WUNRN
GLOBAL FUND FOR WOMEN STATEMENT
February 01, 2011 - A new dawn is rising in Egypt. Approximately two million
people have gathered in Tahrir (Liberation) Square in Cairo to demand the end
of the Mubarak regime. Among them are Global Fund for Women advisors and
grantees who, together with their people, are raising their voices against
injustice in their call for freedom, equality, and democracy. The revolution
has swept across all Egyptian provinces and cities, even little villages, where
on a daily basis for a week, women and men have taken to the streets in
protest.
The Global Fund for Women stands in solidarity with the brave women and men who are risking their lives to create a new country, one that respects human rights, justice and equality for all.
Photo
- Leil Zahra Mortada
This revolution has been long in the making. Over the past few years, we
have been receiving reports regularly from our grantee partners, like the Land Center for Human Rights, of
strikes and protests in multiple districts across Egypt. They have informed us
that the entire society—from workers in textile factories, to farmers and day
laborers, to bloggers and students—are not only speaking up and demanding their
rights, but enduring being arrested and beaten in the process.
Hundreds have been killed and over 1,000 people have been brutally
injured by the police in response to peaceful demonstrations. Sadly, this
savage response to peaceful protestors has been the Mubarak regime's approach
since the 1970s when it imposed an emergency law to crush any dissent and
political organizing. In recent years, the Mubarak regime has intensified its
repression and torture. The government recently passed a law restricting the
work of civil society organizations. Nadim Center,
one of our grantees, has been documenting the torture of political dissidents,
bloggers, and union organizers in Egyptian jails. Last July, an Egyptian youth,
Khalid Said,
was tortured to death in a police station. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch
have documented how the regime's brutality has intensified under the global war
on terror. Furthermore, Mubarak’s rule has been marked by rigged elections,
widespread corruption and human rights violations, including harassment and
violence against women, which many of our grantee partners, including Nazra for Feminist Studies, the Egyptian
Center for Women’s Rights, and the Egyptian Association for Community Participation
Enhancement, have well-documented during their election
monitoring in 2010 and in years past. Many western and Egyptian-government
media are diverting attention away from the peaceful protests by focusing on
looting. To the contrary, our advisors and grantees are reporting that people
are quickly organizing into neighborhood committees to protect public and
private property, even forming a human shield around the National Museum. What
is not being reported by these news outlets is that many caught looting and
inciting violence are actually Mubarak's secret police and hired thugs who have
in the past rigged elections and attacked demonstrators. The media is also
spotlighting the Muslim Brotherhood and extremist religious groups, when in
fact the Muslim Brotherhood only recently joined the protests and only
constitutes a segment of the opposition. What they are missing is that youth,
including young women, are on the streets calling for a democratic non
sectarian government and chanting for unity for a brighter future for all of
Egypt's people.
The Global Fund for Women calls upon the United States and Egypt to
fulfill the demands of the people calling for change and end to violence and
retaliation. We believe that calls by the Obama administration for political
and economic reform is too little, too late and is being interpreted as an
endorsement of Mubarak and his policies, and against the Egyptian people's
calls for democracy. People in Egypt are united under one slogan: THIS REGIME
MUST END.
We call upon the US government to stand on the right side of history and
support the Egyptian people's right to true democracy and freedom. The
U.S. aid to Egypt (second to Israel in the region), including military weapons,
has been used in the past and during the last few days against peaceful
protestors. We as a nation must no longer support repression.
As supporters of women’s rights, we can play a significant role. We can:
- Spread the news to overcome the information
blockades and mainstream messages;
- Write to our government representatives,
newspapers, blogs, and other media venues, telling them we refuse to have
our money used to back a dictator and suppress people's legitimate grievances;
- Protest in front of Egyptian embassies worldwide;
- Extend a hand of support to Egyptian civil
society organizations to ensure that democracy and equality are the order
of the day in the near future in Egypt; and 5. Support the Global Fund for
Women’s capacity to continue to provide critical movement building support
to women's groups in Egypt. Click here
for information about groups we have funded since 1989.
As events unfold, we will continue to monitor the situation and extend
our support and solidarity to our advisors and grantees in the country. We will
remain committed to our ongoing human rights work and investment in sustaining
the women’s rights movement in Egypt.