The Girl in the Blue Bra

Hi everyone!

Greetings once again from Dillon, Colorado where I'll be staying with the family through the holidays. It's late, I'm tired, and it's snowing outside. And while I usually am not much one for snow, we need it up here. More snow means better skiing conditions which makes everyone that much happier...including me.

I've been a little behind on the news today. I was pleased to read however that hundreds of Egyptian women marched through the streets of Cairo yesterday to protest the brutality of an attack--captured on video--upon a woman by Egyptian soldiers earlier in the week. The video shows a woman being beaten to the ground with truncheons, her abaya being torn open to reveal her blue bra, before being savagely kicked in the stomach and stomped upon. The video has generated an international outcry against the military's suppression of the protest movement and the woman in the video has come to be known as "the girl in the blue bra." It remains to be seen whether this video will have the same effect in further rallying protestors as the infamous video of Neda, the young Iranian woman shot to death on film during the 2009 unrest over elections in Iran. One thing is certain, however: the Egyptian protest movement has a new face for their cause and are using the video--justifiably so--to promote their moral advantage.

It is rare for women in Egypt to step out so publicly and demand that their voices be heard. The fact that they were joined by and received support from their male counterparts is an additionally encouraging sign, for it shows that there is a unity of purpose in these protests that is not divided down gender lines. Further to this, it seems there has been an outreach between the conservative Islamic political parties and the more liberal democrats creating a united front against the military ruling council's draconian crackdown on the protestors and refusal to cede power to a civilian-oriented Parliament. Whether this unity between the Islamic and secular political parties continues once the military steps down--whenever that may be--is up for discussion. But for the time being, in order for the protest movement to achieve its goals of setting up a democratic government without the influence of the armed forces, the protestors must continue to present a united front, breaking down the barriers that exist between male and female, the wealthy and the poor, and the religious and the secular. This is the only way for Egypt (and the Middle East in general) to emerge out of this anarchic morass and reach its full potential.

Given the deeply entrenched social and cultural mores that exist in this area of the world, however, unity of this kind is easier said than done.

Ciao.

QUESTION OF THE DAY: "How much longer do you believe the Egyptian military counsel can hold out against true democratic reform?"