Sisters speak out in Egypt’s Brotherhood

Female members of Muslim Brotherhood to increase numbers in Egypt’s biggest opposition movement.
By Omayma Abdel-Latif - BEIRUT
In 2007, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood stated that its vision was based on “complete equality” between men and women while preserving their different social roles. The Brotherhood also stressed the need to empower women so they might acquire rights in the public sphere that do not conflict with society’s basic values.The statement also referred to the “dominating negative social view regarding women” and the need to change it by making society fully aware of women’s rights beyond the right to education, which is widely accepted in Egyptian society.
Two years after this stated vision of gender equality, however, and 85 years after schoolteacher Hassan al Banna founded the Brotherhood in Egypt in 1924, the current status and role of women in the Muslim Brotherhood’s organisational structure remains lacking.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s first women’s division, the Muslim Sisters Group, was created in 1932. Since then, women activists have been at the forefront of the social and political struggle of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Egypt, which seeks to establish a democratic political system in the country with an Islamic frame of reference.
Women activists advocating for an Islamic political system through the Brotherhood believe that Islam brought justice to women. Their lack of equal rights presently, they insist, has to do more with the cultural, political and social realities in which their movement functions than with the movement itself.
Still, more and more female members of the Muslim Brotherhood are becoming restless about the lack of representation and are seeking ways to increase their numbers in senior positions in the movement itself and, in time, to participate more in the country’s politics. Primarily, these women want a formal consultative position in the Muslim Brotherhood hierarchy.
Fortunately for the Sisters, some of the leading figures in this group of Brotherhood women are daughters and wives of senior Brotherhood leaders.
The daughters of higher-ranking members like Khayrat al-Shater and Essam al-Erayan, for example, are active Sisters. The first of the Brotherhood’s female political candidates, Jihan al-Halafawi, is the wife of Ibrahim al-Zaafarani, a senior member of the Alexandria chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Due to these connections, women are making their voices heard despite the lack of an institutionalised mechanism to consult women at the higher levels of power.
Furthermore, a growing number of men in the Brotherhood are now convinced that the current status of women inside the Muslim Brotherhood is a “weak point” that needs to be seriously addressed. The Brotherhood is routinely criticised for its position on women’s issues, especially since it presents itself as liberal with regard to politics yet is perceived as conservative when it comes to women’s issues. The majority of this pro-women group occupies mid-level positions in the movement and is calling for increased women’s leadership within the organisation, as well as a greater number of female Muslim Brotherhood candidates in national elections.
Many refer to this redefining of women’s roles within the movement as a “rebellion of the Sisters”. But members of the Brotherhood consider this call for greater women’s participation normal as the movement evolves over time to accommodate a dynamic constituency and changing political and social factors.
While these women activists have genuine grievances and demand change, they are not willing to sacrifice the movement’s unity and cohesion to obtain increased representation in the Muslim Brotherhood and among political candidates. Many of them strongly feel that it is only a matter of time before they gain these rights. Their institutional loyalties and belief that change is possible, albeit gradually, shape their call for action.
And their calls are being heard. In Egypt’s 2000 parliamentary elections, the Muslim Brotherhood nominated a female candidate, Jihan al-Halafawi, for the first time - mostly due to pressures exerted by many of the Sisters. Although the government eventually ensured her defeat (for being a Brotherhood candidate, not for gender reasons) by rigging the vote, harassing her supporters and arresting her husband and campaign manager, Al-Halafawi had a strong backing from the public. And while neither of the two women candidates (including Makarem al-Deeri in 2005) nominated by the Muslim Brotherhood have been elected thus far, their popularity and support still set an important precedent.
A conservative culture in the Brotherhood, coupled with an oppressive socio-political context - which the movement sometimes appears to mirror - is why women in the Brotherhood fail to acquire adequate representation reflective of their contribution to the movement’s political struggle.
Integrating women in the Brotherhood’s organisational structure will help alter the perception that it is as patriarchal and undemocratic as the regime it challenges. It will also give recognition to the central role played by women in the movement’s social and political struggles.
The question now is whether the emergence of a young generation of activists - men and women alike - will ultimately generate a new political force which could prove crucial to the Muslim Brotherhood as a whole, indirectly affecting the social and political culture in Egypt.
Omayma Abdel-Latif is a research and programme associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. This article was written for the Common Ground News Service and can be accessed at GCNews.
uscopts

Egypt Church Issues First Conversion Certificate

Key move in former Muslim’s bid to legally convert comes as Islamist outcry peaks.
By Roger Elliot
ISTANBUL, April 14 (Compass Direct News) –

In a bold move, Egypt’s Coptic Church has issued its first-ever certificate of conversion to a former Muslim, supporting his petition to have his national identification card denote his Christian faith
Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s request to legally convert is only the second case in Egypt of a Muslim-born citizen trying to change his religious affiliation to Christianity on identification documents. Lawyers presented the Coptic Church’s conversion certificate to a court clerk on Saturday (April 11).
“We know that the judge has seen the certificate, but we have no indication whether it is acceptable or not,” said Nabil Ghobreyal, one of three lawyers representing El-Gohary. “We will have to wait until May 2 to find out the final verdict.”
Reluctance to expose itself to possible retaliation from either the government or Islamic extremists has kept the Coptic Church from openly admitting to baptizing and welcoming converts until now.
There is indeed reason to fear reprisal.
“Intimidation from the Islamic lawyers is severe,” said El-Gohary in a recent interview. “They were chanting in the court, ‘No god but Allah,’ and they were threatening intensely.”
Despite efforts to maintain the secrecy of El-Gohary’s whereabouts, he has received written death threats on more than one occasion since appearing in court on April 4 to register an official statement.
Since the certificate was issued, some bloggers have used strong and abusive language to support Islamist lawyers Mustafa El-Alshak’a, Hamid Sadiq and Youssef El-Badri in their threats against El-Gohary’s lawyers and the priest that issued the certificate, Father Matthias Nasr Manqarious.
As the representative of a community already heavily persecuted, the Coptic Church is in a precarious position. Despite the risks, however, it endorsed the certificate issued by Fr. Manqarious. Bishop Marcos of Shubra El-Kheima declared that the church cannot turn down a fellow believer who is looking for acceptance into the Christian community.
Whether the conversion certificate will turn out to be the final piece of the puzzle that opens the door for El-Gohary to officially convert remains to be seen.
Gamal Eid of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, who represents Mohammed Ahmed Hegazy, the first Muslim-born Egyptian to request a legal conversion, is no stranger to the pitfalls of such a case.
“We support freedom of thought, but we believe also that the government and the court will try to stop this, because if the door is open there will be huge numbers following,” Eid said.
El-Gohary characterized the judge’s request for the document as laying the onus for legal conversion on the church, describing it as “an excuse to wiggle out of making a decision.”
His lawyer, Ghobreyal, said he hopes that Judge Hamdy Yasin will allow El-Gohary to change his religious status now that the certificate has been issued.
For El-Gohary, threats from Islamic fundamentalist elements are now the foremost issue.
“I do not leave the house – my life is in real danger and my daughter is in real danger,” said El-Gohary. “The pressure is too much. I am thinking seriously that I should leave Egypt.”
El-Gohary and his lawyers are now calling for protection from both national security forces and the international community.

In Egypt: A Case of Deliberate Discrimination in Universities

Watani International
12 April 2009
Not a single Copt among the 438 staff of gynecology and obstetrics departments in the faculties of medicine in Cairo, Alexandria, Tanta and Assiut Universities.
A question is occasionally raised: Why aren’t there Copts in the top positions of the Egyptian universities? What is the reality, and why?
Egypt boasts seventeen public universities owned and financed by the state. Each has a president and three or four vice presidents. Out of a total 71 in theses positions, there is not a single Copt. This is a fact.
But as the holders of these positions are typically chosen from the next leadership level, i.e. faculty deans and vice deans; it is worth considering whether Copts could get there but are blocked from the top echelons.
A detailed survey of published records has revealed that in the 274 faculties, which comprise these universities, only one has a Copt as a dean (the tiny Faculty of Archeology, Fayoum University). Out of a total of 673 vice-deans, there is one Copt (Faculty of Education, North Sinai branch of Suez University). That is another fact.
So much for the universities and faculties highest positions, but what about the next level of leadership - department chairpersons?We had to dive deep into the records and compile as much data as possible.
The following was discovered:- Cairo University: There are four Copts as department chairpersons out of the 148 whose data was available, at a ratio of 2.7%. That is about half the ratio of Coptic professors, which hovers around 5%.
- Ein-Shams University: There is one (possibly two) Copt(s) out of 109 chairpersons surveyed. The percentage of Coptic professors is about 7%.
- Alexandria University: There are seven (possibly nine) Copts out of 222, at a ratio between 3% and 4%. This is roughly comparable to the percentage of Copts among professors (the only case of its kind in Egypt’s universities).
In other words, in these three universities, which were all established before 1952, there are twelve to fifteen Coptic chairpersons among 479, at a ratio of 2.5% to 3.0%. In the universities of the Delta (Tanta, Mansoura and Zaqaziq) and of Helwan, there is not a single Copt among 283 chairpersons that could be surveyed. But someone would argue that such results might not be totally odd, given that Copts represent a small minority of the population in the Delta.
So, what about Upper Egypt, where Copts are mainly concentrated and could reach over a quarter of the populations in governorates like Minya or Assiut? This is what we found:
- Assiut University: There is not a single Copt as chairperson of its 109 departments. In a previously study, published in 2008, we have further found that whereas Copts currently represnt from 20% to 29% of the students in various faculties, they are less than 6% among the professors. What is more drastic is that their ratio falls to 1.7% among the next level of staff (associate professors, lecturers, etc), signaling the picture as it will prevail in a few years time.
- Minya University: There is not a single Copt among 120 chairpersons.
- South Valley University: Not a single Copt among 103 chairpersons.
- Fayoum University: There is one Copt among 90 chairpersons.
Hence, in the Upper Egypt universities combined, there is one Copt among 421.
If we consider the total of the eleven universities surveyed, we find 13 (possibly 16) Copts among 1183 chairpersons, at a global ratio below 1.5%
Should we add up the positions at all levels of leadership, up to the university presidents, for the group studied, we find 14 Copts (possibly 17) among 1921.
Notice that we haven’t considered Al-Azhar University, which has about half a million students in its 53 faculties (excluding the Islamic theology faculties), where non-Muslims aren’t even allowed to enroll.
Notice also this other bizarre phenomenon: Not a single Copt among the 438 staff of gynecology and obstetrics departments in the faculties of medicine in Cairo, Alexandria, Tanta and Assiut Universities (the only ones whose records could be studied). Some people complain that it is virtually impossible for a Copt to even earn the diploma in this branch - which is a prerequisite to practice the profession.***In conclusion, those who wonder why Copts are not present in the top posts in the universities do not realize the depth of the problem: No Copts as university presidents is perfectly normal, given their absence from positions of dean and vice-dean. This, in turn, is only expected given the rarity of Copts as department chairpersons. Even then, this rare species will soon be extinct in most universities thanks to the diminishing presence of Copts in teaching posts, especially in the ranks below professors. Distinguished Coptic students systematically find themselves downgraded in order not to qualify for teaching posts. Their complaints go unheeded, and it is usually difficult to argue each case. But the overall statistics speak loudly and highlight the issue unmistakably.
Naturally, a certain community (in this case the Copts) should be present in various segments and positions in a manner statistically commensurate with its proportion of the population – unless there are specific reasons not to. As the Copts are not known to be suddenly victims of an epidemic mental deficiency, nor to be generally alien to the pursuit of education (the opposite is true), one would expect them to be well represented in university teaching posts and, consequently, leadership posts.
But they are clearly not.The problem cannot be due to the “mere” entrenching of a cancerous culture of fanaticism amongst Egypt’s “highly educated elite,” but appears to be some kind of a broad-reaching policy of deliberate discrimination, aimed at uprooting the Copts almost entirely from public higher education. A policy that has been implemented slowly but surely, coupled with utter denial of any wrongdoing – to the point that many (including some fair-minded persons) do not realize the extent of the disaster.
To make matters worse, a new policy, to go into effect as of the fall classes of 2011, will make acceptance in all public universities conditional to successfully passing a personal interview. Various groups in the country have gone in uproar ever since the policy was announced, lamenting the end of the current system (in which students are accepted in faculties depending on the relevant grades obtained at the high-school exam). The current system may not be perfect, but at least it has the merit of being equitable. Under the new system, the door would become wide open for discrimination on the bases of religion, social status, wealth or nepotism. Yet, the government, seems adamant on going ahead with it, no matter what.
Where are these policies taking Egypt to?

adel.guindy@gmail.com

Coptic Priest is Imprisoned for five years for Marrying a Muslim Girl to a Christian Man

Coptic Priest is Imprisoned for five years for Marrying a Muslim Girl to a Christian ManThis verdict against a priest is the first in the history of the Church and the first in the history of justice in Egypt, The verdict holds him guilty of marrying a Muslim girl to a Christian man. Criminal law specialists see it as a flagrant miscarriage of justice based on wrong conclusions reached by depending only on investigations carried out by a police officer. Human Rights activists see this verdict as an attack against Freedom of Religion which is guaranteed by Article 46 of the Egyptian Constitution and against the Human Rights declarations and treaties to which Egypt is a signatory. Freedom of Religion in Egypt is still a one-sided freedom,” Islam”, as no one dares to announce his conversion to Christianity, while the contrary is allowed and cheered. The attorney representing the priest, Dr. Naguib Gibraeel, President of the "Egyptian Union for Human Rights Organization", has presented his appeal against this unjust verdict. Meanwhile, Father Metta’os is serving his sentence in a high security prison, while the newly weds have left the country for fear of death.On 12th October 2008, Giza criminal court, Cairo sentenced Fr. Metta’os Wahba, a Coptic priest to 5 years imprisonment with 'forced labour' for “forging official document”.Fr. Metta’os Wahba had earlier, conducted the marriage of a Christian man to a woman who converted from Islam. The priest believed, since he had no way of knowing that the documents presented to him were forged, that the girl was a Christian.The investigations claimed that the priest knew that the girl,” Riham”, is a Muslim girl and the documents he used to marry her to ,”Ayman”, are false and forged but still he announced them as a married couple. The verdict that sentenced the priest to five years imprisonment is wrong and depended only on the investigations executed by a police officer; which could be proven as false. It expressed the views of the one who made it but cannot be considered as a major clue; this is also a wrong application of the basics of trials in criminal courts, which requires the verdict to be built on truth and facts and not on suspicions or guesswork.The girl herself is the one who should be charged with forgery and not the priest as she is the one who is responsible for the documentation to have her ID issued by the government authorities. In addition, whether the girl is a Christian or a Muslim, as defined in many verdicts issued by the Court for Cassation, the Supreme Court in Egypt, the priest is not the official to prove if the documents are original or false. The priest executing marriage ceremonies is to check the identity cards of the couple, but he is not to investigate whether these documents are forged or not.Under Shari’s Law it is prohibited to leave Islam.The Egyptian government does not provide any legal means to convert from Islam nor legal procedure to adjust official document to bear the convert new Christian identity (in spite of Egypt is a signatory to Human Rights declarations and treaties).The whole christian population in the Middle East are appalled and do not see this as a criminal verdict but an attack on Christianity.New Life blog http://www.unitedcopts.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3076&Itemid=69

Fire damages Coptic church in Ramallah

Ramallah – Ma’an –
A newly-built Coptic Christian church was severely damaged by fire in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday.Firefighters and police rushed to put out the blaze but were unable to prevent damage to the interior of the building. A depiction of Jesus was one of the only items to survive the fire.Palestinian police spokesperson Colonel Adnan Dhmeiri said that an initial investigation had ruled out arson. He said that the fire may have been caused by an employee who discarded a cigarette on the church grounds.The Coptic Patriarchate in Jerusalem refused to comment on the fire for lack of information, preferring to wait for results of the investigation.The Coptic Church in Ramallah is the first of its kind. Built recently, the interior of the facility had only been furnished a few days ago in preparation for an official inauguration.
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&Do=&ID=36950

Brotherhood Says No Women, No Copts To Be Egyptian President ...

Cairo, Egypt (AHN) -

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s strongest opposition group, said women and Copts are not qualified to run for president. The group’s position is to be officially part of their party platform, a Brotherhood source told All Headline News on Wednesday.
Controversy arose recently when views differed inside the group over the issue of women and Copts in political life.Scholars and intellectuals in the North African country have asked the group to modify their views, yet the group’s final decision refused to change from their previous stance.Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a Brotherhood member, said recently that the group received approval from a leading sheikh that it is okay for women and Copts to be president, but the group later disagreed with these views.“The news is true. We have decided on the issue and this is the group’s point of view,” Mohamed Badr, media officer for the group told AHN.
Women and Coptic issues have been impediments to the group’s party platform being accepted by Egyptians as a whole.Member opinions have swung back and forth on the issue amid strong objections from many Egyptian who argue that women and Copts must have the right to run for the presidency. They have added that Egyptians have the right to decide who is best.“Copts are Egyptians just like Muslims and it’s not up to the Brotherhood to give away positions and to give itself the authority of giving and taking. We refuse it,” Naguib Sawiris, the head of Orascom Telecom, one of the richest people in the world according to Forbes and a Copt, said at a press conference on Monday.
The group has repeatedly said that the party is civil in nature with an Islamic background. The Egyptian constitution forbids the formation of parties based on religious affiliation.Late President Gamal Abdel Nasser banned the group from any political activities after he accused them of allegedly trying to assassinate him in 1954.

Sharia Law in Swat: Girl Gets flogged as Taliban Men

click and watch vedio

The Guardian UK has published this amateur video and article which I've copied below. Click here to see the actual video.
I have nothing useful to add. I get so angry that I cannot speak and hesitate to position myself against Obama's stance in favor of further action in the region. What is happening to women over there is war and torture--Needless to say, I oppose recognition of Sharia Law here at home (and abroad). I challenge anyone to provide a credible reason why I shouldn't.
From The Guardian UK:

A video showing a teenage girl being flogged by Taliban fighters has emerged from the Swat Valley in Pakistan, offering a shocking glimpse of militant brutality in the once-peaceful district, and a sign of Taliban influence spreading deeper into the country.
The two-minute video, shot using a mobile phone, shows a burka-clad woman face down on the ground. Two men hold her arms and feet while a third, a black-turbaned fighter with a flowing beard, whips her repeatedly.
"Please stop it," she begs, alternately whimpering or screaming in pain with each blow to the backside. "Either kill me or stop it now."
A crowd of men stands by, watching silently. Off camera a voice issues instructions. "Hold her legs tightly," he says as she squirms and yelps.
After 34 lashes the punishment stops and the wailing woman is led into a stone building, trailed by a Kalashnikov-carrying militant.
Reached by phone, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan claimed responsibility for the flogging. "She came out of her house with another guy whowas not her husband, so we must punish her. There are boundaries you cannot cross," he said. He defended the Taliban's right to thrash women shoppers who were inappropriately dressed, saying it was permitted under Islamic law.
The Guardian received the video through Samar Minallah, a Pashtun documentary maker and anthropologist who lived in Swat for two years in the late 1990s. It has been passed between Swat residents by mobile phones.
Ms Minallah said the punishment had been inflicted within the last 10 days, following the signing of a controversial peace deal under which the provincial government ceded control of the valley's judicial system to the militants.
"This video is being widely circulated because the Taliban want people to see it. They want to give the message that this is taking place after the peace deal because this is something they ideologically believe in," she said.
Local sources including journalists and human rights workers, some of whom declined to be identified, confirmed the video was recent, although estimates of its timing varied between one and three weeks ago. The Taliban spokesman said it predated the peace deal.
Sher Muhammad Khan, an official in Swat with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said: "They have committed so many atrocities since the peace deal. They have taken entire control of the district. There is nobody to control them; they decide disputes according to their whims."
Since the 15 February deal, a hybrid of traditional and Islamic law has been operational in Mingora, the largest city in Swat district. The qazi courts, as they are known, are not operated by the Taliban but by a related political movement. They have a murky legal status because the changes have yet to be signed into law.
Floggings and other physical punishments have not been imposed in Mingora, where some residents have praised the system's efficiency. However, in outlying districts, where government writ has been entirely crushed, a crude form of gun justice prevails.
The woman in the video, named as Chaand and believed to be aged 17, was punished in Matta, a district further up the Swat Valley.
Minallah and other sources said the girl was punished on suspicion of having had an illicit relationship with a married man. She did not receive a trial. "The whole case is based on the suspicions of one neighbour," said Minallah.
The woman's brother is among the men pinning her down, she added. "It's symbolic that he does it with his own hands. It gives him honour in local society, that he has done it for the sake of religion."
The Swat Valley is controlled by Maulana Fazlullah, a charismatic preacher who initially gained popularity through radio broadcasts, then seized control through gun battles, suicide attacks and intimidation of the local population.
Since the peace deal, women have been beaten for shopping unaccompanied in Mingora's main market and dozens of girls' schools remain closed, many of them bombed.
Fazlullah has sworn loyalty to Baitullah Mehsud, the overall Taliban leader from South Waziristan who claimed responsibility for last Monday's eight-hour assault on a police centre in Lahore and has vowed to mount attacks in Washington.
On Wednesday a presumed American drone fired rockets at a compound controlled by his network, killing at least 14 people.
The effective surrender of government authority in Swat has caused great alarm across Pakistan and among western allies.Minallah said she feared Talibanisation would spread across Pakistan. "I have distributed this video because I feel people are in denial. They don't want to believe what is happening."