Audacious? Yes, but high time

In today’s Egypt a fundamental change is in the making. Egyptians are boldly promoting secularism and candidly discussing taboo topics. This while social media followers grapple with the forbidden and the out of bounds. Audacious? Yes, but it is high time.

Two definite facts led to this change: January 25th, which gave all Egyptians the right to speak out against or for absolutely anything. Add to this forthrightness social media, and you have created a new world order in Egypt. Now you can literally say what you please, expect to be attacked, but say it nonetheless.

The second reason is President El Sisi's effort to change religious discourse and his call on Al Azhar, first, to change its archaic ways, and, second, to promote homogeneity and pacifism. Emboldened by their president’s call on Al Azhar, Egyptians now question the niqab, the headscarf, the illogical fatwas, and the right versus the wrong.

This is a 180-degree change from where Egypt was only five years ago. Prior to Jan 25th, Egyptian television did not hire hijabbed women as broadcasters. Soon afterwards, as the unannounced but generally acknowledged law was abandoned, some broadcasters opted to wear the hijab. This is a positive change: to everyone her own, and the hijab is a right if so a woman chooses.

But modesty and conservatism don’t seem to be on the minds of most. It is now very acceptable for a woman to wear just about any attire on TV: sleeveless, strapless, one sleeve, or dangling sleeve. Now the whole gambit from conservative to cutting-edge fashion exists. An achievement? Absolutely.

Today the secular are giving themselves the right to speak out openly and unabashed—an unheard of change in the Egyptian social norms. Today, Nawal El Saadani's poignant words ring true.

When I was a young student, the teacher asked us to write an imaginative story, so I opted to fill my copybook pages with my childlike memories. After the teacher read my thoughts, he gave me a zero and accused me of disbelief. Why? Because I had asked about the prohibited. Why do we eat in Ramadan more than any other month? Why is fasting enforced on the poor while we were asked to fast only to feel their pain? Why do I bear my grandfather’s name whom I don’t love and cannot bear my mother’s name whom I love? Why does my brother play outside while I remain caged inside in spite of my passing and his failing exams? Why do I work with my mother in the kitchen, and my brother and father play chess in the balcony? Why do I wear the hijab and my brother doesn’t though he runs after girls and I don’t talk to boys?

The examples of the change are many. Brazenly against the Salafist movement and political Islam, Hilmi Al-Namnam, the new Minister of Culture, says Egypt is innately secular. And though the minister’s appointment and almost blasphemous words were met with disdain in Saudi and in Egypt, he was backed by many others. Prime Minister, Sherif Ismail, must have realized before he asked Al-Namnam to fill the ministerial position, that he will be bringing on a non-conventional and rather radical outlook. Hilmi Al-Namnam will definitely be taking the unorthodox route.

Programs and movements are also dealing with forbidden topics. The campaign “Wear your dress and regain your femininity” encourages women to begin wearing dresses again, and it gained quite a bit of publicity as TV programs hosts invited the organizer to speak of the campaign. This would have been hardly possible five years ago. Cherif Choubachi’s call to women wearing the headscarf to remove it in a Tahrir Square rally is groundbreaking akin to Hoda Shaarawi’s headscarf removal in 1923. True the rally did not take place, but just the call for it is audacious enough.

The program “Nafsana” i.e. “Venting,” though an exact synonym may not exist in English, has three women stormily contradicting one another’s views on air. It has Intisar, Heidi, and ٍShaima bouncing ideas off one another about various Egyptians attitudes and issues. Intisar, the most outspoken, has ventured where no Egyptian woman, or man for that matter, has in the history of Egyptian television. She approves of porn as a way to calm young men, makes fun of the hijab and the many layers women choose to add on their heads, and allows herself to speak as she would privately amongst friends in the cosiness of her own living room, hardly ever an option on public TV.

This program may have gone too far since the reviews on social media are mostly condemning. We will have to wait and see how much heat can Tarek Nour, the owner of the TV channel, Al Kahera Wal Nas, take. It does sound as though Nour gave the presenters of Nafsana free reign to tackle any topic and its presenters have taken the bull by the horn on this one.

In the meantime, lecturers were banned from wearing face covering at Cairo University for security reasons. But more importantly niqabbed women have been banned from voting unless they remove the niqab. The latter may be easily overcome though since most voting polls have women invigilators, who may identify the niqabbed women in a private area.

All in all a change is in the making. Many Egyptians are giving themselves the rights to speak against what was considered the norm. It is indeed a changed world that allows Egyptians to discuss the niqab, the hijab, and other taboos.

Maybe it is high time for Egyptians to do as they please, be it wear a hijab or a strapless dress. To everyone her own.