A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest calling for the respect of women's rights and other fundamental rights on August 13, 2012 in Tunis[/caption]Eighteen months after Mohammad Bouazizi set himself on fire, igniting region-wide uprisings, I am still coming across articles authored by Arab women lamenting the failure of these uprisings to advance their rights.
Implied in many of these articles is the assumption that by standing "shoulder to shoulder with men in defying tyranny" their plight would magically cease to exist.
There is no evidence in history that such a tactic, if you can call it that, works.
At the same time, very few writers, if any at all, have acknowledged the detrimental role that the majority of women have in reinforcing their own oppression. It is the women in Arab societies who need to be convinced first and foremost. The fact that conservative cultural norms, fortified by literal interpretations of Islam and Christianity, continue to play such a prominent role in Arab societies is a testament to this.
Women’s rights in the Arab world need to be separated from religion. Once this is achieved, women and the men who support them will have a fighting chance.
Historically, women’s rights have often been pushed aside in favor of causes that could only be enjoyed by men in countries where women remain inferior under the law. But rights mean nothing when half of the population is excluded from exercising them. Of course, the timing has to be right as well. There is a reason why something that didn’t work before, works now. Launching a campaign for gay rights, for example, would be impossible.
Every marginalized group throughout the world has faced these same challenges and though they have met them in a variety of ways, the successful ones have understood the basic concept that rights are not given to you; they are won. This is a gradual process, but one that requires unity of purpose and constant widespread pressure, both inside the home and in the public sphere.
Many Arab women evidently learned this lesson when they risked their lives alongside men to overthrow the system that terrorized generation after generation of their friends, families and communities.
Now there is another system to overthrow. It must be met head on with the same courage and determination that characterized the fight for political rights. Tunisian women are in the throes of something big as I write this. They need support and encouragement, and others should take their cue.
