Egypt’s women wonder which is worse; being a Christian or woman
Joseph Mayton | 17 July 2012
The question that some Egyptian Christian women are now addressing is whether being a woman, or Christian, in the new Egypt, is scarier.
“As a Christian Egyptian I am definitely scared,” she told Bikyamasr.com on Tuesday morning at an upscale Zamalek cafe, puffing away at her water-pipe and talking all things Egypt. “I am young, a woman, a Christian and that means I face all sorts of discrimination.”
For the 21-year-old Cairo University student, she believes the frustration toward the Muslim Brotherhood and the new President Mohamed Morsi is misplaced.
“I just think we have talked so much about what he could do, what the Brotherhood might do to Christians and women that we haven’t really allowed for the country to just be and try to get on with what we are struggling with,” she continued.
For her, being Christian is not quite as dangerous as being a woman. She tells of being harassed in the streets recently, “and this has nothing to do with the Brotherhood or Islamists. I know one of the men who grabbed by breast on the bus was a Christian. This is the case facing Egypt.”
Her friend, veiled Muslim Mona nods her head in agreement. She said that “we women have to stick together, whether Muslim or Christian, because our future depends not on religion, but on ending this violence against us.”
Massive reports of violence toward women have seen paper in recent months, with June hitting a tipping point after a British journalist was stripped and brutally assaulted near Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Being Muslim, Christian, veiled or un-veiled, said Shereen, “makes no difference. We are all meat to them.”
She admitted that since Morsi took over as president, many of her relatives have talked about the coming exile of the Christian population. They cite “reports” from local Christian groups saying over 100,000 Egyptian Christians fled the country since the January 2011 uprising, but statistics from the Egyptian government give a much different perspective, where only a few thousand Egyptians have made the move outside the country.
Shereen and her friends, she said, are aware of the fear, and while they admit they have some doubts over Morsi as president, she wants to give him time to try to make Egypt better.
“As a woman and a Christian I have to think back to what it was like under Mubarak only two years ago,” she began, “and if we are honest, the situation was horrible then. Women were being assaulted, kidnapped and raped. Christians couldn’t build churches and we were barred from top jobs, so how can it get worse?”
She is right, and leading Coptic activist and scholar George Ishaq, who has been a part of a number of national coalitions in recent years to promote change and reform for the country.
He has repeatedly told Bikyamasr.com that “the Coptic community should come together with the Muslim community because we are all Egyptians and we all struggle together.”
While tensions remain high between the Christians in the country, who reportedly refused to meet with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to Egypt over the weekend, for Shereen, she wants the focus to be on positive issues and an end to violence against women.
“Being Christian is part of my identity, but I am more scared of walking on the streets because I am a woman. How come the Christian community leaders are refusing to be part of the national dialogue? Morsi and the Brotherhood might not be want we wanted, but right now they could be the ones to change the country for the better.
“Think about it this way: the secularists and the Christians couldn’t get it done in years past and violence against women and Christians grew, so why not give Morsi a chance,” she said.
The debate is certainly to continue, with fears combined with hope to be the status quo for Egypt in the immediate future.
