Idealistic westerners have been praising the uprisings in the Middle East as secular expressions of wanting freedom from the dictators and the Islamists, but it seems the truth of the matter is that the Islam-prescribed treatment of women in Egypt has been unchanged, and crackdowns on feminism have begun in earnest:
A protest by hundreds of Egyptian women demanding equal rights and an end to sexual harassment turned violent Tuesday when crowds of men heckled and shoved the demonstrators, telling them to go home where they belong.
The women — some in headscarves and flowing robes, others in jeans — had marched to Cairo's central Tahrir Square to celebrate International Women's Day. But crowds of men soon outnumbered them and chased them out.
"They said that our role was to stay home and raise presidents, not to run for president," said Farida Helmy, a 24-year old journalist.
The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, also praised by some Westerners as some sort of 'moderate' faction in Egypt, makes it clear that women and non-Muslims should never be allowed to lead Egypt:
A current policy document states that while the movement believes in democracy, the job of president of the republic should not be open to non-Muslims - or women.
Now, to be fair, for a Muslim-majority society, that is a moderate position, but as fair as I'm concerned, as a progressive, that's a horrifically misogynistic position to have, and a group that feels that way should not be considered moderate by our terms.
On this International Women's Day, women in Egypt and around the world deserve so much better.