From Freedom Riders to Freedom Marchers: 50 Years of Nonviolent Resistance

African American and Women's History Month held in February holds special significance this year. We mark 50 years since a dedicated group of men and women hailing from all across the U.S. boarded buses in Washington, D.C. bound for Jackson, Mississippi. Bridging the divides of race, age, and class, they united around a common mission: to stage nonviolent protests against the Southern states' outdated Jim Crow laws and their non-compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited segregation in all interstate public transportation facilities.

The core membership of the 430-strong "Freedom Riders" included members of the Nashville Student Movement, an activist group who had already successfully desegregated lunch counters and movie theaters in their home city. Diane Nash, a capable, articulate spokesperson, coordinated the Freedom Riders' efforts from Nashville. Reverend James Lawson, an ardent proponent of non-violence who informed Dr. Martin Luther King's strategies and actions, mentored the Riders in the art of non-violence.

As the buses departed Washington on May 5, 1961, black and white riders sat side by side, an act criminalized in most segregated states. At stops along the way, the Freedom Riders entered "whites" and "colored" areas in contrary fashion and dined together at segregated lunch counters. The journey taken by these non-violent protesters involved brutal beatings, fire bombing of their bus, and ultimate imprisonment in Mississippi's notorious State Penitentiary, Parchman Farm. Their efforts have been hailed as a watershed moment within the trajectory of the Civil Rights Movement.

Spawned by the courage and creativity of bold young people, undivided by gender, race, socioeconomic status, these 430 individuals came together as a united front to oppose discrimination, violent oppression, and sanctioned inequity. I honor them especially right now, as the daily news bears faces of Egyptians, Libyans, Bahrainis, Iranians, Tunisians, Algerians. I see men and women, old and young, of many colors and religious affiliations. United, they stand and march and chant together for their basic human rights: to live free from violence and oppression, to overcome indignity and poverty, to have a voice in their governance.

I offer up a plea that the lesson of history will be repeated and that the truth of of Dr. King's assertion -- "The arc of history is long, and it bends toward justice" -- will have its day.

* * * * * * *

To find our more about the Freedom Riders, watch this trailer for a new documentary by Director Stanley Nelson.

To read more about the protests rocking the Middle East, click here. And read The Economist's analysis of the protests and their potential for effecting regime change here.

Is Popular Culture Bleaching Out Cultural Identity?

Last week a friend turned my attention to Beyoncé’s new look at the Grammys. Normally, I'm not drawn into celebrity culture. Vapid and unattainable, it makes me depressed and overly concerned. But the recent pictures of her took me aback. Blonder and fairer than ever, Beyoncé looked like she had morphed into Gwyneth Paltrow.

As a pop culture role model for women, Beyoncé stands tall. She is an intelligent, attractive, and well-spoken performer and she is also an ardent businesswoman, even holding her own against her partner Jay-Z, the successful rapper. Undoubtedly, she exists within an industry where she has to emulate "a look." For a while, I couldn’t tell the difference between her, Shakira, and Jennifer Lopez -- some of the most culturally diverse performers in mainstream music. Yet, their styles seemed to blend seamlessly into one another. Largely emulating the original material girl, Madonna, these performers are walking advertisements for various brands -- be it hair, make up, clothes, shoes, or cars. On one side, the argument is that these women have in a capitalistic, male-dominated industry been able to create their own lucrative deals and take charge of their own money. But, what about their identity? Are the effects of celebrity-driven culture removing important aspects of their cultural identity?

Beyoncé is a lighter-skinned woman of color. While she usually has the highly moneyed, honeyed hair she had for the Grammys, she has also experimented with various hair colors and styles. However, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a British writer and journalist who grew up in East Africa with ancestry from Pakistan, much like my own parents, was up in arms about Beyoncé's appearance at the awards. She wrote in the Daily Mail accusing Beyoncé of betraying her African-American cultural heritage and of betraying women of color.

I do think in the entertainment industry, where hair is an art form in and of itself, accusing Beyoncé of trying to "be white" is too simple and unfair. As a woman of color, I have done all sorts of things with my hair. Naturally, I am dark chocolate with big waves. But I’ve had light brown, orange, straight, and kinky hair. I’ve partly shaved my head and also had pink and red spikes. I was never trying to look white or wash out my cultural identity. Rather, I was trying to have as much technicolor fun as I could with my hair. I was "experimenting." What then is the problem with Beyoncé’s recent image?

Miss Representation: Exploring the Media's Portrayal of Women

Anyone who watched the Superbowl would most likely agree, hyper-sexualized commercials featuring women in scantily clad outfits have taken over mass-media marketing. GoDaddy.com have actually begun prompting viewers to access their web site in addition to watching the TV ad, in order to see Danica Patrick, GoDaddy’s spokeswomen, in a more provocative setting (click the link to that ad if you're interested in what that entails, or better yet, don't bother). In doing so, the company avoids compliance with the more stringent FCC regulations regarding offensive content of a sexual nature. Is this simply good marketing? Companies knowing how to accurately target the predominately male audience and lure them to their products? Or, are such campaigns actually harming the way both men and women view women in society?

Jennifer Siebel Newsom explores these issues, and so many more, in her new feature length documentary, Miss Representation. Miss Representation debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in January and is on its way to theaters across the country and educational institutions throughout the world. Newsom evaluates the messages sent by today’s media: that a woman’s true value lies in her physical attributes and sexuality, not in her actual abilities. Troubled by both the impact these messages have on young boys -- that women are objects of beauty meant to be enjoyed -- and the way the same messages are internalized by young girls, Newsom gathered a top-notch group of female activists to emphasize that something must be done to change our media.

This documentary comes at a rather fitting time when many argue that women have finally achieved greater parity with men, as exemplified by Hilary Clinton’s strength in the 2008 elections. Yet, Newsom shows how the same election highlighted just how much further there is yet to go. Yes, the United States finally had a woman running for the highest office, but the U.S. still ranks 90th in the world for women in national legislatures. That’s embarrassing. Newsom goes on to show that the issue goes so much deeper than just a lack of government representation. What is really at issue is how women are portrayed.

Society has become so fixated on a woman's appearance that even women have started attacking other women for not conforming to media's fabricated definition of beauty. One glance at the Miss Representation trailer and you’ll see clips from women in the media minimizing the accomplishments of other women because of physical attributes. Sitcoms, commercials, and even news shows continuously over emphasize the importance of a woman's age, beauty, and sexuality.

Despite the failings of today's media in portraying a sense of equality among the sexes, Newsom gives her viewers hope and offers real solutions. You can learn more about the film and what you can do to make a difference by visiting the Miss Representation website.

Check out the screening section to see if the film is playing near you or to find out how you can host a screening.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Miss Representation

The Power of Vulnerability

I recently came across this amazing TED Talk (also below) with Brené Brown, an American social scientist who took to the painstaking task of studying vulnerability in human emotions; specifically, what separates people who are able to love wholeheartedly from those who claim they cannot. Her study was brave in that it became a personal exploration that she was able to then relate to big picture issues facing the world around her.

What Brown discovers is that those who have more confidence and are more open to loving relationships also make themselves very vulnerable in life, as in, they take on more risks. She also observed that people in America numb themselves to vulnerability, and this can be evidenced by the fact that we are "The most in debt, obese, addicted and medicated adult cohort in U.S. history."

What do her findings mean for society at large? I'm not entirely sure, but I think the notion that we as a people need to confront vulnerability and embrace it can be a powerful goal, to start.

Glittering Spirit: The Art of Kelly Shaw Willman

From uphill invisible swimming performance series
copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

As an avant-garde performance artist, a vocalist, an experimental poet, and multimedia artist, Kelly Shaw Willman's creativity spans many mediums. Her work is an intricately woven into her life’s journey, making her performances deeply personal. Willman’s performances have taken place in the remote woods of Maine to a sunny Iowa farm to a dimly lit living room in Brooklyn. She has an uncanny ability to transform spaces and to draw the audience into her inner world.

From the uphill invisible swimming performance series.
Copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

According to her website Kelly was "born & raised amongst the cornfields & creek-beds of eastern Iowa, but a life-long obsession with the ocean inspires her to one day settle in a self-sustaining ((coastal)) arts space... Kelly migrates through these creative times as an original daughter of the waves & seeker of glowing trails."

Kelly's performances invoke a sense of magic and involve ritualistic processes with objects and symbols that give her work layered meaning. There are recorded sounds and voices played back on tape recorders, apples being sliced, honey being poured, and copious amounts of glitter in Willman's sacred space.

From Kelly's grunge*quest performance series.
Image copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

Spirituality and the sacred within art practice is a common theme in my ongoing creative discussions with Kelly. During one such exchange over email, she had this to say:

"The community of artists I gravitate toward is operating from spaces that are more energy-based, more mystical. Sounds are words. Color and iconography (in placement and mere presence) equate efforts to communicate a deeper meaning: something of the spirit, of a life past, of a shape shifted, of a message received, of a dream...I think a newfound fixation on this creative magic is much more intensified in the artists of now."

From Kelly's uphill invisible swimming performance series.
Copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

From uphill invisible swimming performance series.
Copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

In Kelly's most recent works, part of her uphill invisible swimming performance series, her body becomes the vessel for her sacred rituals. The pieces bring to mind the work of the late artist Ana Mendieta, whose groundbreaking works incorporated her own body and explored themes of ritual, spirituality, and her own identity. She coined the term "earth-body work," as a way of "resisting the terminology that she felt the art world establishment tried to impose on her." (Olga Viso, Unseen Mendieta). And much like Mendieta, Willman resists putting labels on her work. "I am...not attracted to the exercise of labeling art or beings...I prefer no labels on my work or on my sleeve..."

The strength of Willman's work is that it is so personal, so uniquely her own. Through performance, sound, and image, she has developed a personal iconography that charts the journey of her life. In documenting her own course, she invites each of us to consider the beauty and lessons of our own paths.

From uphill invisible swimming series. Copyright Kelly Shaw Willman

Kelly Shaw Willman is an exciting young artist we'll definitely be hearing much more from in the future. Keep up with her creative process on her blog, check out her facebook fan page, and view more performance photos on her flickr page.

Post-Valentine's Day Reflection: What's Love Got to Do With It?

Just more than a month has passed since Americans witnessed in disbelief as a young, frustrated solitary gunman in Arizona killed six fellow citizens in cold blood and wounded more than a dozen others. This stunning national tragedy generated immediate finger pointing and scapegoating, knee-jerk reactions evidencing the fault lines within U.S. politics. Slowly, however, aggressive vitriol gave way to what felt like communal sobbing. During the first 24 hours following the attack, it seemed as if millions of Americans traversed the stages of grief, albeit at vastly differing paces.

The evening of January 12th, President Obama stood before the families and friends of the slain and wounded citizens. He spoke earnestly and deeply to them in their grief. Summoned to assuage profound sorrow, to rationalize the irrational, and perhaps -- above all -- to reunite a nation deeply at odds, he chose to address the American people on themes that seldom enter political discourse. He spoke about the need for humility, for kindness, and for genuine human compassion.

With the oratorial flourish and sincerity that have become his trademarks, Obama reasoned that the sudden loss of loved ones in such a tragic, violent manner both "causes us to look backward [and] forces us to look forward, to reflect on the present and the future, on the manner in which we live our lives and nurture our relationships . . ." At times of deep loss, he reflected, we are brought face-to-face with our own mortality, the brevity of our human lives, and the fact that ultimately, ". . . what matters is not wealth, or status or power, or fame -- but rather, how well we have loved, and what small part we have played in bettering the lives of others."

As we open the pages of today's newspapers or watch the home pages of world news sites come into focus on our computers, we are bathed in images of violent reprisal to acts of nonviolent resistance. From Bahrain to Iran, Jordan to Yemen, from Iraq to the sandy soil of Egypt -- and all the places where the struggle of ordinary people to gain a legitimate voice in the laws and policies that so deeply influence the degree of their personal freedom and well-being -- we are told of aggression, of force, of some response other than that motivated by genuine human compassion. Into these spaces, I'd like to speak Obama's question: Rooted in the sanctuary of my own free and fortunate life, what small part can I play in improving the lives of others?

Long live and celebrate those brave enough to join the nonviolent movement for freedom, for voice, for greater well-being for all citizens.

* * * * *

For the full text of President Obama's remarks on January 12th in Tucson, click here.

For more about the nonviolent protests across the Arab World, consult: Democracy Now! or Al Jazeera.

After Egypt, Secretary Clinton Takes on Internet Freedom

Over the past weeks, the world has watched as the Internet and social media played credible, if not vibrant, roles in the toppling of oppressive regimes in both Tunisia and Egypt. As an activist for the public health and human rights of females, frankly, I feel profound satisfaction just typing that last sentence because in both examples, the mass showed collective voice, power, and the strength to fight back -- and win -- even when access to the Internet was revoked.

Undoubtedly, momentum and solidarity arose from both in person and Internet discussions, then grew into collective action followed by formidable outcomes. No one can argue, however, access to technology can have profound social, economic, and political consequences. From public health to women's rights, texting, cell phones, and the Internet -- specifically, FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube -- are all tools that can potentially create a better future, a freer world, for all. In fact, the picture shown here reflects a young protester in Beirut with a mock ad showing both Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak "friending" one another via FaceBook. Both, of course, were recently ousted using some of these very social media tools to help force political upheaval.

This afternoon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke from Georgetown University about Internet freedom. She cited abundant examples of how profound the Internet has become due to the 3 billion people worldwide who are using it and hailed it "the world's town square, classroom, marketplace, coffee house, and nightclub."

Last year, Clinton gave a speech announcing the Internet as a top priority in foreign policy. Today she discussed that just "last week we [the U.S. Government] launched Twitter feeds in Arabic, and Farsi, adding to the ones we have in French and Spanish."

Clinton added, "We'll start similar ones in Chinese, Russian and Hindi. This is enabling us to have real-time two-way conversations with people wherever there is a connection that governments do not block."

But what about the governments that do block? Clinton singled out China, Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, and Vietnam as countries that restrict access to the Internet or that arrest bloggers who speak out against their country's policies. Indeed, the Christian Science Monitor's Hillary Clinton's Plan to Topple Dictator's with an Open Internet was one of the most leading headlines of the day, because although Clinton adamantly supports the freedom of the Internet and made just realizations as to the impact the Internet has on our current and future world, she still acknowledged that the United States does not recognize a "silver bullet" approach. Yet, Clinton said after spending $20 million on funding already, an additional $25 million of supportive grants is forthcoming.

The Huffington Post highlighted one of Clinton's strongest assertions:

The Internet creates a 'dictator's dilemma' where oppressive regimes 'choose between letting the walls fall or paying the price to keep them standing -- which means both doubling down on a losing hand by resorting to greater oppression, and enduring the escalating opportunity cost of missing out on the ideas that have been blocked.'

Agence-France Press (AFP) reported that Clinton's speech came on the same day that "a US judge was holding a hearing in Virginia into a US government attempt to obtain information about the Twitter accounts of people connected with WikiLeaks."

Photo credit: Washington Post

Mujeres Muralistas or How I "Got Into" College

A Tribute to the Mujeres Muralistas in the Mission Distroct, via Flickr/Franco Folini

Last summer, I decided to pursue an M.F.A. I had recently earned a Master of Arts in Art History, yet the desire to develop my skills as an artist tugged at me throughout my Art History studies. So here I am, starting anew. In order to prepare myself, I decided to take an Intro to Mural Art course, because it pertained to my favorite area in San Francisco--the vibrant Mission district, which is also commonly understood as the "Latino neighborhood."

During one of the early class sessions, my instructor was discussing his early career and passion for mural painting. He was so enamored with becoming a working artist that he aggressively pursued noted Mexican mural artist David Alfaro Siqueiros until he was able to work as his apprentice. He also talked about his visits to several universities in Mexico; during this part of the discussion, he revealed a longstanding cultural bias about women, the arts, and education -- that they do not belong together. The instructor looked me square in the eyes, and said, "You'll appreciate this story."

Half the Sky: Revisited

Two years ago, journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn published the Pulitzer Prize winning book, Half the Sky. Derived from an old Chinese proverb, "Women hold up half the sky," the title invites readers to be reminded that the world is run on the shoulders of women and men, equally.

The book traces the lives of women struggling on a global scale and also the unsung heroes who have dedicated their careers to helping these women. Be it economically oppressed, physically abused, or otherwise ignored, women throughout the world and throughout history have been left in the shadows of silence. Therefore, many of the stories reported in Half the Sky vividly describe the violence faced by women around the globe: brutal rapes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, girls as young as eight-years-old bought and sold within the sex trade in India, and women left in a state of total Pariah as a result of the cultural traditions created by misogyny.

Having first read the book shortly after it was released, the stories that have stuck with me most are those of the women left not as victims of violent crime, but victims of neglect. Specifically, I am talking about the women who bravely face childbirth without the protections afforded them by proper pre-natal and maternal care. For me, this was the first time I had read in such detail about the extreme suffering many women are subjected to for lack of proper care.

I frequently revisit the story of Mahabouba Muhammad, a young girl who was raped and left pregnant by a sixty-year-old married man. Embarrassed and afraid, Mahabouba ran away and had the child without the assistance of a midwife. Due to her young age, and consequently her immature reproductive system, Mahabouba ended up with an obstructed labor. Without medical attention, Mahabouba lay for days in agony as her child slowly rotted. This left her with a fistula, which happens when the wall between a woman’s vagina and the bladder or rectum tears.

Sadly, Mahabouba’s story is not unique. Thousands of women, mostly in under-developed countries, suffer fistulas -- and death -- each year as a result of inadequate access to prenatal and maternal care. In fact, each day more than 1,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth. Of those 350,000 plus deaths annually, over 90 percent are preventable.

And, what is being done?

On National Freedom to Marry Day (celebrated February 12th)

Sandwiched in the middle of an Irish Catholic brood, I have had the great pleasure of participating in the marriages of four of my six siblings. The image of my younger sister and best friend, Moira, standing before me in my mom's exquisite ivory wedding gown, beads of August sweat pearling across her forehead and her eyes glistening with emotion, will remain indelibly etched on my heart. I thought the joy I felt that day -- her wedding day, not my own -- would be the pinnacle of my wedding-related emotions. Already in my late 20s and as yet uninvolved in any sort of deeply serious committed relationship, I assumed I would quite happily live my life as an unchained single woman. This confidence enabled me to deflect my mom's earnest inquiries into the status of my coupling for the next decade.

My whole word went dramatically topsy-turvy in January 2007 when, at the ripe age of 38, I finally had the courage to come out as a lesbian, first to myself and, subsequently, to family and friends. Fortunately, my family received the news with openheartedness, their words expressing deep care, happiness, and sincere gratitude that I had finally acknowledged this fundamental aspect of my truest self.

CLIO TALKS BACK: Eleanor Roosevelt and America’s Working Women

publisher: Cornell University Press

book cover She Was One of Us

Clio attended a book party last weekend for a long-time author-colleague and friend. The book is called She Was One of Us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker, and the author is Brigid O’Farrell, a sociologista and political activist who “backed into history” in order to understand how certain developments came about concerning women’s employment.

Brigid discovered that in all the many publications concerning Eleanor Roosevelt (ER, 1888-1962, first lady of the US from 1933 to 1945, thanks to her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s nearly four full terms as president), she found virtually no information about Mrs. Roosevelt’s relationship with the labor movement, which began with issues facing women in the workforce.

She decided to do something about eliminating that gap in our knowledge. This book is the happy result of her research.

Our author learned that Eleanor Roosevelt was extremely engaged in addressing the plight of working women in particular, and tried to do many things to assist them. Importantly, she became a staunch advocate of equal pay for equal work and asserted that labor rights were human rights. One of her enduring partnerships was with the Women’s Trade Union League, headed by the remarkable Rose Schneiderman, an immigrant from Russian Poland.

The first chapter of this book is “Why Women Should Join Unions.” There O’Farrell tells the story of how ER met Rose Schneiderman in 1922, invited her over for supper and asked her why women should join unions. She quotes Schneiderman’s reply: “I remember so well telling her that that was the only way working people could help themselves. I pointed to the unions of skilled men and told her how well they were doing. By contrast, women were much worse off because they were less skilled or had no skills and could be easily replaced if they complained. They were working for $3.00 a week for nine or ten hours a day, often longer.” (Schneiderman & Goldthwaite, pp. 150-51).

The book tells us how ER joined the Women’s Trade Union League and worked with its finance and education committees. With women now voting, in 1924 she chaired an advisory committee on women’s issues for the Democratic National committee, which endorsed equal pay for equal work and the right to organize unions and bargain collectively – the committee’s recommendations were rejected by the men who then controlled the Democratic Party!

The story goes on and it is fascinating!

Brigid O’Farrell remarks: “As ER’s reform ideas developed, her mutually beneficial relationship with labor deepened. Her dialogue with labor activists clarified issues that arose in the workplace and in politics. At the same time, organized labor provided a grass-roots platform for her broader reform agenda. During her twelve years as first lady, she built on her accomplishments and skills to expand her labor concerns beyond the problems of working women to include economic and social rights for all workers. After FDR’s death she took her agenda to the United Nations, where she led an international team to craft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which included the right to join a union.” And equal pay for equal work. It was at the United Nations, of course, that she used her tea table diplomacy to such good effect.

Clio says: Everyone interested in ER, the politics of women’s employment, and the complex story of women’s participation in organized labor more generally, will appreciate this thought-provoking book.


Sources and Further Reading:
• Brigid O’Farrell, She Was One of Us: Eleanor Roosevelt and the American Worker (Cornell University Press, 2010).
• Rose Schneiderman and Lucy Goldthwaite, All for One (Eriksson, 1967).
• Nancy Schrom Dye, As Equals and as Sisters: Feminism, the Labor Movement, and the Women’s Trade Union League of New York (University of Missouri Press, 1980).
• Brigid O’Farrell & Joyce Kornbluh, Rocking the Boat: Union Women’s Voices, 1915-1975 (Rutgers University Press, 1996).
• The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers.

Women Make a Huge Impact on Protests in Egypt

A demonstrator kisses a soldier in Cairo. Image courtesy of Lefteris Pitarakis, AP.

"Whoever says women shouldn’t go to protests because they will get beaten, let him have some honor and manhood and come with me on January 25th...If you have honor and dignity as a man, come. Come and protect me and other girls in the protest. If you stay at home, then you deserve all that is being done, and you will be guilty before your nation and your people. And you’ll be responsible for what happens to us on the streets while you sit at home."

Twenty-six year-old Asmaa Mahfouz said these words just one week prior to "The Day of Anger" protests against the Mubarak regime, in an online video, her face shown plainly to the world.

Her video was said to spark a large segment of the demonstrators; and, according to the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, 20 percent of those demonstrators were women. Some estimates put that number at around 50 percent. But even if those figures were lower, the presence of women activists in the Egyptian public sphere -- whether virtual or seen in Tahrir Square -- is unprecedented.

“Female participation is at an equal standing -- just like male participation -- and female demonstrators are not shying away from marching despite the tear gas,” said Amr Hamzawy, a research director at the Carnegie Middle East Center, to the New York Times. “It’s very impressive,” he said. “It’s not about male and female, it’s about everyone.”

A large female presence in the streets of Cairo--with little to zero sexual harassment reported--should not be seen as insignificant. Though women have protested alongside men in the past, reports of government confrontation targeting women are common. While covering a trial in 2005, journalist Mona Eltahawy noted that she was inappropriately touched by a police officer.

“Many women have experienced much more horrendous attacks,” she said. “It was very saddening, but also gratifying that these young women were prepared. They would say things like wear two layers of clothes so that if they rip off the first, you’re still dressed. No zippers. Carry a can of mace. If you wear a headscarf, make sure you tie it this way and not that way and wear two. … They [women] were determined because the purpose of these assaults and targeting women, obviously, is to shame these women and to terrorize them…These young women will not be scared away. We are standing up for our rights to be active and equal members of Egyptian society, which, again, gives me hope looking forward.”

The gains made for women's rights have yet to materialize in the world of politics, but the outlook is certainly optimistic. While Mubarak was in office this past November, Al Jazeera reported that a new law had been passed by the People's Assembly to allow 64 more seats in the house for women. If changed from its current status of only four seats, the law could mean an increase of 1,500% more women making decisions affecting the lives of all Egyptians. In the 1970s, a quota had been established to create more seats for female legislators, but it was repealed in 1986.

With enough momentum, the presence of women demonstrators in Cairo may be seen as a major turning point for gender equality in Egypt. A time when Egyptians chose a higher standard of living for themselves, with women leading the way.