The Veil & Egypt!
Well to build on Tamers hopefully unattainable prediction for the future of the veil in
1- Penetration of the high socioeconomic group through hip preachers like Amr Khaled. Amr Khaled resulted in the veiling of 100s of girls. The rumor is he succeeded in veiling the Presidents daughter in law and thats why he got deported. The veiling of the rich has an important social consequence, it made it a cool phenomenon, and therefore there was an increase in veiling also in the middle class. 2-Culture of fear: Well its not the same as Michael Moores definition of it. It was a culture of fear of God. That was accomplished through bombardment of religious stuff. You walk on the street you are handed out a Quran for free; you see the veil around you, posters, prayer breaks in government offices, and so forth. Now for young women, the veil and being religious is not only cool or a phenomenon it has turned into a norm.
3- Unity: Islamists used Palastine, Iraq and Afghanistan to convince the population that there is a conspiracy against Muslims and Muslims needed to unite to defy the enemy. This tactic has not been fully successful (thank God), if it was we would have had more terror and horror attacks. This tactic would have been a failure if the US had launched a war on the reasons of terror not terror itself. A war against povery, disparity, lack of human rights, lack of opportunity and lack of resources (I will not vent about that in this entry).
Another factor for the increase in religiousness around the country is the economic depression since 1997. Being religious and the reality of economy have been proved to have a connection. The poorer you are and the less hope you have, you turn to god and pray. The richer you are and the better the economy is doing, you sit on your ass but donate a tonne of money. So hope and confidence in the economy is a big factor in reversing or maintaining the veil reality.
It is really amazing how the tactics of the extremsists worked on such a short period of time, not only the veil is everywhere, Islam is everywhere, Islamists are in the parliment (largest opposition block). The islamists utilized technology and social science very well to acheive their goals, for that a job well done. So what is the solution (for us seeing that a problem)? Well confidence in the economy and the government must increase the promises that Mr. Nazif and Mubarak do are not enough. Cuz promising is not enough when you are faced by high inflation and sticky wages. Government budget shouldnt be aimed towards decreasing the deficit, but should be aimed towards putting more money in the market through increasing wages and controlling prices and inflation. Most the subsidies (except bread and energy) should start decreasing towards elimination after 5 years. The economic growth rate must surpass 6.5%, the current rate (4%) the economic rate is crippled by the population growth.
Also very important, we need to decrease the corruption rae in Egypt. I am not talking about the bakshish to the cop of the governmant employee, i am talking about the millions of dollars of the GDP lost in corruption every year.
Some good PR for secularism and modernism, not westernization, will be important in determining the social future of the country.
Finally, I think political reform is important but not as important as economic development and reform (at this point in history). Political reform will bring an Islamic conservative government. Economic reform will decrease the religiousness and the political reform following it will bring either Moderate Islamic or hopefully a secular government.
8 Comments:
cool stuff you got going on there.
the sad thing is that any cry for some modernism is met with rejection even by young enducated people. this is a situation where the power of one powerpoint will not cut it.
only very people see this as a problem - i think it is a manifestation of a related problem which you discussed - islamism and terrorism.
attmepts to try and tackle this issue are refuted isntantly.
I tried to write for a magazine a few months ago about another taboo, a bit related. and i got a call from the editor that left me feeling like the biggest idiot ever for saying what i believe in.
and it was one of the more "enlighted" magazines
well i guess the technological change helps in acheiving our goals. Websites and blogs can be the start of a change if you cant reach yout goal through traditional media. If the few people see this as a problem, i am sure they can start their own magazine out of Cyprus but distributed in Egypt. Then finally using the same tools and tactics the Islamists use, posters, leactures and an opposite culture of fear ouligning the dangeours of religiousness and the need of seperation of religion and government. We need to find young, "hip" charasmatic leaders for the change movement. That is what i see lacking in Kefaya.
I do not think you can ever create an opposite culture of fear that would get people to see religion as a threat and this is coz religion is the core of Egyptian culture and day-to-day life. It has always been that too...even when the women were not veiled (and that was the result of the feminist movement lead by Hoda Shaarawy and Kassem Amin in the begiining of the last century, their belief in God and the fundamental importance of religion being the core of their lives did not wane, even if it was not through practicing but maybe only taking up its basic codes.
What needs to be done is to convince the people that a secular state would be the best option in terms of economic, political and social development. However, then I think its up to the individuals to take up the secular direction of the state or not...
well u cant create fear of religion but you can create fear of being extremely religious. Comparisons to Saudi Arabi aand Taliban can work in establishing that. The only way you can extablish that is thorough the representation of the extremely religious cultures in Egyptian Media, that is only showing the bad side of being extremely religious. For Egypt, i think it is important to reach a conclusion in society that religion is a 2 way affair between God and the individual and the rest of society has nothing to do. It saddens me when people go to pray just because of peer pressure, and trust me i have been pressured to go pray!
i think it is important for us to remember when we talk about secularism in Egypt, that Arabic movies during Nassers era and early in Sadats precidency had nude scenes, alcohol consumption was a norm. The 70s and 80s were the decades were Al Haram street was full of Cairens going to night clubs and watch belly dancers. So yes religion is part of day to day life but so was (and to a certain extent is) drinking and sexuality! Alcohol sales and production have increased in Egypt over the last 4 years!
Assem - one factor that I have heard that lead to the increase in veiling that you did not mention - the hundreds of thousan ds of Egyptians who work each year in the Gulf.
From what I have heard, a large proportion of these people come back from the Gulf much more religious than they were before. Egyptians started going to the Gulf in large numbers (as far as I understand) in the late 70's - which pretty much co-incides with the increase in various forms of more strict Islamic behaviour - veiling, conservative dress, no alcohol etc.
So many of the problems in the Middle East, and the Islamic world, can be traced back to Saudi Arabia. It is funding and driving the growth of fundamentalism across the world.
Another very good point! cant believe it slipped my mind! Those large populations you speak of should have started returning by the mid 90s.
Very true about people returning from the Gulf countries...I remember I asked my mum about members of my extended family who got veiled and it was interesting to see the ones who got veiled first were living in Kuwait and then 4 to 5 years later the ones living in egypt joined them...Interestingly both my grandmothers got veiled after their daughters...Both in the late 90s, 10 years after their daughters...
I think the movies of Nasser's time are definitely not the best represenation of the society then and one other point I was thinking about is that during that time the war between Egypt and Israel was on...Religious feelings and extremism increased in intensity and breadth with the end of the wars...
why would you say so about Nassers time? I remember talking to my Mom and grandma, they were saying that these days there was political opression but not social. Do you know that in ealy 70s it was weird to be veilied and it was normal to where a miniskirt at Cairo U.
Mosies in the long run, should be able to represent and address social problem and if yuo see movies stretching from early Nasser era to early sadat have a very liberal social theme.
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