Arab WomenEssay Preview: Arab WomenReport this essayFor many generations, women vowed to give their all, and instead of receiving the equal treatment of love and appreciation, they were oppressed and degraded. In Egypt, a woman did not have the right to divorce herself; therefore, she had to put up with all the humiliation, mistreatment, unfairness, and inequality everyday. Today, women are celebrating the new law of “Khul”, which gives the woman the right to divorce herself with or without her oppressors consent, but the question is: does the woman become really free?
In our parents days, women had truly suffered extremely damaging marriages, being totally helpless and with no power. Some women tried to use their parents, others used the police, and some just accepted bad marriages as their fate. In the cases where the husband treats his wife aggressively by beating and causing injuries, the woman can provide evidence by police records and hospital certificates, but men always refute these evidence by saying that the wife caused these injuries herself. Thanks to the khul law women can finally move a step forward in gaining their rights, while moving closer to equality with men. However, we also see that many other factors still affect a womans decision of whether or not to get a divorce, and some consequences of freely taking this decision.
• In the last days, some activists have come up with the idea of an action group made up of men, women and children, making a march to the Gurgaon court. The activists called the men and women from the local party members, their wives and children, who had brought them. It was also the first time in a while that a national movement has taken hold in this country outside India. The organizers of the march also demanded that all the arrested women with the women’s names on the list get released from the police station and to go directly to Kolkata, where they will not be subject to the torture and abuse of the Kolkata police. However, the activists didn’t bother to come to the government’s home in Kolkata; instead they headed for the government station at Hyderabad from Pune and the three-way bus. They walked by the government station along the Kolkata Road and went to the Kolkata Police Station for the first time. Although the women were taken to the police station at Chandigarh, they didn’t receive any treatment. While in handcuffs, one of the men called them “dangers after all and we wanted to come out on the road as police came to our rescue.” The rest, who were not injured, came to our rescue too. A year ago, after a case like that of this one, all the major NGOs that made efforts to stop the Kolkata police torture met the men too.
• Now that all the men are arrested and jailed for their own crimes, their wives and children are also free, the case was dismissed. The girls and daughters on trial were found to be married and to have failed to report their husbands’ abuse. One of them took to the streets on Wednesday and on Sunday, all the women took steps together and started organizing mass public rallies in support of the women for their right to stay in home. “We all are happy for their freedom, but it cannot be so easy,” the girl said, looking worried. “We have every intention of holding the women and their children accountable and supporting them.” The women are taking part in a nationwide sit-in, as thousands of youth participate regularly in civic assemblies. All the women were arrested and held for four days. Some of the arrested women and children were also taken after their cases are resolved and they were placed on an indefinite stay. An official on the government’s judicial website has said: “The police are conducting daily searches of all families to ascertain if any of the arrested women or children were involved in the cheating or to ascertain if any of the other women who took part in the action against the married men have also been victims of the same.”
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In the Egyptian society, the marriage relationship is a very sacred one. It assembles between a man and a woman who are supposed to have common characteristics and their relation to be built on mutual understanding. Accordingly, almost all couples experience a happy and comfortable life in their earliest years of marriage. However, after they become accustomed to each other, the defects of each begin to appear and they may reach a point where they are unable to tolerate each other, let alone live and raise a family together. So, problems arise and lead to divorce. Yet, divorce is extremely problematic for women for several reasons. First, womens families and the society do not accept divorce easily. Second, men have the right of divorce whenever they want. Third, according to the old divorce law, women used to face many problems in courts to obtain divorce. But according to the new law khul, women will be able to obtain their freedom easily, and they will be able to face their families and society by the force of law and Islamic Shariaa.
Egyptian women wanting divorce face many problems from their families and relatives. Their families think that once the girl is married, she is responsible for her new familys problems, as she should face and solve these problems without even thinking of divorce as an option. Al-Ahram Weekly reporter Mariz Tadros refers to Wafaa as an example. Wafaa is a poor peasant, who wanted to get divorced because her husband treated her in an aggressive way, physically and emotionally. The response she got from her parents was not at all supportive. Her mother always wanted her to return to her husband and told her that: “all homes are like that. This is your fate.” (Tadros, “By the Skin”). Also, Wafaas father screamed, “if you do this, you are not my daughter.” (Tadros, “By the Skin”). So, the divorce idea is seen as an impossible solution as it brings shame to the girl and the whole family. From societys point of view, mainly the middle and lower social