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The Spectacle Blog
Egypt’s military has struck a committee to write a new constitution. The exercise is expected to complete in ten days and brought before the Egyptian people for a vote in two months.
While the panel includes a member of the Muslim Brotherhood there are scarcely any Coptic Christians on the committee while women have been left off the committee altogether.
The exclusion of Coptic Christians is particularly galling when one considers the New Year’s Massacre of Copts in Alexandria which resulted in the deaths of 21 people. It seems the Egyptian military and the Muslim Brotherhood are determined to keep Coptic Christians even more marginalized in a post-Mubarak Egypt.
As to the exclusion of women, one must wonder if the Muslim Brotherhood would have participated in the committee had a woman been named to it.
To paraphrase George Orwell it appears that some people are more equal than others in the post-Mubarak Egypt.
View all comments (23) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/02/15/egyptian-constitutional-panel
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Alan Brooks| 2.15.11 @ 10:23PM
Paul was a sexist, too.
Which religious people treat women as humans? Buddhists and Jews?
that is about it.
Ryan| 2.16.11 @ 8:09AM
"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her..."
Yep. That's sexist alright.
Alan Brooks| 2.16.11 @ 8:30AM
Men love their dogs, too,
doesn't mean they respect them..
W| 2.16.11 @ 9:31AM
Brooks, the issue is post-Mubarak Egypt, try to focus on that, instead of diverting to Paul or your dog. Are you really this idiotic or you just want to try to divert attention?
The issue is why women and Christians are not on the panel, not what you think of your dog, or what Paul said two thousand years ago.
Alan Brooks| 2.16.11 @ 12:00PM
Why would an Arab nation have women on its panels?? Copts, maybe; but Arab nations having women on important panels would be as if the Third Reich had had Jews on its panels in February 1933.
Get real.
Alan Brooks| 2.16.11 @ 12:03PM
...btw, perhaps you think the Confederacy ought to have appointed blacks to a panel in 1861?
W| 2.16.11 @ 12:39PM
are you equating the confederacy with arabs? be more specific, since you seem obsessed with the confederacy, and history of 150 years ago. i am not the guy to defend the confederacy if that is what you wish to discuss. try to focus on reality of 2011. you don't think arabs can be fair to women?
Carmen Gindi| 2.16.11 @ 12:21AM
The panel was made up of 8 individuals. One of them was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Another was a Coptic judge. The other six were secular intellectuals, including a modern writer/historian. I think Christians, Muslims, and secularists were well represented in this very small committee. As for women, Egypt definitely needs a modern women's movement, but at this transitional and sensitive phase, let's get human rights articulated first and then, by extension, women's rights will follow (either naturally or through organized activism). As an Egyptian woman and feminist, I believe timing is everything.
Alan Brooks| 2.16.11 @ 12:41AM
Timing? sexism takes generations to abate. Marxists don't get that, they think hundreds (or thousands) of years can be telescoped into years.
Realistically, ten years from now things will still be almost the same-0.12 percent different.
Even in America, the GOP has a death-grip.
Carmen Gindi| 2.16.11 @ 12:56AM
Well, even if sexism will take years to abate, I still think the panel was a relatively fair and plural representation of Egyptian society, albeit imperfect.
Bob K.| 2.16.11 @ 1:09AM
Muslim democracy in action. The more things change, the more they stay the same! These people perfected "Tyranny by the Majority" 1300 years ago! Why bother to change?
Absolutely, I agree that "Human Rights" (what ever they are currently defined as) should be articulated first. The first things that should be done is determine if women and Copts are human. Don't you agree?
Carmen Gindi| 2.16.11 @ 9:16AM
As mjfin points out, the Christians, if anything were over-represented on this largely secular committe, and the Muslim Brotherhood was under-represented.
As for women, just because they had no representation on the panel (whose only job was to change ~ 4 articles in the consitution to allow for fair and free elections in 6 months) does not mean women are not deemed "human".
I also agree with Mr. Leaberry, who also points out that America's founding fathers had no women. Although this small Egyptian panel does not have the huge responsibility that the American founding fathers did (which was to draft an entire consititution), I think the panel was well chosen, and I commend the Egyptian military for going in the right direction.
With all due respect to Mr. Goldstein, his short article is pointing out a problem that does not actually exist.
W| 2.16.11 @ 11:47AM
you believe the muslim brotherhood is unrepresented? do you think the muslim brotherhood, if they win and impose sharia law, will allow you to vote, to post on blogs, to date, to work, etc?
how many radical muslim extremists, such as the brotherhood, should be on the panel?
Carmen Gindi| 2.16.11 @ 3:43PM
No, I do not believe that if the MB win, they'd give me the freedoms I won from the revolution, and that's why I won't vote for them in any future election; however, I don't mind them on this particular panel because, as a banned political party, and as a party that suffered as a result of the changes that Mubarak made to the consitution (which currently makes it impossible for parties other than Mubarak's NDP to form in the first place) the MB would actually prefer a constitution that will allow other parties to form.
In short, in the process of making the consitution friendlier to their party, the MB will unwittingly have to make Articles 76-78 of the Egyptian constitution friendlier to the formation of others.
W| 2.16.11 @ 4:15PM
Radical parties do not just win. They seize power because they are the most organized and ruthless. Look at the Nazis. Look at Iran. If you are in
Egypt, leave.
Peg| 2.19.11 @ 2:26PM
I don't know why, women are only 50% of the population.
mjfin| 2.16.11 @ 1:25AM
The headline of this story ". . . panel excludes Copts . . ." was misleading.
Apparently it includes the same number of Copts (1) as members of the Islamic Brotherhood. Copts appear to be represented about the same as their percentage of the population (~ 7%). And the MB, which is reported variously as representing perhaps 20% of the population appears to be underrepresented, if anything.
The Brotherhood is made up of appalling thugs, albeit with a minority of intelligent and well educated leadership. But that is no reason for TAS to compromise its journalistic standards.
m| 2.16.11 @ 7:18AM
I am afraid that they are going to be like Iran. It is going to be Obama's and George Soros' fault. Obama has lost Egypt. He turned USA upside down. That why I didn't vote for Obama in 2008. Hope he will lose the election in 2012.
Derek Leaberry| 2.16.11 @ 8:48AM
The Founding Fathers excluded women as well. Shall they be disowned? As America has headed in a socialist direction since the 19th Amendment was ratified, perhaps a return to the vision of the Founding Fathers regarding female voting rights should be considered.
NoLib| 2.16.11 @ 1:00PM
Does it hurt when your knuckle-dragging leaves them bloody?
Do you also support crashing large airliners into skyscrapers like your violent Muslim Extremist buddies?
Occam's Tool| 2.16.11 @ 11:03AM
Secular and Democratic My Hairy Hebraic Hinder.
fundamentalist| 2.16.11 @ 1:15PM
It doesn't matter what the constitution says. No Arab government has ever bothered to obey its constitution.
Patriot| 2.16.11 @ 1:28PM
Neither does Obama's.