Single Parenting in Cairo

Contact at Cairo University: I met my contact, Dr. Riham Bahi, at Cairo University (CU) today. Again, stereotypes of Egyptian women are shattered. She's a single parent who has been in the Fulbright program (Egypt to U.S.), and got her graduate degrees from Northeastern University in Boston. She holds three part-time jobs to keep afloat (part-time professorships at CU and AUC and Academic Coordinator of Study Abroad at Amideast). Her mother lives with her to provide childcare. She says 35% of Egyptian women are heads of households. The events following January 25 concern her, since women and the young have since been sidelined; but she feels most women are going to fight to keep their rights–but from within Islam.

Islamic Feminism: Islamic feminism has a lot to offer and now has to compete with the views of Islamists, who use "textual harassment" to restrict women's rights. Textual harassment is making selective use of verses from the Qur'an to make one's point. A backlash against rights for women gained during the Mubarak era has also occurred, associating them with the former corrupt regime. Islamists want to abolish the National Council for Women and replace it with a council for the family. Instead she believes the Qur'an supports gender equality. The changes under Mubarak were from the top down and didn't change Egyptian culture. Women have to be active (even aggressive) to gain respect and transform the culture, using what Islamic feminism has to impart. The religious argument has to be won.

Piety First: Westerners, Bahi believes, don't understand the needs of Muslim women. Muslim women want piety as well as gender equity; and if there is a contest between the two, piety will win. As a professor of economics and political science at Cairo University, Bahi's research interests include relations between the United States and the Muslim world, as well as feminist readings of the Qur'an. For Bahi, women should not have to choose between their faith and their rights. "Muslim women want to have gender equity within Islam. There is no way we would put religion aside for gender justice. We want both. We want justice and piety." Once a woman has decided to wear the hijab, community pressure doesn't support removing it. From her point of view, Egyptian families aren't as close as they used to be. This stems from the busyness, traffic, and long commutes of modern life in Cairo. The trunks of the trees at Cairo University are painted in Egypt's national colors. The campus is surrounded by an iron grill fence with guarded gates to enter. I always arrive by the Commerce Gate, since it's closest to the Department of Political Science. I got many contacts from Dr. Bahi; and she's always at CU on Tuesdays for assistance.