The Least of These

How a country treats the most vulnerable of its people reveals the logic and system at work in that country. So I agree with Susan Jacoby who points out that how Egypt (and Afghanistan) treats women tells the story of justice.

Like all Americans–unless they live on Planet Crackpot Caliphate–I hope that the joy on the faces of men, women and children in Cairo is only the precursor to the emergence of a more democratic society that fulfills their hopes.

Also like many Americans–including some liberals who won’t say so publicly–I am worried that the inevitable uncertainties of a political transition from dictatorship will provide a new opening, under cover of democracy, for Islamic radicals to push their repressive agenda. I hope that this fear will prove unjustified but–reflexive multiculturalists to the contrary–it is not unreasonable to be concerned.

I am certain of one thing: we outsiders will be able to judge how well or how badly things are going by what happens to women in Egypt in the coming months and years.

We’ll know that the Egyptian revolution has taken a bad turn–that is, a bad Islamist turn–if we hear any official proposals to restrict women’s rights. We’ll know that a modern democracy is emerging when new government officials start talking about “young men and women of Egypt”–not only “young men of Egypt,” as Hosni Mubarak’s flunky did in a futile attempt to get the demonstrators in Tahrir Square to shut up and go home.