Arab Women leads the Charge

[whathehell]

By Emad Mekay

Women in the forefront of protests in Tahrir Square.

Credit:Mohammed Omer

CAIRO, Feb 11, 2011 (IPS) - Asmaa Mahfouz, a 26-year-old Egyptian woman who two weeks ago had only one name, now boasts at least three. These include "A woman worth 100 men", "The girl who crushed Mubarak" and "The leader of the Egyptian revolution".

Mahfouz, who began online political activism in 2008, is now credited for launching a video call that sparked the revolution against the autocratic military rule of U.S.-backed President Hosni Mubarak.

Mahfouz is a member of a new lot of Arab women activists who are shedding their typical conservative image to lead or inspire a wave of pro-democracy protests that are reshaping the political future of several countries in the Arab world.

Mahfouz created a YouTube.com video in mid-January (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgjIgMdsEuk) in which she urged "all young men and women" to leave their computer screens and converge on the streets of Egypt to protest the brutal and corrupt rule of the 82-year old Mubarak.

"I am a woman and I am going out on Jan. 25 and am not afraid of the police," she said a few days before the unrest broke out. "For the men who brag of their toughness, why exactly are you not joining us to go out and demonstrate?"

Her message reverberated she says, "beyond the wildest of dreams".

The 4 minute 30 second video was shared widely by Internet activists and was posted on many blogs and websites. Young people forwarded it on mobile phones - a communications tool that some 65 million Egyptians use. Soon after, the government blocked all mobile phone networks.




http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54439