Ninety eight percent of those who voted in the 2014 Egyptian referendum on the Constitution voted YES.
It is high time for Western media and the West in general to start looking objectively at what taking place in Egypt.
Democracy is about people’s choice and not rigid processes. When democratic processes fails, peaceful protests and civil disobedience are a democratic course of action.
Egyptians are not minors. They can decide their own fate.
The coverage of the 2014 referendum on the Constitution was as shallow and opinionated as the previous one. There we no real comparative analysis as to the gains of women and the inclusion of social justice measures.
Quoting an article by Mariz Tadros, a fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
While western policy analysts and “experts” were lamenting the death of democracy in Egypt, women took to the streets during the two days of referendum over Egypt’s constitution, ululating, clapping and challenging the red lines of female propriety by dancing in broad daylight in public.
Undoubtedly what was happening on the streets of Egypt during the two days of the constitutional referendum was an expression of female agency, uninhibited and unrestrained by patriarchal mores internalized through years of disciplining of what respectable women should and should not do in public.
For the first time ever, the constitution stipulates that the state is committed to women holding public and senior management offices in the state and their appointment in judicial bodies and authorities without discrimination. For the first time too the state commits to protect women from all forms of violence (article 11). Article 180 sets a quarter of seats in the local council for women, again for the first time ever.
The new constitution has many flows and the course to democracy in Egypt is not sure with the military taking more power than it should. But it is not by pushing the people against the wall, restricting their choices to either the control of Islamists or the army that the “friends of Egypt” are assisting in the development of democracy.
Goodwill, cooperation, and assistance are the only way to curb the rising power of the military establishment. The current “smug attitude” is driving the Egyptian people in the arms of the Army.
By ignoring expressions of people power in the Egyptian constitutional referendum, some western political commentators and the media are showing a disconnect with the pulse of the citizenry and engaging in a dangerous politics of omission, argues Mariz Tadros who concludes
There is no predicting whether Egypt will pursue a path of democratization. The favourable endorsement of the constitution is not a signal that things will necessarily get better, they are not a predictor of the mood on the streets in future. However, when coverage of the constitutional referendum becomes almost exclusively focused on one segment of the population- the Muslim Brothers - and the voices of millions is simply obscured from the narrative of what is going on, it can only generate a disconnect from the pulse on the ground. Undoubtedly, there is a need to press against majoritarian rule that negates the agency of a political minority (the Brothers) and the intention here is not to justify human rights abuses. However, the negation of the rest of the population’s agency and people’s will only serve to make things worse: it creates the conditions for the intensification of ultra-nationalist voices that associate the western negation of voice with their non-recognition of the revolution of 30th of June, 2013. It also makes it harder for local human rights advocates and activists to press the government for accountability for its human rights record because they have to contend with a discourse that points to the west’s double standards in whose rights and voices count.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/mariz-tadros/egypts-constitutional-referendum-untold-story
It is high time for Western media and the West in general to start looking objectively at what taking place in Egypt.
Democracy is about people’s choice and not rigid processes. When democratic processes fails, peaceful protests and civil disobedience are a democratic course of action.
Egyptians are not minors. They can decide their own fate.
In 2012 33% of Egypt's 53 million voters took part in the referendum. The draft was approved by 64% of voters.
The 2014 results are 38.6% voter turnout participated with 98.1% voting YES to the Constitution.
Complaints of Women voters filed at the Ombudsman office were 580 in 2012 while only 157 complaints were filed in 2014
I do not approve in principle the new fashion of "blame" the media and am not an adept of conspiracy theories that plague the Middle East.
But lately I have been puzzled at the bad will towards the Egyptian secular movement.
Morsi and the Brotherhood became the darlings of the Western media and the US. We rarely saw reporting on the exclusive politics of Morsi. It was all about his accepting Camp David and the new President’s willingness to cooperate with Israel.
Few looked in depth at the 2012 Constitution. When praising the democratic process of the 2012 referendum main stream Western media did not highlight that Al Azhar, the Christian Coptic Orthodox Church and various secular political parties and figures had pulled out of the constitution drawing process of 2012. Hillary Clinton said a new Egyptian constitution should protect the rights of women and minorities, but did not comment on the proposed constitution that is up for referendum. The media followed suit and did not highlight that the 2012 Egyptian Constitution in the Preamble and in Article 10 reduces women to sisters, daughters, and mothers of men.
In the preamble: Further, there is no dignity for a country in which women are not honoured. Women are the sisters of men and hold the fort of motherhood; they are half of society and partners in all national gains and responsibilities.
Article 10: The state shall ensure maternal and child health services free of charge, and enable a balance between a woman's duties toward her family and her work.
The state shall provide special care and protection to female breadwinners, divorced women and widows.
But lately I have been puzzled at the bad will towards the Egyptian secular movement.
Morsi and the Brotherhood became the darlings of the Western media and the US. We rarely saw reporting on the exclusive politics of Morsi. It was all about his accepting Camp David and the new President’s willingness to cooperate with Israel.
Few looked in depth at the 2012 Constitution. When praising the democratic process of the 2012 referendum main stream Western media did not highlight that Al Azhar, the Christian Coptic Orthodox Church and various secular political parties and figures had pulled out of the constitution drawing process of 2012. Hillary Clinton said a new Egyptian constitution should protect the rights of women and minorities, but did not comment on the proposed constitution that is up for referendum. The media followed suit and did not highlight that the 2012 Egyptian Constitution in the Preamble and in Article 10 reduces women to sisters, daughters, and mothers of men.
In the preamble: Further, there is no dignity for a country in which women are not honoured. Women are the sisters of men and hold the fort of motherhood; they are half of society and partners in all national gains and responsibilities.
Article 10: The state shall ensure maternal and child health services free of charge, and enable a balance between a woman's duties toward her family and her work.
The state shall provide special care and protection to female breadwinners, divorced women and widows.
The coverage of the 2014 referendum on the Constitution was as shallow and opinionated as the previous one. There we no real comparative analysis as to the gains of women and the inclusion of social justice measures.
Quoting an article by Mariz Tadros, a fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
While western policy analysts and “experts” were lamenting the death of democracy in Egypt, women took to the streets during the two days of referendum over Egypt’s constitution, ululating, clapping and challenging the red lines of female propriety by dancing in broad daylight in public.
Undoubtedly what was happening on the streets of Egypt during the two days of the constitutional referendum was an expression of female agency, uninhibited and unrestrained by patriarchal mores internalized through years of disciplining of what respectable women should and should not do in public.
For the first time ever, the constitution stipulates that the state is committed to women holding public and senior management offices in the state and their appointment in judicial bodies and authorities without discrimination. For the first time too the state commits to protect women from all forms of violence (article 11). Article 180 sets a quarter of seats in the local council for women, again for the first time ever.
The new constitution has many flows and the course to democracy in Egypt is not sure with the military taking more power than it should. But it is not by pushing the people against the wall, restricting their choices to either the control of Islamists or the army that the “friends of Egypt” are assisting in the development of democracy.
Goodwill, cooperation, and assistance are the only way to curb the rising power of the military establishment. The current “smug attitude” is driving the Egyptian people in the arms of the Army.
By ignoring expressions of people power in the Egyptian constitutional referendum, some western political commentators and the media are showing a disconnect with the pulse of the citizenry and engaging in a dangerous politics of omission, argues Mariz Tadros who concludes
There is no predicting whether Egypt will pursue a path of democratization. The favourable endorsement of the constitution is not a signal that things will necessarily get better, they are not a predictor of the mood on the streets in future. However, when coverage of the constitutional referendum becomes almost exclusively focused on one segment of the population- the Muslim Brothers - and the voices of millions is simply obscured from the narrative of what is going on, it can only generate a disconnect from the pulse on the ground. Undoubtedly, there is a need to press against majoritarian rule that negates the agency of a political minority (the Brothers) and the intention here is not to justify human rights abuses. However, the negation of the rest of the population’s agency and people’s will only serve to make things worse: it creates the conditions for the intensification of ultra-nationalist voices that associate the western negation of voice with their non-recognition of the revolution of 30th of June, 2013. It also makes it harder for local human rights advocates and activists to press the government for accountability for its human rights record because they have to contend with a discourse that points to the west’s double standards in whose rights and voices count.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/mariz-tadros/egypts-constitutional-referendum-untold-story