Women on the Move:
Suzanne Mubarak on Women in Egypt

May 30, 2006

The past two editions of al-Ahram Weekly have featured a notice about speeches by Suzanne Mubarak, the wife of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

In the first ever celebration of Women's Labour Day, which fell on 17 May, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, head of the National Council for Women (NCW), spoke about the largely unrecognized economic power of women "who are a pillar of the family unit and society as a whole." Speaking at NCW's headquarters, Mrs Mubarak said when women are empowered economically, they are a driving force in improving lives of their families, communities, and nation...

Mrs. Mubarak noted that Egyptian women perform multiple roles in paid and unpaid labour, but that this was not reflected in official statistics of economic activity. Similar to their peers in other developing countries, Egyptian women produce more than 60 percent of the food. ["Where Credit is Due" by Reem Leila, 25-31 May, 2006]

These two paragraphs highlight what I think can be a fundamental misunderstanding of what we mean when we talk about opening up women's roles in a society. There will always be something to praise about the way women conduct themselves in a society. Women are human beings with agency and wit and inevitably they find ways to exercise power and to utilize creative outlets. No matter how repressive a society, whether we are talking about classical Athens or modern Saudi Arabia, women turn out to play important roles.. and much of modern scholarship is about learning to look away from the "official" cultural apparatus from which women are often excluded and instead focusing on the informal roles and non-canonical forms that women utilized to great effect. [Emily's Women Writers Archive concentrates on exactly this project.]

When we speak of allowing a larger role for women in a society or organization, this does not mean expanding their informal role.. it means opening up public and formal roles. The goal is not to make women powerful in their own place, but to give women an actual place in the world of decision making and policy.. i.e. to let them fill roles that men would have filled in the past. When I read the statements by Suzanne Mubarak I sense a lack of willingness to challenge the resolutely private role that Egyptian culture offers to women..

In the other article she was reported as saying:

Mrs Mubarak said she was interested in bridging gender gaps as individuals and as governments. "However, this is a broad and complex subject, and in the final analysis answers will only become available if we address the roots of these inequities," she said. "This task is best left to good research and good policy based upon a real understanding of the problems and the obstacles to gender equity. ["Women on the Move" by Nevine el-Aref, 18-24 May, 2006]

Yes, there are complexities.. but there are also some patently obvious things to be said about the cast-in-stone nature of gender roles in modern Egypt. The note about the need to discover the "roots of these inequities" sounds helpful, but I bet that it will not involve a real criticism of Egyptian social values, but rather a chance to blame outsiders. Sometimes you just have to put the reseach on the shelf and speak out about what is right.