DUBAI – Taking their cue from the Arab Spring, but fearing a backlash from Islamists the uprisings brought to power, Arab cyber activists have embarked on a daring campaign urging women fight for equality. “The uprising of women in the Arab World” is the title of the Facebook page where the campaign was launched on Oct. 1 to highlight “discrimination” against women in the Arab world. Within days, the number of “likes” that the page has attracted has increased from about 20,000 to almost 35,000. Some 500 people, mostly women but also a surprising number of men, have posted pictures with statements of support, some even challenging religious and traditional taboos. “We expected a response because we knew that women were holding out for a platform (to air their grievances)... but this response has been astonishing,” Diala Haidar, one of four organizers of the campaign, said by telephone. The campaign began amid an outcry in Tunisia and Egypt, the first two countries to oust their long-serving autocrats in the Arab uprisings, over serious threats to women's rights from newly installed governments. “Revolutions aim to achieve freedom, justice and dignity. These could not be fully achieved if women are to remain in the back seat,” said Haidar, a Lebanese physicist by profession. Haidar kicked off the campaign along with fellow Lebanese Yalda Younes, Palestinian Farah Barqawi, and Egyptian Sally Zohney – active rights campaigners in their respective countries. Among the aims of the campaign is to stir debate “over the situation of women, mainly after the backlash they faced following the success of revolutions in (some) Arab Spring countries,” said a statement. The group asks supporters to write “I am with the uprising of women in the Arab world”, and why, on a paper or computer screen, to take a picture of themselves with the statement and post it on the Facebook page. Tamara Reem and Yousif Abbas are Palestinians who posed in a picture with written statements. Sarah from Yemen highlighted the problem of child marriage and marital rape in her impoverished nation. Larissa from Lebanon wrote: “A Lebanese woman should have the right to pass her nationality to her children,” highlighting a dilemma for mothers married to foreigners in several Arab states. – Reuters
