Egyptian Men: The New Savages?

Since the first days of the Egyptian revolution, sexual harassment was a focus for Western media. Although the issue is important, it was dismissed and denied for a long time in Egypt. Yet a lot has happened since last year, with more activism and work being done in that regard. Egypt finally acknowledges the existence of this phenomenon and the denial of the state is no longer effective as women go on TV and narrate their stories as victims of harassment or rape.

When it comes to Egyptian women, the state often blames them for the sexual violence. They are asked to fit the mold of an “ideal” woman, one removed from public and political spaces. When football Ultras were protesting against the military junta, they segregated women from men and commanded women not to smoke cigarettes. Those football Ultras, who are foolishly called “the revolutionary army,” represent just one of the macho faces of society.

With foreign women living in and visiting Egypt, the equation differs to some extent. Egypt is now not only promoted as a country that provides zero security for tourists, but also as a misogynist space. The 99 percent figure keeps coming up in the conversation on sexual harassment in Egyptian streets. This is a street-phenomenon that keeps growing as the state ignores it and blames it on women. It is also a complicated performance of masculinity. 

Why Not Criticize the Kuwaiti Opposition?

I am never happy when government loyalists are pleased with my writings. Although I am not interested in criminalizing government supporters for their political position, I am also not interested in having my critique used for their interests.

Over the past two years, I have constantly questioned my positions. Surely I believe in the need for structural changes in Kuwait, but I come from a different position – as a person critical of the system in Kuwait on one side, and as a stateless person on the other side, meaning, a member of a minority that is not of interest to the opposition.

Revolutions are Exclusionary!

In the past week, Christian Copts were killed and their funerals were attacked. The “Baharna” Shia mosque in Kuwait was attacked and vandalized for the third time. Female students of al-Azhar participated in demonstrations supporting the expulsion of a Shia student. Salafis went crazy opposing giving Egyptian visas to Iranians. In the state narrative, a Copt in Egypt is of a faulted religion and a traitor to the revolution. In everyday life, a Shia in Bahrain is called a bastard thanks to Wahabbi myths and state propaganda. Countless examples from the Syrian side make you feel hopeless. If one is to search for sectarianism in our post-uprising region, the results will be massive.

Kuwait and Health Care: Racism as a State Solution

Over a year ago, I wrote a post about an upcoming Kuwaiti project to enforce separate medical facilities for citizens and non-citizens. The project aimed to take the load off public hospitals by putting migrant workers and the stateless in other facilities.

About a week ago, the health minister signed a law to specify visiting hours in hospitals and clinics. It specified hours for Kuwaitis and hours for the rest. The law still needs to be approved by other bodies, but who would imagine that a minister of health (a doctor who made the medical oath) would approve of such a racist law!

Is Kuwait Serious About Bedoon Naturalization?

When the opposition dominated the parliament for few months in early 2012 before it was dissolved, the Bedoon (the Arabic word for stateless) were disappointed that their issue was not a priority. Bedoon activists are still standing with the opposition with the logic of having the government as a common enemy. Another reason to this coalition might be the common tribal background of both groups that make them feel discriminated against by the state. The community is not hoping for much from the opposition, but within the past few years, they have been able to compare the outcomes of an oppositional parliament to a puppet parliament that was elected last December, despite boycotting campaigns and the amendment of voting law.

The Bedoon have been very loud about their demands since the beginning of the Arab uprisings. They have been in the country for generations, but the government still claims that they are ‘hiding their original documents’ from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Syria. In 1986, Kuwait decided to deprive this community of all their rights; education, health care, employment, and any form of documentation. Since February 2011, Bedoon protests prompted strong political changes, pushing the opposition to adopt the cause and placing the government under the spot to face international criticism.

Arab is Not the New Black

Having lived in upstate New York for the past two years, racial discrimination has become the center of my life. Back in Kuwait, the discrimination I faced as a stateless individual was harsh, but different. In the US, I’m either discriminated against for looking like a Latina, meaning “an immigrant who is taking THEIR jobs,” or as an Arab and Muslim, meaning a potential terrorist or a victimized brown woman who escaped hell.

In Kuwait, legal procedures were my nightmare, but I faced stereotypes, rejections, and police harassment. I’ve written before about the legal and everyday discrimination that a stateless person faces in Kuwait, so my aim here is to focus on my recent experiences in New York.

For the first part of my residency as a student here, I tried to escape the labels imposed upon me. However, after several incidents of discrimination in public places, sometimes by police, I felt I was forced into those labels. Here, I am not stateless or Kuwaiti or just an Arab Muslim. Most importantly, I am an immigrant woman of color. This is the reality for me, and I can only negotiate within this frame. Accepting this reality has helped me see through tensions around me.

Remembering the Stateless Women

Writing this post on the International Women’s Day, I thought of speaking about stateless women. I feel obligated to make the disclaimer that those ‘international days’ are indeed problematic to practice as they further ‘other’ all those ‘celebrated’ groups. In other words: Why would we discuss women issues and celebrate their struggle, if we do so every day?

Those days highlight the irony of our realities in relation to gender issues. However, I will use this ‘ritual day’ to speak of stateless women. By stateless women, I do not only mean women I grew up around as a stateless person from Kuwait, but also other stateless women around the world. This includes Kurdish and Palestinian women in the region, and also women in refugee camps around the world.

Around the Arab world, the middle class women leading women rights movements are still obsessed with integrating themselves into the body of citizenhood. Considering how most of women rights movements started with fighting for voting rights, women issues have been centered on the system and regulations.

Torture in Kuwait: Who Deserves It?

Two days ago, Kuwaitis reacted online to a new case of torture. Mubarak Mishaal Mubarak, a 19-year-old Kuwaiti student in Sharjah, was beaten and tortured for three days by two other Kuwaiti students, one of them a member of the ruling family.

According to the Sharjah police reports, Yousef al-Sabah and Hisham al-Jabri confessed to beating Mubarak because of personal and money issues. The police report also stated that Sabah’s cell phone had video footage of the torture episode. Mubarak’s body had torture and burning marks.

Two years ago, in January 2011, the case of Mohammed Ghazay al-Maymouny came as a shock to Kuwaitis. The young Maymouny was tortured to death by a group of police officers because of ‘personal issues.’ At that time, interior minister Sabah al-Khaled al-Sabah (note: all “power ministries,” like the ministries of defense, interior, and foreign affairs, are assigned to ruling family members) submitted his resignation.

Sexual Violence in Egypt: Can Men Protect Us?

This is an anti-sexual harassment artwork made by Egyptian graffiti artist Ganzeer. The artwork represents a typical male narrative of sexual violence. The sentence reads: “Are you a man or an assaulting animal?”

Many of the so-called revolutionaries thought it was not the right time to talk about gender equality, that women gain rights as the political struggle proceeds, and that the gender-related issues raised are pushed by western-liberal propaganda. Many times, I thought the incidents of sexual harassment in Egypt were exaggerated or too few.

When I first read reports on ‘gang rape’ in Tahrir square last year, I dismissed them thinking they are only rumors by the many weird Egyptian websites and ‘yellow newspapers.’ In the past few months though, Egyptian women screamed loudly enough to mobilize themselves and others around the world to protest sexual violence.

Last year, the anti-sexual harassment march was attacked in Cairo and it was discouraging to organize another one. This year, harassment is no longer the appropriate word because it is rightly replaced with sexual violence as we see videos of gang rapes happening on the margins of massive marches.

Weeks ago, Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas tweeted a scene of Egyptian women getting searched before entering the book fair. Many of them turned in knives; a scene that tells us about the kind of reality Egyptian women have adapted themselves to. Shortly after, we saw women marching with knives in Cairo threatening to play the game of violence if necessary.

Targeted by Kuwaiti Police, Stateless Video Blogger Calls it Quits

A video blogger known for documenting violence against stateless protesters in Kuwait has quit, writing on Twitter that authorities beat and coerced him to do so.

Under the nickname “حمقان البدون” meaning the “Angry Bedoon“, (Arabic for stateless), the blogger made a name for himself in his community for using footage of violence by riot police against stateless protesters to make videos on YouTube subtitled in English. Many of his videos were used by TV channels, being the only footage available documenting violence against stateless protesters.

His story was first reported by Alaan online newspaper with the title “The Bedoon's Minister of Information Resigns.” The move comes nearly three months after the arrest of activist Abdulhakim al-Fadhli, who is currently on hunger strike.  Al-Fadli has been sentenced to two years in jail for using Twitter to organize and mobilize protests.

* Continue reading here

Kuwait: Who is the Most Vulnerable?

After the sentencing of three former MPs to three years in jail for defaming the Kuwaiti emir, the opposition’s confidence in intimidating authorities has significantly decreased. The few weeks before the December 2012 parliamentary elections marked the last victory for the opposition.

The new parliament is putting on a good play to distract the public from the current power clashes. It is important to realize the implications stemming from the arrests of the former MPs in relation to the parliament, the opposition and the state.

Right after the sentence was announced, the head of the Awazim tribe held a press conference expressing his criticism of the judiciary. The ‘sheikh’ outlined the position of many tribes toward the ongoing struggle.

حرب الكويت ضد تويتر

بعد مرور عامين على اندلاع الربيع العربي تتصاعد حدة الصراع السياسي في الكويت حول موقع التواصل الاجتماعي (تويتر) ، وبهذا المعدل الحالي من الاعتقالات فإن الكويت ستنافس جارتها البحرين في عدد الملاحقات القضائية للمغردين!، فخلال أسابيع فقط من انطلاق ثورة فبراير 2011 اعتقلت السلطات البحرينية عددا كبيرا من الذين يستخدمون "تويتر" و"فيسبوك" في نشر رسائلهم، وفي هذه الأثناء قررت السلطات الكويتية أيضا على ما يبدو تخويف معارضيها ومن ينتقدها عبر تصيَد واعتقال المغردين البارزين ، بالإضافة إلى اعتقال عشرات المتظاهرين الذين شاركوا بالاحتجاج في مسيرات (كرامة وطن) وآخرين من مظاهرات المقيمين بصورة غير قانونية \ البدون ، ولم تعد الحكومة كما يبدو مهتمة بالحفاظ على سمعة الكويت كأكثر الدول ديموقراطية في الخليج!

Kuwait Cracks Down on Dissent, Twitter

Two years after the start of the Arab Spring, the political battle in Kuwait is growing increasingly more tense over Twitter. At the current rate, Kuwait will soon be able to compete with neighboring Bahrain in the number of prosecutions brought against Twitter users. Within weeks of the February 2011 uprising, Bahrain had arrested large numbers of people using Twitter and Facebook to spread their messages. Meanwhile, Kuwaiti authorities also apparently decided to intimidate their critics and others through the arrest and trolling of influential Twitter users. In addition, tens of protesters have been arrested during the opposition’s dignity marches and in demonstrations by the country’s stateless community. The government, it seems, is no longer interested in defending Kuwait's reputation as the ‘most democratic’ state in the Gulf.

* Continue reading in Al-Monitor

Can the People Speak?

When the uprisings first hit our region, most of us were driven into clichés and slogans praising the people for being brave to fight for change and speak. Since the 1980s, the people have been seen by ‘the elite’ as pacified and silent. Right now, as we enter the third year of Arab revolutions, we are faced with new realities, and the utopia of having the people speak up and form their new countries can no longer remain idolized.

In the Gulf, protests took place in almost every country. Bahrain had a revolution, Kuwait protested and succeeded in changing its prime minister, Saudi’s eastern province spoke against discrimination and long imprisonment, the Islamists tried to mobilize in the UAE, workers went on strike in Oman, and citizens in Qatar protested against their country’s relations with Israel and the US.

The Gulf still didn’t possess a momentum similar to Tunisia and Egypt’s, but much can come out of those movements as they destabilize the monarchies.

A few weeks after the Bahraini revolution, the people felt bitter and angry when some members of the opposition decided to dialogue with a regime that still has hundreds detained. This story keeps repeating itself as different powers keep trying to foster dialogue between the regime and the opposition, all in the name of saving the country from economic and political devastation.

In Kuwait, the youth are trying to separate themselves from the opposition so that other social groups who feel alienated by the conservative-Islamist opposition can join; especially the Shia minority and women. Some of them issued statements calling for a political change in the system that grants more power to the parliament. So far, those attempts have failed. In Kuwait, like in Bahrain, eyes are looking for new political forces that can push for change without having to be part of the current group of key players.

After the uprisings, the question is no longer about the need to speak as much as it is how to speak. The protests in both countries are intermittent, but none of the players have offered an exit for the crises. Knowing that both regimes feel intimidated, political forces need to get to a point in which change can be negotiated.

In the Bahraini example, the people clearly state during protests their demand to see the fall of the royal family. The leaders who first expressed this demand during the revolution ended up in jail or were already in exile. If the people can no longer tolerate dialogue with the royal family then the opposition needs to realize that taking the middle ground is no longer an option for them. Bahrain has passed the stage of calling for reforms.

In the Kuwaiti example, the opposition keeps emphasizing that their fight is not against the ruling family or the Emir. As the Emir insists on his decree to change the voting law, which produced a puppet parliament last month, the opposition should have a clear list of demands that don’t threaten other groups in society.

Clearly, the Kuwaiti opposition is too amateur to achieve anything. They believe that time and stubbornness will produce victories. This is why new players need to take over the scene. The youth attempted this take-over, but they ended up under the opposition’s wing out of fear of being divided and inexperience.

Certainly, seeing more pressure in the streets against the regimes is a necessity. Yet if the political leaders do not reflect what the people want and are incapable of reading the situation, the people will not be as easily mobilized to fight for change.

* Published in AlAkhbar