Summary:
Women in Egypt that are protesting the unequal
treatment of humans have begun to be arrested for their protests, and when they
are detained in prisons they are sexually harassed, tortured, and beaten. Often
times these women are innocent victims caught at the wrong place at the wrong
time. One woman was 8 months pregnant when she was randomly arrested on her way
to the hospital and had to give birth while handcuffed to the bed. These acts
have been going on since November when interim President Adly Mansour gave the
Interior Ministry powers over protests that occurred in Egypt, causing protestors
to be arrested and the possibility of facing 5 years in prison or fines of over
$14,000. Women are protesting many events that are detrimental to the human
rights, but one particular event that Dr. Mervet Galeela (a radiologist who was
beaten for wearing a small Rabia symbol on her clothing) was that on August 14,
2013 where “thousands of men, women, children, and infants and older people
were killed in Rabaa al-Adawiya Square during a pro-Morsi protest.” These women
are being arrested and tortured simply because they are exercising their rights
to protest what, they believe to be, is wrong. Of the approximately 150 women
who have been detained, 30 of them have been subjected to pregnancy tests and
five were subjected to virginity tests before they were sexually harassed and
tortured. Often times these women were impregnated through the rapes that occurred
while detained. People believe there is a double standard between the way the
women are publicized versus the way the men are; most of the media groups do
not want to cover the stories of the women because they are seen as “liberal
and are being repressed.”
Analysis:
This article speaks a lot about the way that women
are treated, not just in our society, but all around the world. These women
were merely protesting events that they didn’t feel were good for the
betterment of their society, so they took a stand. Unfortunately a lot of the
time when people try to assemble against something that the government has
enacted, there is a backlash of arrests from the government. For this
particular instance, the fact that the women were arrested is not the issue.
There are countless reports of women (innocent or not) being arrested and put
into jail, but the issue lies within the treatment of the people during incarceration.
These women were degraded, exploited, and violated to the highest level during
their time being detained, and it all stems back to the male-dominance that
exists in this Egyptian society. I thought it was interesting how the article
mentioned that these protests were not violent ones. The women were simply
using peaceful tactics in order to defend their beliefs, but because the people
in authority were male, it didn’t matter what the women were doing because the
men didn’t like it and they were going to end it. The torture and abuse that
occurred in the jails was merely another way of oppressing the women in their
society but making their stay in the jails absolutely unbearable so that they
wouldn’t think about speaking out again. The oppression of women in very
fundamental countries, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, is very evident even in
today’s world, and I think this article does a great job of highlighting on the
fact that there are things going on, even today, throughout the world that are
similar to events that people are appalled to hear about from our history.
No comments:
Post a Comment