unless there is someone to take their place. There must be a leader in Egypt; someone has to be in charge. Otherwise, all Hell will break loose.

And if that happens, anything goes, even photos of naked girls.

S-L-M

Links:

1. “Waiting for Aliaa” by Maya Mikdashi –a really good article http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3208/waiting-for-alia
2. Aliaa Magda Elmahdy’s personal blog: http://arebelsdiary.blogspot.com/?zx=eeebf28555e066f6

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy: A Girl and her Photo

Girl takes nude photo. Nude photo appears on the internet. What happens?

If you’re a porn star, people salivate and save it to their computers. If you’re a celebrity, the same thing also happens–and the girl either shrugs it off as “any publicity is good publicity” or she tries to sue whoever leaked the photo. If you’re Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, said girl get insults, threats, and worldwide debate.

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, a mere 20 year old  Cairene student and activist, posted a nude photo of herself on her blog. The reason? She wasn’t trying to be a slut or flaunt herself, but she was definitely trying to garner attention: Aliaa was protesting freedom of speech and, I would say, people’s extreme views on sex in the Middle East. She is quoted as writing:

‘Hide all art books and smash naked archaeological statues. ’Then take off your clothes and look at yourselves in the mirror, then burn your body that you so despise to get rid of your sexual complexes forever, before subjecting me to your bigoted insults or denying my freedom of expression.’

Words cannot describe how happy I was when I heard about this girl. My father had seen an article about her on AOL news. His response? “Well, Egyptian girls are rather attractive, aren’t they?” How radically different was his take on the photo from the many Muslims (mostly male, but there were women too) who poured hate onto her blog as well as her Facebook page, which I promptly added. The diatribes and hate people wrote were  sickening and disheartening. This girl is not a slut; she is not a whore. She is not a “crazy little bitch.” She took a picture of her body.

The profile photo for Aliaa Magda Elmahdy's facebook group "Aliaa Magda Elmahdy."

The human body is just that: the human body. Her comment as quoted above about people hating their own bodies is absolutely right: some people (particularly in the Middle East) are so hung up on sex that they have debased the human body. We all have a body, and who cares, quite frankly, if men’s bodies are slightly different from a woman’s body?

There is a tiny part of me that wishes that she had not taken the photo, and it is the part of me that sadly acknowledges the realities of life in Cairo, Egypt and that, as the Daily Mail article I read suggested, she may have done more harm than good. She took a radical step, and I’m not quite sure if Egypt was ready for such a bold move. Unfortunately, stripping down for this photo might have just reinforced people’s ideas that women are sluts and must be covered, otherwise they will go all out and bare all.

It’s unfair that, even in protesting, one should be prudent in taking care as to how one demonstrates. But the Daily Mail also pointed out another potential problem that could result from Aliaa’s statement: that her radical liberal approach might turn even lightly conservative people away from the liberal parties campaigning for office in Egypt. Egypt needs to maintain a “liberal,” open-minded and secular government. It will be such a shame if they replace Mubarak with extreme fundamentals who will certainly deny freedom of speech to a possibly even greater extent.

Despite the problems that her photo might cause for both her cause and for her personally (in my mind I see her cooped up in her flat, unable to leave for her own safety) I still think that, looking at the bigger picture, it needed to be done. She got not only Egypt’s attention, but the worlds!  She made her point clear: that one statement should not define a person, nor should one “statement” be enough to condemn her/him.

If I had to name my heros, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, a girl who I have never met and whose name I had never heard until today, would be featured on that list. To risk your life, social standing and possibly freedom to defend freedom is something worth honoring. The woman should be respected, not condemned.

S-L-M

Links:

1. Aliaa Magda Elmahdy: Foolish act of bravery? Egyptian activist risks her life after posting full frontal nude shot online sparking outrage among Muslims” by Maysa Rawi, The DailyMail  UK, 18 November 2011.
   http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2063201/Aliaa-Magda-Elmahdy-blog-Egyptian-activist-posts-nude-photo-online-sparking-outrage.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

The End of Gaddafi, the Start of a New Libya

Being away from the computer for a mere 24 hours shows that a lot can happen! I returned home from NYC to find out that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi had been killed, thus punctuating the end of over-long era.

The fate of Gaddafi–the first of the Arab Spring dictators to be killed- is one that all dictators who rule with an iron fist (are there any who don’t??) must know is always a possibility down the line. True, Ben Ali of Tunisia managed to escape whatever fate the Tunisians had in store for him by fleeing to Saudi Arabia. Hosny Mubarak of Egypt was arrested, stripped of his millions and his dignity as he was wheeled into court. Will he be punished by death, like Gaddafi? Gaddafi’s fate might seem like the worst punishment, but in a sense it isn’t. Mubarak certainly has it worse as he is forced to sit chained in the grille box that criminals sit in in court: that level of humility is high. Ben Ali, although “free,” is exiled from the country of his birth and everything that implies–certainly not a light sentence. It makes one wonder: how does it feel to be a former leader removed from power by the citizens you once ruled who came to loathe you?

Alas, little sympathy can be spared for such figures, as they have run their countries into the ground economically, had dissenters silenced and/or murdered and basically used their power for corruption. These are people who appear to have little empathy. Wasn’t Saddam Hussein still cursing the Americans just before he was hanged, saying we’d all go to hell? You would think that he might have felt a bit of remorse for what he had done, seeing that if he hadn’t been so greedy in the first place he wouldn’t have become reviled, captured and executed. I don’t suppose there’s ever been a dictator who actually did good for their country.

The downfall of a dictator does not automatically mean that a country is “saved” and liberated. Egypt is struggling with it’s military rule. Iraq is a country still engaged in war, and torn apart. Did Libya “win it’s revolution,” as President Obama said? Yes, they might have gotten rid of their eccentric dictator  but the battle has really only begun. Now is their chance to create the Libya that they have been waiting for.

Good luck!

S-L-M