WUNRN
ARAB WOMEN ADVOCATE AGAINST
VIOLENCE, FOR RIGHTS - PHOTO GALLERY
By
Tim Hume for CNN - December 6, 2012
The Uprising of Women in the Arab World photo campaign asked supporters to submit photos of themselves holding signs supporting the demands of Arab women. "I am with the uprising of women in the Arab world because many women get fired during their maternity leave," wrote Shereen, from Lebanon.
(CNN) -- Women stood at the forefront of the
Arab Spring, taking to the streets shoulder to shoulder with men in an effort
to overturn oppressive old orders.
But while their efforts have seen dictators ousted and reforms
introduced, the greater rights for women many hoped would emerge from the
upheaval have not materialized.
Indeed, says Lebanese activist Diala Haidar, the rise of
political Islam throughout the region in the wake of the uprising has raised
the specter of hard-won gains for women being lost.
Haidar and four other women's rights activists across the region
started a campaign, The Uprising of Women in the Arab World, on Facebook in
October 2011, to highlight injustices against women throughout the region.
They can't betray
women as long as we stand up for our rights and take advantage of this moment
in history.
Diala Haidar, co-founder of The Uprising of Women in the Arab World campaign
"The Arab Spring took place under the banner of freedom,
dignity and equality, and the three can't be established if women are left
behind," said Haidar, 28, a laboratory supervisor.
"At every stage of history we have been given the excuse,
'It's not the time to discuss women's issues -- we are at war, it's a
revolution,' or whatever. It's our time to say 'We need our rights,'" she
added.
The Facebook page has attracted more than 78,000
"likes" and there is now a website.
Two campaigns are currently running: One asks people to submit
photos with a message of solidarity with women in the region written in Arabic.
The other, launched on United Nations' International
Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25,
encourages women to share
their stories of violence, abuse and harassment, in an effort to shine a
spotlight on such incidents.
Dozens of women have given their accounts, with a recurring
theme that they have felt unable to speak out or hold the perpetrators to
account.
"The revolution won't take place in secrecy, it will take
place in the light," said Haidar. "We have to start sharing our
stories and concerns and aspirations publicly. It can prove that these
incidents ... are not exceptional cases but part of a whole society that we
should work to cure from this violence."
In our culture, these
issues are taboos and it is better to suppress them for the sake of the
family's 'honor' What an absurd honor
Rahma, a Tunisian woman who was molested at a young age
One account of abuse on the website is given by Rahma, a
22-year-old Tunisian woman, who writes of being sexually molested aged nine by
a man who she says has never been held accountable.
"In our culture, these issues are taboos and it is better
to suppress them for the sake of the family's 'honor,'" she writes.
"What an absurd honor."
Haidar says the campaign is trying to challenge patriarchal
cultural attitudes surrounding "honor," often enshrined in
discriminatory legal systems that punish the victims of sexual crimes.
"We have to get rid of the blame that society inflicts upon
us when it comes to issues of sexual harassment, rape and domestic
violence," she added.
In a recent case highlighting the extent of the problem, a
27-year-old Tunisian woman who was allegedly raped by two policemen after they
approached her and her fiance in a car was subsequently charged with indecency, which carries a
potential six-month sentence, when she filed a complaint against the officers.
The charges were eventually dropped (although the prosecutor has
appealed the ruling), and the woman was offered a state apology, but not before the case attracted
large protests and criticism that the woman's treatment reflected the attitudes
of the country's new Islamist leaders.
Earlier this year, international outrage erupted over the plight
of a 16-year-old Moroccan girl who committed suicide after a court ordered her to marry her
rapist.
The revolution won't
take place in secrecy, it will take place in the light. We have to start
sharing our stories and concerns and aspirations publicly
Diala Haidar, co-founder of The Uprising of Women in the Arab World campaign
A rise in sexual violence in the form of mob attacks on women on the streets was a pressing issue in
post-revolutionary Egypt, said Haidar, as was the concern that women's equality
would not be enshrined in the sharia-influenced draft constitution.
Haidar added that the campaign was targeting other issues across
the region including the persistence of patriarchal personal status laws, honor
killings, female genital mutilation and forced marriages.
Fatima Nabil, 16, from Aden, Yemen, submitted a painting to the
campaign.
"I have a friend my age who was forced out of school into
marriage," she told CNN. Her paintings were an attempt to "express
the injustice suffered by women, because they live in darkness and
constraint," she said.
But Haidar said it is still "too early" to say that
the Arab Spring has failed women and that could only happen if women allowed
it.
"They can't betray women as long as we stand up for our
rights and take advantage of this moment in history," she said.
"If we consent to this it will happen, but if we don't it
will never happen."