Because Our Cause is Just

[music]

[chanting with heavy drums]

We are equal,
so we should have the same opportunities.

We are not going to let
anyone take our rights.

We won't be quiet;
we won't lie down.

Enough!

We want freedom!

So we are not going anywhere
until our demands are met.

(narrator) In 2011, a revolutionary
movement ignited across the Middle East.

[Shouting, chanting]

People cried out for freedom,
democracy, dignity,

and demanded an end
to authoritarian rule and corruption.

[shouting]

Determination and hope
filled the air.

We have an opportunity
to build on this momentum.

I'm 19 years old, okay,
and I am here to fight.

To fight for my freedom
and for my country.

[rhythmic clapping, chanting]

(woman) We have our rights,
and I will fight for our rights.

This is our country,

and we are gonna liberate
our country with our hands.

We can do it.

(Hadi) This was an extraordinary
moment of history.

There was no men/women,
nothing about Muslims and Christians,

nothing,
everybody supporting everybody.

As soon as this cause
has finished, succeed, achieved,

mission accomplished,
then differences begin to come.

(narrator)
Regimes held for decades crumbled.

Others throughout the region
watched with a wary eye.

And women, who had stood
shoulder to shoulder with men

in the struggle for democracy,
suddenly found themselves pushed aside

when it came time
to formulate new governments,

their voices silenced.

This exclusion of women
was not unique to the Middle East.

Activists in other countries
have had similar experiences.

(Abiola-Costello)
Men have a way of marginalizing women

when the struggle has been won.

Because for them, it's about power,
and power need not be shared.

So women have to organize,
because when we are organized

we become a force.

[rhythmic chanting]

And women need to be clear about this.

We need not just fight for democracy,

we must fight
for women's voices in democracy.

A movement of democratization
does not necessarily mean

a movement that will include women
in terms of equality in laws.

President Hosni Mubarak
has stepped down,

has stepped down,
bringing his 30 year rule to an end.

(woman) These so-called revolutionary
moments that are moments of foundation

of a new order are very important,
in the sense that they offer

an avenue of opportunities.

They are very dangerous also.

(female interpreter)
I voted in the election

but those
who come to power forget about us.

(male interpreter) We wanted
the revolution to produce freedom and dignity,

but now we're back to square one.

(narrator) Decades of authoritarian rule
stifled the development of democratic forces,

leaving little opportunity
for political organizing.

Houses of worship,
on the other hand,

shielded by religion,

thrived as centers
of fundamentalist political activity.

(woman) The progressive forces
wanted a free democratic society,

but they had really
no experience of how to get there,

how to make that kind of society happen,
what are the basic, uh, structures

upon which such a society
would be based.

And no time: you can immediately
make people go and drop a vote

in a ballot box,
but you don't have time enough

to form the infrastructure
so that that vote is thought out,

and decisions are made
on the basis of the goals clearly stated.

[chanting]

(narrator)
Determined to create a theocratic state,

religious conservatives had
the established networks,

the organization,
and the financial resources

to quickly mobilize
and fill the leadership void.

Resources that were readily provided
by other fundamentalist states

in the region.

They also had a very simple
but important message:

God is on our side,
and a vote for us is a vote for Islam.

(male interpreter)
We're here to apply God's Sharia.

As long as we love God,
we have to follow his Islamic law.

(male interpreter) I don't understand
those who talk about meaningless philosophy

and principles and other nonsense,

our demand is clear:
it is to apply Islamic Sharia.

(narrator) With a long history
of rigged elections, and the rapid emergence

of new political parties,
people turned to what they knew,

what they felt they could trust:
their religion.

And the Islamists promised solutions
to all of their society's problems.

[chanting]

Consequently, they won elections
in Tunisia, Egypt, and Morocco,

putting them in charge of drafting
new constitutions and laws

that, once written,
would be hard to change.

(woman) Women in particular have
a lot to lose if there are non-democratic,

Islamic-oriented parties seizing,
uh, the power, and imposing,

uh, rather than allowing a pluralist
voice to be heard in the country.

Then what woman have gained
can be seriously challenged,

and in some cases, withdrawn,
because rights that are given

can easily be taken.

When people are in a position,
what they say and do

is completely different
when they are in power.

When Khomeini, for example,
was in exile,

he kept saying that the clerics
are not after state power,

but of course we all know what happened

when he tasted
the intoxicating taste of power.

And he took control of every aspect
of not only the state,

but every minute details of peoples' lives
were dictated by the Islamists.

(Afkhami)
The power of fundamentalist

conservative forces has always been
pushing back the rights of women.

The women belong to the private space,
and men to the public space.

They concentrate on complementarity,

which means women
are complements of the men,

but not whole, independent
human beings on their own.

So they resent and reject
anything that brings women

to a position of equality.

In the countries in transition,
I think the role of women is a test,

because if you cannot see
full equality for women,

you may be sure that you can't see
full equality for any minority.

[music]

(narrator) The Middle East North Africa region
is comprised of many diverse countries,

with different economies,
different governing and legal systems,

different local cultures,
but in nearly all of them,

women do not have the same rights as men,
either socially or legally.

Historically, this was true
across the globe.

In Europe, women did not have the right
to vote until the early to mid 1900s.

In the United States,
it wasn't until 1920.

While many regions have made notable
progress towards equal rights since then,

most of the Middle East North Africa
region has not.

[music]

(woman) Advances in education
and access to health care for women

has not led to higher participation
or higher representation,

uh, of women in politics
and in the economy,

where we know that this
is where the power, uh, is.

And so you are in a situation
where patriarchy prevails,

where institutions are patriarchal,
governments are patriarchal.

If you think about all this together,
you realize how much women's lives,

women's bodies, are controlled
by this patriarchal system.

(narrator) And nowhere
is that more evident than in family laws.

Heavily influenced by religious law,
they determine nearly every aspect

of a woman's life:
the right to hold a job

even the type of job,
the right to marry, the right to divorce,

property rights, education,
inheritance, child custody,

even the rights
to pass on her nationality,

all in the name of custom and tradition.

(Afkhami)
Islamist inspired governments

don't seem to have any trouble
with laws changing

as you become more modern and engaged
in an industrial and globalized world.

So they change commercial laws,
they change economic laws,

they change laws regarding politics,
but when it comes to women,

suddenly it is only Sharia law
that you have to follow,

and Sharia law as interpreted
by a certain, very elite group of clerics.

(narrator) Contrary to the revolutionary calls
for freedom and democracy,

fundamentalists have been pushing
to enshrine Sharia law

into their new constitutions,
further advancing the trend

of using religion
as a source of legislation,

rather than principles of equality
and human rights.

(male interpreter) We have prepared
a complete Islamic constitution,

and it contains
nothing else than Islam.

And it is not affected by Greek,
Persian, or Indian philosophy.

(narrator) This not only threatens women,
it also affects minorities,

and leaves legal interpretations
to a small group of religious leaders.

(female interpreter)
We have made many gains in the past era.

We hope they won't be taken away from us,
like the right to divorce.

For many years, women suffered in courts.

Why do they want
to strip us of that right?

(narrator) Intent on turning back the clock,
religious fundamentalists not only

want to take away
a woman's right to divorce,

they're calling to reinstate practices

like polygamy
and female genital mutilation.

Practices that bring
significant danger and harm to women.

(male interpreter)
The rule that limited

the number of wives
to one is against Sharia law,

and it should be banned.

(male narrator) I like Jalil's opinion
about having not one wife, but two or three.

I think this is right
because Sharia law says so.

(narrator) In Egypt,
newly elected conservative Islamists

are calling
to lower the age of marriage

for girls from 18
to as young as 9 years old.

Violence against women
is very much linked

to woman's overall status in society.

So it's not just the harm done,
which the governments are very happy

to accept as harm done,
because, uh, they can be benevolent

and find ways of preventing,
protecting a woman from violence.

But the challenge is to insist that
it's not only a matter of harm done

but woman's subordinated position
is what is at stake here.

So unless the patriarchal structures
are challenged,

woman will always be a target
of indiscreet forms of violence.

(female interpreter) We are stripped
of our dignity when we use public transportation.

It is used in every conservative society

to oblige women
not to be part of the public life.

Because if you are part
of the public life,

that mean men can
sexually harass you.

(male reporter) Hundreds of protesters
have gathered outside

a central courthouse
in the Tunisian capital of Tunis

to support a 27-year-old woman

who has been accused
of violating indecency laws

after she was allegedly raped
by police officers.

The case has highlighted fears
that the traditionally secular country

could be falling under the influence
of Islamist fundamentalists.

[chanting]

(narrator) Since the revolutions,
acts of intimidation

and violence against women
in public demonstrations

have increased across the region.

Some have even been committed
by government forces.

(female reporter)
This video shows a young woman

being beaten and stripped by soldiers.

(narrator)
Others by gangs of young men.

(male reporter) A young student
journalist was being subjected

to the most horrendous
sexual assault by a mob of men.

(narrator) And most are not prosecuted,
sending a very troubling message

that women in public are fair game,
particularly women activists.

(female interpreter)
It's totally obvious that some of them

intend to scare women
away from the square.

(male interpreter) Most of the time,
they form a long chain,

moving together,

their hands on each other's backs,
like a train.

(female interpreter)
They attack the girls:

they rip their clothes off
and sexually assaulted them.

(male interpreter)
We went to rescue the girl.

Suddenly all of them took out weapons:
switchblades and knives.

And those that didn't have weapons
took off their belts to beat us with.

(female interpreter) We received a lot of reports
about the incidents of sexual assault

that are taking place,
and we believe that they are all exeucted

in a similar way,
and we feel that the assaults are organized.

But that's not going to stop us
from going to the square,

because we have to expose
the people behind this.

[machine gunfire]

(Khader)
In a society like Libya, for example,

and Syria now, woman are raped,
woman are really victims

not only because they are citizens
in a country that has physical conflict

but also because
they are woman in this society.

In Egypt, a whole group
of women's rights activists

have been fighting for many years
to bring some marginal improvements

to the legislation.

They had, for instance,

a success with the no fault divorce,
the khula.

However, these were appropriated
by the ruling regime,

and they became
Suzanne Mubarek's law,

and created what you might call
a "first lady syndrome,"

so that the women's rights agenda
became appropriated

by the national machineries.

So, as a result, the detractors
now claim that these were simply

the apparatuses of a corrupt regime.

(Afkhami)
This is what happens with the backlash

in terms of trying to disempower women,
to tell them that they have no agency,

that they don't make any difference,
that they can't change their own lives.

So denying those changes,
and denying the role of women

in thinking about those changes,
is one of the strategies that they use.

(narrator) With the region's
strategic location and abundance of oil,

geopolitical issues have had
a long, complex history,

burdened with the legacies
of colonialism and Cold War politics.

Historically, international powers
have focused on political stability

and commercial interests,
often at the expense

of human rights and democracy.

Then, in 2001, geopolitical concerns
took on another dimension.

[ambulance siren]

(Erturk) After 9/11, national security
became a number one concern.

And human security
became, uh, marginalized.

Uh, and woman's groups,
uh, woman's rights issues,

uh, particularly became targeted,
not only because states' willingness

uh, on this platform has, uh,
diminished, or the priority has gone down,

but the whole security discourse
created new, uh, hardline political actors

to become more effective
throughout the world.

(Kandiyoti)
Women's rights issues and geopolitics

may seem poles apart,
but they're not.

I think that a lot is going
to be sacrificed and overlooked

on the altar of geopolitics,
by which I mean successor regimes

in the MENA region.

I think that as long as they
toe the line of being market economies.

following a broadly sympathetic agenda
to the powers of the West,

nobody will look very closely
at what they do internally.

(narrator)
And that puts struggling democracies

and the future of minority
and women's rights in jeopardy.

(Afkhami) International support
makes a huge difference.

If people around the world
understand what is at stake,

that womens' role is completely
interconnected with the possibilities

of living in a modern
and democratic society

and a developed society
with economic well-being,

and that this kind of society's
indispensable to peace and safety

for everyone across the world.

(female reporter)
Activist Amal Dalhadi

says it's time
Egypt's majority population

women, get equal rights.

No discrimination on any basis:

not on gender issues,
not on religious issues.

(female interperter)
The main challenge in Egypt

is similar to other Arab countries

where political Islam
now holds power.

These forces don't allow
for a genuine participation of women.

There is also the added problem

that the Islamists
have a wide community outreach,

particularly in poorer areas,
making women's participation

especially difficult.

(narrator) In Tunisia,
fundamentalists tried to include

the concept of complementarity
in their new constitution

to legally define
a woman's role in society.

Activists, however,
organized and defeated that measure.

But in Egypt, women were blocked
from the constitutional committee

altogether in a power grab
by Islamist parties.

The way that the-the party has been ruled
so far, uh, did not really allow

for strong participation or inclusion
of women in decision making.

We thought that

with a new democratic Egypt
this would be over.

(narrator)
And in Jordan and Morocco,

countries that didn't
experience regime change,

women's rights activists
have been seeking

constitutional reforms for decades,
only to face familiar resistance.

Many of our recommendations
were taken into consideration,

but in the last moment
they'd remove one word

which was essential for woman's rights,
which is equality between all citizens

despite of their religious,
language, or race or sex.

They, eh, eh, em, removed the word sex.

And some of them, of course,

they said all citizens
means all men and woman in the country.

But if it is the same,
why you remove it?

So it is really very worrying,
that the addition of powers

are still trying to play this superiority
of men over women in the society.

(narrator) But in Morocco,
activists were able to counter

long-held conservative
religious arguments.

(female interpreter) We were able
to utilize and base our case

on interpretations made
by imminent Muslim scholars

who have proven that you can live
in Muslim countries

while being modern countries,

and still have access
to fundamental liberties and rights.

(narrator) Their efforts resulted in
reforms that not only guaranteed equality

between men and women,
but also stated that international law

supersedes national law
when it comes to these issues.

(female interpreter) The clear
recognition within the constitution

that men and women are equal,
particularly in a civil code,

which is where individual liberties
are determined,

that recognition was a tremendous step
forward for us.

There is a political will,

but also mobilizing the women's movement
is very important.

We know how to work together,

and we also know how to build alliances
and create strategies

to be able to have an impact on the street
and also on the decision-makers.

(narrator) Achieving constitutional change
was a huge success,

but getting these rights implemented
is still a challenge.

And with Islamists
winning recent elections,

activists are certain
to face more resistance.

(female interpreter)
With the rise of the PJD,

the situation of women
will become even worse.

We want moderates,
but these Islamists are not moderate.

They all hold extremist views on women.

(female interpreter) What's so
interesting to observe currently in Morocco

is how they will manage
these contradictions

between a constitution
that clearly defines values,

and their own values,
which are closer to Islam:

cultural specificity,
the family, and so on.

I think they have to evolve
because otherwise they cannot manage

these contradictions
and these paradoxes.

Morocco has progressed.

We cannot go back 20 years.

So they will also have to evolve.

(male reporter) Chief Mohan Bhagwat's
go a step further:

In a speech in Indore
he said that women

must restrict themselves
to household work.

(female reporter) And in Madhya Pradesh,
a PJD Prime Minister Kailsah Vijayvargiya

said rape is punishment for women
who cross the limits of decency.

(male reporter) This shy eight-year-old girl
has become the face of a national battle

against extremist, ultraorthodox Jews.

Israel is outraged by the story
of Naama Margolese,

a second grade student who fears
walking to her religious girls' school

because of ultraorthodox radicals
who have cursed and spat upon her

for dressing in a fashion
they consider immodest.

The political field has changed
because now

there is a much stronger presence
of religious radicalists.

And, uh, while we talk a lot
about Islam, sometimes we forget

about Christian radicalism,
with Evangelical churches in plural,

with Catholic church,

and with their sacred alliances
in many issues,

and against particularly
when women's body,

and decision over her body
is the target.

What does that make her?

It makes her a slut, right?

After that huge firestorm
developing after Rush Limbaugh's

controversial comments
on his radio show

about a Georgetown student
in the center of a battle

over contraception
and religious rights.

(Kanyoro)
Now we see in the United States,

with the Rightest movement growing,
and putting down the issues

of women's reproductive health,
women's choices,

and making most unbelievable statements
to young women who never even knew

that there were issues
about use of contraceptives.

[chanting]

Murder is murder,
no matter what you call it.

(Kanyoro) They believe that
that was a right that women had received,

and they would retain it forever,
so we must have a place of defending

what we have achieved.

In structures of power,
the way women have been treated,

the way women have been positioned,
is really very similar in spite of the va-

uh, differences in style
and in implementation.

And the only way that we can change
that situation is by solidarity

across borders, across religions,
across culture.

Where is the women's voice to define
a different understanding of religion?

Now is the time.

What is most important is to rebuild
powers on the ground,

and to empower woman and men
who are really pro-democracy,

who are really, eh, fighting
for their right to be united,

and to be working together
to see some changes.

Democracy is a work in progress,
and it needs support.

Especially in places
where the forces against democracy

are very well-organized,
and very resource rich.

So we need help to support the development

of economic and social progress,
and skills building.

I mean, I think all of these are issues
that women have to be involved in...

That kind of thing
is a lot cheaper than wars,

it's a lot cheaper
than any kind of, uh, conflict,

and, uh, it's something that,
uh, is to the benefit of all.

(Abou-Habib)
It takes years of working

with local communities,
to maintain the capacities

on what is participating in leadership,
what really is democracy,

before you get to this moment
where a group of women

can actually visualize it
as part of their lives.

Before, uh, women would stop and say,
well, you know what,

um, I can't take abuse anymore,

or I will not vote
the way my husband wants me to vote.

This is not a mechanical process;

this is really breaking a vicious circle
that have been passed on generationally,

and that are reproduced
not only in the household,

at schools, in the media,

and we know that this is
incredibly difficult.

(Obaid)
To get more women participating

what is required is pressure,

mobilization, discourse,
interactions, coalitions,

to be active in syndicates -
professional syndicates,

labor unions, uh,
media groups, whatever,

uh, so that they are present there
not just as women

but as women professionals
in their own rights.

So opening channels
and getting allliances

with men groups is quite critical,
there's no escape from that.

Otherwise, the woman's movement
would remain an isolated,

excluded movement from the mainstream
of political formations of the countries.

(Abou-Habib)
Let us be honest and say

that fundamentalists have invaded
the virtual world way before us.

So now, more than ever,
it is important for us to be there,

to be out there making sure
that this tool is accessible more and more

for our own constituency,

and more and more
for increasing that constituency.

(Abiola-Costello)
And we have to begin to link, ah,

absence from the democratic process

with real outcomes
in the lives of our people.

In Nigeria, 60% of our women
will give birth without a birth attendant.

How is that possible 12 years
into the democratic system that we have?

We must link the absence,
the inability of our government

to address the needs of women
to the fact that women are not there

at the decision making table.

Women's rights
should be institutionalized.

(Obaid)
Media, of course,

plays a very important role
in order to see the link

between women's rights and human rights.

Unless this link is made
between women's rights

and the rights of all citizens

for a democratic state
that respects everybody

regardless of any differentiation
eh, the democracy will be truncated,

will be democracy for men
and not democracy for women,

and that's not democracy.

(Kandiyoti) Look at what has happened
to the opposition movement in Iran.

Now you have Iranian men
who have finally understood

that you cannot separate
the issue of women's rights

from the issue of democracy.

But I wish that it wouldn't take
30 years of theocratic rule

to get that simple message across
to the other countries within our region.

(female interpreter) Our main asset
is that we consider our cause to be just.

And when one is sure
that one's cause is just,

we can defend it to anyone.

(Obaid)
As I look into the future,

I'm hoping that men will look
into their hearts,

and that they would know
that democratic process

has no value if women are not part of it.

And therefore they have
to also extend themselves

in order to build coalition
with women

so that true democracy,
that's built on equality

between men and women,
becomes the real life

of the people in the region.

My [unintelligible]
is no discrimination of any kind

because it dehumanizes people,

and when every Egyptian feel

an equal, useful,
productive, powerful human.

(female interperter)
It used to be said

that Arab people were a resigned people.

But they took to the streets,
they protested.

And I think all governments to come
will have to take that into account.

And we can only go forward,
despite the challenges,

despite everything that's going on,
I am certain that we will move forward.

(woman) We're showing
the children that they have a voice.

They can be heard.

Because a lot of them
were always brought up as:

no, you can't talk,
no, we're scared,

no, he's gonna come after you.

Now we're pushing them,
eh, to have a voice

and say what they think,
and say how they feel.

(Kandiyoti)
My greatest hope is with a new generation.

Because I think
we now have a new generation

that has been raised with expectations
of having choice and having dignity.

We will not be silenced,
and we will not be kept away.

Amazing what we're seeing here,

'cuz we never thought
women would actually go out in Libya.

Almost all of these women
here are protesting

for the very first time
in their lives.

(woman) We have seen them
on television screens, on the internet.

We have heard their voices.

And they do not want to be ruled

in the manner
of their parents' generation

We want to take this country
into the future.

We're not gonna go back.

Even if the men decide to give up,

the woman will continue
with the revolution.

We know our cause is just.

We are committed.

We are inspired.

We will fight,
and we will get our rights.

[music]