"Be scared of us, government". Graffiti in downtown Cairo. 28 January 2012. Rana Magdy. All rights reserved.The fight for women’s rights is by no means new to Egypt, especially when it comes to the continuous battle for political inclusion. Women’s rights movements throughout the twentieth century attest to this, however, history has shown that it has been and still is a treacherous fight.
A common misconception about the prevalence of sexual discrimination in the Middle East is the notion of 'Islamic misogyny'. This is given as the reason for women’s second-class citizenship. However, it undermines the feminist movement in Egypt at large and provides a superficial explanation for women’s fight as human beings for their basic rights.
It situates women in a binary where their freedom can only be attained in non-Islamic nations as they are passive and oppressed victims of their backwards societies, which is an Orientalist stereotype drawing on the colonial view of Arab and Muslim women.
