Fighting against the Invisibility of the Mothers Name - PDF document

the Mothers NameAn Egyptian woman writer was severely at-tacked when she published an article in anEgyptian weekly (Rosalyoussef, 18th March2006) and signed her article using both hermother’s and father’s names.In her article, she asked: “Why should Ionly bear the name of my father Helmy? Whyis the name of my mother Nawal invisible?In Egypt, why do we celebrate Mother’s Dayon 21st March although mothers’ rights areneglected in the family, in society and in the 7-especial.p6518/10/2006, 9:3745 Creativity, Dissidence and WomenMother’s Day by keeping it along with her fa-ther’s name, was not only accused by most menand women of being against Islam and againstthe moral code, but also of encouraging sexualfreedom for women. Only a few men andwomen supported her and even some of themdecided to keep the name of their motheralong with the name of their father.I was among those who supported her anddecided to bear my mother’s name Zaynabbeside my father’s name. In fact, in my child-hood, I got very angry when my teacher inprimary school crossed out my mother’sname and ordered me to use my father’sname only.We will carry this struggle on until thenames of our mothers become visible, legaland honourable, exactly as it is with thenames of our fathers. Some people think thatthis battle is not important and that it willnot lead to the liberation of women in Egypt,nor to increasing their citizen participation.But it is an important issue because it willhelp mothers to feel that they have the samehonour and rights as fathers. It means over-turning an important symbol of patriarchyand patriliniality.In the last three decades with the increasingpolitical power of the Islamic groups in Egypt,women were pushed back to wearing the veiland to considering that their role in life was athome, within the family, under the absoluteThe veiling of women means that theyshould be invisible physically whereas stayingat home means that they should be invisiblesocially. Both are instruments intended to de-crease their citizen participation.In the Egyptian Constitution unmarriedwomen are citizens like their male colleaguesand they are governed by state laws but moth-ers and wives remain under the authority ofboth the husband and the state. All laws inEgypt are secular except the family law,which is religious, and it is based on the fa-ther’s name as a symbol of his dominance, ofpatriarchy.Whether living under a patriarchal systemin the West (Christian), or in the East (Is-lamic), a creative woman should be dissident.Indeed, women are looked upon as inferiorto men in the three monotheistic religions butfeminist organizations in the West helpedincrease women’s personal and political rightsand their citizen participation. They are, how-ever, still far from their goals because womencannot be really liberated in a capitalist pa-triarchal society, whether modern or post-modern.The veiling of women means that theyshould be invisible physically whereasstaying at home means that they should beinvisible sociallyIn general terms, women in every countryare still fighting for their human rights be-cause most human rights organizations do notinclude women’s rights in their programmes.Thus, they are not yet looked upon as humansas men are.To be creative means being sensitive toparadoxes and injustices, being against classexploitation and patriarchal oppression,against all types of discrimination betweenpeople by race, class, gender, religion, colour,creed or nationality, etc.To be creative means fighting for freedom,justice, equality, love and peace. It meansstanding up against war, against colonial andneo-colonial aggression and the exploitationof people.But to be a creative woman one has to fighttwo battles: the battle against class discrimi- 7-especial.p6518/10/2006, 9:3746 delaMediterrània nation and, additionally, the battle against pa-triarchy. Women are faced with a dual bur-den, exactly like those dual burdens borne bywomen who work outside and inside theirhome.In society, women have to struggle to be vis-ible physically and to have a role, but also tohave their name, their own name, instead oftheir husband’s name, their father’s or theirgrandfather’s name.To have one’s own name is important as asymbol of one’s existence. Without a namepeople do not exist. If an author does not signWe are known by our name. Without aname one cannot have a visible role in society.However, a woman can certainly work invis-ibly as a mother, without a name and withoutVisibility and Citizen ParticipationThe Virgin Mother lost her name in history.She received the Holy Ghost although she wasalone in giving birth to Christ. Equally, femalegoddesses in Ancient Egypt disappeared in his-tory and the name of the male god dominatedthe world, East and West. The class patriar-chal system started, women’s work becameinvisible, not recognized in official statistics orreports.Their citizen participation was not neededexcept in military or economic crises, in waror when their men or the state needed themto work outside their home. Women arebrought up to sacrifice their lives for others,to be rewarded later in Paradise after theirdeath.In Egypt, we still have a long way to go tobe independent as a country and as women.We cannot gain visibility and full citizen par-ticipation without full independence at thefamily level and at other levels: national, localand global.We have to fight in all areas: personal,political, economic, sexual, social, religious,cultural, educational, family, the media, his-torical, philosophical and others. And al-though we gained some rights over the yearsin spite of backlashes, we are still fightingto achieve more visibility and citizen par-ticipation.What Do We Mean by CitizenParticipation?Citizen participation means, in our opinion,active democratic participation in the politi-cal, economic, social, cultural spheres, and allother domains of life. Full citizen participa-tion cannot be achieved without democracy.And there is no real democracy without thefull participation of women in all aspects ofpublic life.There is no real democracy without thefull participation of women in all aspectsof public lifeDemocracy is not only political; it is notonly related to elections and the existence ofseveral parties (as pluralism and liberalismare). Democracy is related to both public andprivate life as well as to the economic, educa-tional, religious, emotional and sexual aspectsof life.Moreover, democracy or real citizen par-ticipation cannot be imposed by a presidentialdecree, or by decisions emanating from theruling power in the country, as is the case inEgypt or other countries under a dictatorship. 7-especial.p6518/10/2006, 9:3747 Creativity, Dissidence and WomenIn the same way, democracy cannot beachieved under foreign military occupation orpolitical or economic control by colonial orneo-colonial powers, like the examples of Iraq,Palestine, Afghanistan, etc.Dissidence and StruggleTo be dissident means to struggle, to liberateoneself and others in one’s family, in one’s com-munity, locally and globally. In this sense, wecannot separate the global from the local level,so we call our struggle “glocal”.We need knowledge and passion, freedomand love. We need to demystify those beauti-ful words used by the ruling class and patriar-chal powers in order to deceive and exploitwomen and the poor as well.For example, the word “femininity” seemsto be a very nice word, like the word “beauty”.Under such words women are oppressed, theyare looked upon as bodies to be attractive tomen, to be naked in order to serve the freemarket or to be veiled for false moral or reli-gious reasons.Today, in Egypt, women are victims of boththe Islamisation and the Americanisation ofsociety. One can see young women coveringtheir heads with a veil while wearing tightfashionable jeans leaving part of their bellynaked. The veil is now a fashion among womenfrom all classes and even rich women orna-ment their veils with jewellery, put on shinyearrings, heavy make-up, artificial eye lashesand high heels.But, still, the veil of the mind is the mostdangerous of all, because it is invisible. The (1994). 7-especial.p6518/10/2006, 9:3748 delaMediterrània education system and the media work togetherto veil the mind of women and men and,though this is a universal problem, it is moreserious in our countries.WomenWe have two main slogans in our women’s as-sociation in Egypt: “To unveil the mind, toorganize”. We cannot resist oppression collec-tively without being organized, without politi-cal power. In this sense, the collective powerof women to resist has a role to play. Becausewomen are brought up to fear power, to ap-pear weak, docile or feminine and they are notexperienced in establishing political organiza-tions for themselves, since they think that poli-tics is the domain of men. If they are activesocially, they restrict themselves to voluntarysocial organizations providing health or illit-eracy services.To be creative, freedom and realdemocracy are needed. But creativedissident people are punished in ourIn some countries, including Egypt, womenare discouraged from establishing their politi-cal parties. In Egypt, the Law of Associations(or Civil Society Law) prevents their membersfrom discussing politics or religion. Our wom-en’s association (the Egyptian branch of theArab Women’s Association) was banned andclosed down by the government in May 1991under the accusation of being political becausewe stood against the Gulf War.We were labelled “dissidents” because wewere independent from the government in ourthinking. We were supposed to be a Non-Gov-ernmental Organization (NGO) but, in fact, itis almost impossible to be a real NGO in Egypt.The government controls every organization,whether governmental or non-governmental.To be creative, freedom and real democracyare needed. But creative dissident people aresome lose their career, some are forced into ex-ile. For women, the punishment is double ortriple: they are punished by both the state andtheir husband, or by the men of their family.They may also be divorced or lose their rightsas mothers or wives. In the eye of public opin-ion women can be robbed of their reputationof virtuosity or femininity, and considered ei-ther mannish or odd or even mentally sick.But the Struggle ContinuesWe started a new organization which we calledItihad Nissa Misr (Egyptian Women’s Associa-tion). Some of our members are creative anddissident. They supported the idea of bearingof their father. They are all women and menwho are aware that patriarchy is based on thename of the father, that polygamy and sexualpromiscuity were granted for men whereaswomen should be monogamous.This double moral standard was inheritedfrom slavery (the class patriarchal system) sothat fatherhood could be known. Therefore,in Egypt, men are not punished if they havechildren outside marriage: it is the child whois punished along with his or her mother. Sincetheir fathers have the right to deprive thosechildren of their names, they become illegiti-mate.According to the law they can be legitimateif they bear the name of any man (called “theimaginary father”) whereas those who bear thename of their mother are dishonoured for therest of their lives.Our new group has other projects but thisone is amongst the most creative and most dis- 7-especial.p6518/10/2006, 9:3749 Creativity, Dissidence and Womensident. We were insulted by some writers andmedia people and have also been accused ofcorruption and heresy. In spite of that, we aredetermined to continue bearing the name ofour mother and saying that it is a great hon-our for us to do so.We started a web site for our group(www.ithadnisamisr.org) and an electronicmagazine in which we sign with our newnames. By the way, my mother’s name isZaynab. My new name is Nawal Zaynab ElSaadawi. 18/10/2006, 9:3750