Women in the Cairo Street Scenes: a Troubling Photo Essay

inn ^ | 2/6/11 | Prof. Phyllis Chesler

[Nachum]

For days now, the mainstream and leftstream media have been telling us that the Muslim Brotherhood is not dangerous, not radically Islamist—but that even if they are Islamist that they are popular amongst the people. Western leftists view the Brothers as engaged in a Hamas-like form of soup kitchen social work/theocratic totalitarianism, but who nevertheless have earned the right to be democratically voted into power by the people. They have been invited to join the negotiations with Mubarak's regime.

Short-sightedly, they claim that if we are serious about standing for democracy and the vote, that we have no choice but to support what may turn out to be an even worse tyranny than that of Mubarak’s.

[bboop]

My friend from Turkey — a Christian, lives here in California — says, “Turkey is NO PLACE for a Christian.” She thinks it is very bad there, only a matter of time til the Islamists take over.

[Cvengr]

IMHO, we are too myopically looking for the cause of this madness in typical objects of our worldly faith.

IMHO, while Obama might influence alot, he isn’t the AntiChrist, nor by any stretch any type of Messiah, and our adversaries don’t look up to him for authority or leadership.

He nevertheless is pursuing an agenda, which our adversaries complicitly condone, and may have been advancing far before Obama has manifest any cognizance of their preparation.

In the past, I perceived these players to be part of an n-party game with multiple groups playing, complicated by players changing groups without clear order. Additionally, very few players know much of what other players know, so many are simply either working at what’s right in their own minds, or seeking power plays within their own sphere of influence to advance their personal agendas.

Political parties at one time were organized and ordered, with their most powerful and prominent players rising to the top. There is a tendency for the layman to assume this is the power structure by which Obama came to power, but his behavior and that of other players in worldly structure manifest a differing order of the players and their groups.

Sometimes the simplest obvious answers are the truth, especially in a world where such incompetent arrogance reigns.

The angels must truly marvel.

[livius]

Dr. Chesler is absolutely right. When you see the relaxed, free looking women of the 1970s photos and compare them to the shrouded bags of laundry of the 2000’s, you can see how far Islamicization has progressed, particularly in the last few years. They will most certainly vote in the MB, and then there will be no escape.

[flowerplough]

Islamist elections:

One man, one vote, one time. Once they’re in, no more open elections’ll be held.

[Yardstick]

Yeah, that’s probably a good point too. I know a lady who was a leftist in Iran back in 1979. She was in the streets demonstrating against the Shah along with the Islamists. She said everything was fine at first, but that as it became clear that the Shah was going to fall, the Islamists started to feel their oats and started to demand that the leftist young women, who were thoroughly secular, cover themselves. She said it got pretty scary when they beat up some of the girls. So yeah, I could imagine there being a similar kind of pressure in Egypt to cover up.

[Ditter]

I see women in my area of Houston every day who are wearing Muslim type scarves. It makes me angry and I would like to jerk their scarves off and give the women a good talking to. “You dumb butt, resist this kind of treatment. You are in the USA, you don't have to do this” But, of course, I don't do anything but sneer at them.

My husband needed a home nurse a couple of years ago. She was a muslim about 30 years old, single, supporting her self and she wore a scarf completely covering her hair. I wanted to ask her why she did that, but I didn't so I am not about to confront a stranger on the street. The muslim nurse was as nice and kind and gentle as any I have ever met. She also was doctoring a man who was not her husband. Go figure.

[rrrod]

I was in Iran in 1978 and spent 6 years in Egypt. You are 100% correct.

[armordog99]

When I was in college a fully covered arabic woman came up to the place I worked on campus. I asked her why she wore that since she was in the USA and could were anything she liked. Her reply was, “When you believe in something, and believe that Allah has set rules down for you to live by you live by them. I wear it because I want to please Allah.”

I replied that it's a good thing that she is in a country that freedom of religion. She looked at me strangely and walked away.

[Conservative Vermont Vet]

[Elendur]

” My reading of these photos suggests that Egyptian women have already been Islamified. Whether they have done so to please their loving (or abusive) families or a favorite mullah, “
=
Phyllis Chesler is always on top of this subject. Even the U.N.’s own statistics, show unusually high rates of FGM in Egypt... totally Islamified, in most of Egypt.

...Years from now, when our children ask why we didn’t do something to stop this, when it was still possible, no one can say because we didn’t know. ...Phyllis has been telling us for years...

[Nobel_1]

thanks for posting. The key section I take away from her research is this paragraph:

“Fifty nine percent said they back Islamists. Only 27% said they back modernizers. Half of Egyptians support Hamas. Thirty percent support Hizbullah and 20% support al Qaida. Moreover, 95% of them would welcome Islamic influence over their politics….Eighty two percent of Egyptians support executing adulterers by stoning, 77% support whipping and cutting the hands off thieves. 84% support executing any Muslim who changes his religion…When this preference is translated into actual government policy, it is clear that the Islam they support is the al Qaida Salafist version.”