Women: How Holy Would you be in Egypt?

Women Judged by How They Look: A female columnist for Daily News Egypt, Adel Heine, was told by Facebook that she was pleasant to Satan. Read the following to find out what accompanied it and her interpretation. "The way this sad truth was brought to my attention was accompanied by a drawing that showed eight different women wearing different styles of clothes, from shorts and a crop top to full galabeya and a long veil covering hair and shoulders. The woman in the beach wear is allocated the number one and as the numbers go up, the length of the clothes increases as do the steps the female figurines are standing on. Number eight looms high over her sisters, lording her righteousness over all and sundry." Numbers Two and Three: "Looking closely at the depictions poses some interesting observations. While it is obvious why number two is low on the totem pole, she is clad in a t-shirt and wears Capri pants, her neighbour is dressed in what would be considered demure in most areas of the world; a long sleeved shirt and long pants, yet she is still only ranked third in the row of shame." Next: "Four and five are nearly twins, with both covering their hair, yet five wins by covering her neck as well." Number Six: "Six scored her points undoubtedly by wearing a shirt over her pants that reaches hip height and her veil covers the top of her chest, yet her arms are still fully visible." Seven and Eight: "Seven covers shoulders and wears a thigh hugging shirt and probably only lost to eight because of her galabeya. A friend remarked that number nine and ten do not appear because of course they stayed home. I bet you they are wearing whatever they want. Strangely enough, it is not until we get to number seven that the clothes stop being skin tight. I have never understood how the desire for modesty goes hand in hand with bra-strap showing shirts and panty lines visible through pants."Holier than Thou: "Whoever drew the picture has done us all a big service by finally putting the age old question of who is holier than thou to rest. And now we know as well that as long as hair and neck are out of sight you can wear clothes that require a shoehorn to get into in the morning and you still are considered to be over the halfway mark of proper dress (http://dailynewsegypt.com/2012/11/08/judging-a-woman-by-her-cover)." Getting Harder to be a Woman in Egypt: I guess I should have known it would be this hard. Aside from a Muslim Fulbright professor at Cairo University, I have not been welcomed that much at the university. I thought perhaps it was because I'm on the quiet side. Rather, it's a prevailing attitude on women's role. The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt has brought with it a new group of female politicians who say they are determined to bring more women into leadership roles — and at the same time want to consecrate a deeply conservative Islamic vision for women in Egypt. It's definitely arrived.