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.
A colleague from Egypt has asked that we pray about this transition; his fear- shared by many of his Egyptian Christian associates- is that the Muslim Brotherhood is so well organized for a political takeover through the very system that is emerging for elections and into the transitional government.
So, I agree: our measure or estimation of what the life of the governed in Egypt will be like will be a function of women’s rights: and I would include a function of the rights of those from a minority faith community, e.g., Christians.
Yes. From my long-ago study of the development of political theory and modern governance, which traced our western government values and laws to Hebrew & Greek writings, through the development of Christian theological thought about God and humanity, to the present era, I wonder… Would it be possible for another cultural group to truncate that long journey of that portion of humanity by adopting democratic systems without having the foundation of generations upon generations of thought, culture and religious praxis? How many people are needed proportionally within a culture to shift the balance away from “lording it over” each other to valuing one another? I’m sure there is no set equation that would answer these questions/hopes, no matter how “scientifically” political scientists want to present their work. And so, I pray for Egypt and for all her people that they will mutually value all members of their society.