multivalence is the new ambivalence
Things fall into place today
Every small death
an opening
to a distant future history.
So what if we’re doomed
to suffering then oblivion,
a whole generation lost
down the spiral of its love
for itself?
Something else
some other time
will prevail.
Every nightmare begins
a dream.
Who knows what
it may become
if only we brave the jolt of panic
and continue to sleep..
من موقعي هذا على هامش الأحداث أقدر أقول -في إشارة لوزير الغافلة أحمد شفيق- اني حاربت وسألت واتسألت “هو إيه بالضبط لازمة الاعتصام”.
مبدئياً كده أنا مش معتصمة في التحرير. ولا في ميدان الأربعين في السويس. ولا في أي حتة في اسكندرية أو بورسعيد. بس باحاول على قد مقدرتي أساند المعتصمين بالمشاركة ساعة أو ساعتين كل يوم (في التحرير بحكم وجودي في القاهرة). باشارك لأني مقتنعة بحجج ودوافع –بل بضرورة –الاعتصام. اقتناعي مش عمياني. أنا واقفة إلى حد كبير بره المعركة، ماليش قريب اتقتل في الثورة ولا حبيب في سجن عسكري. لسه أقدر أعيش عيشة كويسة رغم الفوضى اللي بيقولوا عليها خاربة البلد ورغم عجلة الانتاج اللي طول عمرها مليانة بؤر لحام. مش عضوة في ائتلاف أو تنظيم ثوري أو سياسي.. عمري ما كنت شاطرة في الحاجات دي ومش هاضحك على نفسي وابتدي دلوقتي. فيه حاجات كتير بتشغل تفكيري أكتر من السياسة. انما مضطرة أشارك. فعلاً ولّله مضطرة. لأن اللحظة اللي بنعيشها بتجبر كل واحد انه يحدّد موقفه، وانا لو مااخترتش أقف مع الحق مش هاعرف أنام بالليل. باشارك بصفتي مواطنة وبس. ولما ييجي اليوم اللي ما نحتاجش فيه نهتف في مظاهرات عشان نكون مواطنين لينا حقوق متساوية هابطّل تماماً أتكلّم في السياسة.
طيب، فإيه لازمة الاعتصام؟ السؤال ده له شقّين. الشقّ الأول هو إيه الهدف من الاعتصام. والشقّ التاني هل الاعتصام هو أحسن طريقة.
الهدف من الاعتصام هو الضغط على النظام (اللي هو لسّه نفس النظام) عشان ينفّذ أبسط المطالب اللي تضمن لنا نطلع من الليلة دي كلها بحاجة شبيهة بس بنتائج ثورة. لحد دلوقتي مافيش حاجة اتغيرت غير ان مبارك ما بقاش رئيس. وبينما ده في حد ذاته خبر كويس، انما احنا ما طالبناش برحيل مبارك لشخصه، طالبنا برحيله لأنه كان على رأس نظام فاسد. والنظام لسه موجود ولسه فاسد. ولسه بيرفض أبسط الحلول للقضاء على مجرد جانب واحد من جوانب فساده –الجانب اللي بيأثّر على حياة معظم المواطنين بشكل يومي –وهو بطش واستبداد الداخلية.
أما عن الاعتصام كوسيلة، ففكّر كده واتعب دماغك معانا شوية معلش، ولو لقيت بديل تفضّل شاكراً باقتراحه. طول ماحنا بنحاول نحقّق مطالب ثورة من غير حكومة ثورية مافيش طريقة غير استمرار الضغط من الشارع. والضغط معناه تعطيل المصالح. يعني اضرابات واعتصامات وده أضعف الإيمان. هي دي الأساليب المتاحة للمقاومة السلمية.
مش محتاجة أقول إن كلامي مش موجه للّي شايف ان مافيش حاجة أصلا تستاهل التغيير، أو نفسه فعلا في عودة “الحياة الطبيعية” اللي كان “طبيعي” فيها القهر والفساد والتعذيب والجوع والذل والنفاق وقلّة القيمة. موضع الاختلاف مع اللي مش شايف في البلد ما يدعو للثورة أصلا أعمق من سؤال نعتصم ولا ما نعتصمش. فيه أصوات كتير اليومين دول بتقول حاجات من نوع: أنا كنت مع الثورة بس… بس إيه؟ هو ماكانش ماتش وخِلِص سيادتك. ده صراع مستمر على حقوق ناس وعلى مصير شعب بحاله.
أقول قولي هذا وأتجّه إلى تحرير.
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مطالب الاعتصام http://waelk.net/node/56
بيان أسر الشهداء والمصابين http://egyleftparty.org/?p=1535
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Because women often spring to the fore during revolutions then go back to being marginalised once things have settled, some Egyptians have organised a special demo on March 8, championing women’s rights, calling for a just and inclusive constitution, and putting renewed stress on freedom and personal rights.
The facebook event looks small still, but there’s been more mainstream publicity on Egyptian TV and in the press than I’d personally expected. Another testimony I guess that this is indeed a new Egypt, and none of the old rules and expectations apply.
In the spirit of Jan 25, this too has been a fairly spontaneous movement with no clear leaders or representatives. Different people (men and women) have been taking ownership of the event and adding their touches here and there. Some of them have put forth a press release in Arabic. Below is my translation..
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Demonstration planned for International Women’s Day *
Why the Million Woman March?
“Dedicated to the men and women martyrs of the revolution”
Press release –
On January 25th, thousands of Egyptians took to the streets in cities and towns all over the country, and made their anger public for the first time. They protested corruption and oppression, low standards of living and poverty. They protested against those in power who were tearing the homeland to pieces and causing divisions between its people, while they got richer and gained control.
On that day and the days that followed, Egyptians from all walks of life joined the protests, men and women, Muslims and Copts, rich and poor. They all came together to spark a revolution that has by no means ended with the fall of the deposed president Mubarak, but is still ongoing until Egypt reaches the genuine free democracy that is the aspiration of all.
Many women and men have paid with their lives for this vision. They have become the martyrs of the revolution, the ones who sacrificed themselves for the rest of us to achieve the free and dignified lives we deserve. With their deaths they have written a new chapter of Egyptian history, one where all differences disappear leaving only the fact that we are all free Egyptians. The barriers that for decades have barred our path to justice and equality are falling one by one.
The barrier of patriarchal control is one that Egyptians have managed to break since day one of the revolution. For a long time, it had stifled Egyptian society as a whole and was felt most acutely by women. But from January 25th onwards, Egyptian women have resisted unjust control and fought to bring down the patriarchal regime and liberate themselves and their country.
They have stood side by side with men and defended the revolution with their bodies. The bodies of women, so often used as ideological battlegrounds, have withstood all kinds of police violence, from tear gas to live bullets. The real battleground did not differentiate between women and men.
Women acted as human shields, took part in the popular committees that protected neighbourhoods and the sites of protest. They lived through the “battle of the camels” in Tahrir Square and faced the thugs of the NDP. No one cared then if they were men or women, Muslims or Christians. Everyone remembered only that they were Egyptians.
What Egyptian women have done and continue to do in this revolution is not new to them. It is a continuation of the role they have always played throughout history for the advancement of their country and its liberation from various forms of tyranny. Women’s roles shall not be ignored nor their sacrifices forgotten. As full Egyptian citizens, women will continue to be a significant part in the political arena. It will not do to exclude them now –during this phase that is full of national challenges for all of us– through any form of patriarchy, be it political or social.
We are not after minority rights. We are not after symbolic political representation. What we want, what we are working towards, is fair and equal opportunity for all Egyptian citizens –beyond gender, religion or class. What we want is the inclusion of every Egyptian citizen in this society under the umbrella of a new civilian and secular constitution, abolishing all forms of discrimination and guardianship and giving everyone equal duties and equal rights. Women are half of this society. They must exercise their citizenship to the fullest for the Egyptian revolution as a whole to achieve a wider and more inclusive kind of democracy.
This is where the Million Woman March comes in. We want to take the opportunity of International Women’s Day and send a message out that is long overdue: that in the post-Jan25 Egypt, Egyptian women will not return to silence. It is time for Egyptian women to acquire their full legitimate rights as citizens who have paid a heavy price for the freedom and dignity of their homeland. We dedicate this march to the souls of the women and men who were martyred in the revolution, who did not wait for their basic rights to be bestowed from high up, but went out and fought for them. May we always honour their memory and remember the lessons they have taught us.
* See you on Tuesday, March 8. Main meeting point in Cairo: Tahrir Square, from 3pm.
The Million Woman March
During the days of the revolution, I heard the concern expressed that if we topple the Mubarak regime, we run the risk of social disintegration and civil war, “like what happened in Iraq”. The paragraph below, from an article by Roger Cohen in the New York Times, sums up why this need not be a concern.
It’s easy to romanticize. This heady moment cannot last forever. Poverty and illiteracy will not vanish in a burst of goodwill. But Egypt strikes me as a good bet for a viable democracy for several reasons. Unlike Iraq, it is a unified nation state — the world’s oldest — with no big ethnic fault lines. Transformation is being born from the bottom up, unlike in Iraq, where it was imposed. There is a large educated and professional class, proud of Egypt’s heritage, shamed by what it has become under Mubarak, determined to bring the nation into the modern world.
[I feel that it's necessary to add that the last point (the existence of a large educated and professional class) also applies/d in Iraq, and that this class was disempowered by the dilemmas of loyalty and identity that a foreign occupation creates.]
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في الأيام السابقة أُعيد على مسامعي مراراً وتكرارً التخوّف من أن نصبح عراقاً آخر. وكأن البديل الوحيد لحياة مبتورة تحت رحمة نظام ديكتاتوري هو الانهيار التام للمجتمع وانزلاقه في حرب أهلية، “زي ما حصل في العراق”. ولكني أقول إن ما يحدث في مصر مختلف تماماً، لأسباب عدة ذكر بعضها روجير كوهين في مقاله بالنيويورك تايمز. أترجمها هنا وأضيف إليها.
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Cleaning up "after the revolution"!
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(This is a high-context post. Follow the hyperlinks.)
This has happened before. Things like this have happened before. But something is different this time. Something is new. As protests continue all over Egypt 2 days after the announced “revolution”, it’s becoming more and more difficult to rationalise away the hope that they spark.
I’m not being unreasonable or romantic. There are a few simple and realistic reasons for hope –
1) Tunis. Pretty self-evident I think.
2) Mubarak is almost 83. With presidential elections coming up in September, this year was already set to be some sort of turning point.
3) The current visibility of dissent. What I mean is that until a few years ago, public demos were rare, sit-ins and workers strikes went unreported, attacks on Mubarak were taboo. Now a new visibility makes dissent and methods of dissent part of the collective imagination of at least a fraction of the Egyptian population. When the population is over 80 million, a fraction might just be enough.
I’m a cynic by persuasion. I believe that one should not easily believe. But I hold such a stance mainly because I’m too aware that belief is power, and power can be dangerous. Power — even the power of belief — corrupts. So it’s a moral choice at the end of the day. And there are moments in life when the moral is a good one, when believing feels like the right thing to do. Simply to create and harness some power in the face of injustice. For me, this is such a moment.
Because history happens when events coincide and give rise to the unlikely. And when history happens, it happens one day at a time.
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Tahrir Square, Cairo - 25 Jan 2011
