Public Masturbation in a Hybrid Society

I don't know if you've read the article published in Malek's blog lately about sexual harassment. It's in brief about what he saw in Cairo down town a couple of days ago, where dozens of men in the streets were chasing any female in the street, trying to touch an inch or two of her body.

As, you know, in the holy month of Ramadan, people are devoted to God/Allah, they try to pray more and prevent themselves from doing anything wrong during it. So, it became very common here to see people trying to be as good as they can till the month ends, then then as soon as the final day of it ends, they start to do all kinds of bad stuff, such as taking drugs, drinking, watching pornographic materials, and lately sexual harassment. However, from what I read in female owned blogs, it seems that harassment is becoming more common here everyday and everywhere. It's seen in public transportation, streets, schools, and even mosques

But, let me ask, why such thing was not common here twenty years ago. I think one of the main reasons for this is the Hybrid society we live in now. I am going to explain the meaning of hybrid society later on, but let me now do a quick comparison between the western society and the middle-eastern one.

In the western society, people can have girlfriends/boyfriends, they can have sex before marriage, pornographic materials such as magazines and videos are available, people have their independent life and most of them live away from their parents when they get older, and finally, there are laws against sexual harassment.

In a typical middle-eastern society, may be twenty years ago. By the way, I prefer to call it middle-eastern society instead of an Islamic one as these characteristics were common here in our society for Muslims, as well as non-Muslims. So, in the middle-eastern society the term of a girlfriend where not even defined, sex is not allowed before marriage, porn was really hard to get (remember, there was no internet then), people live with their parents till they get married, and so there was no need for anti harassment laws.

Now, with the presence of the advanced communication methods, such as satellite channels, and the internet, the middle eastern society is changing into a hybrid society, with a mix and match characteristics of each of the two models mentioned earlier. the idea of having a girlfriend is becoming more common here, however having sex before marriage is not allowed. So you can have a girlfriend, but you cannot kiss her. Porn is available, from the internet, and even video clips are more into semi-nude models, and on the other hand the western any-harassment laws are not available.

One more thing to take into consideration is that although sex is not allowed before marriage as I said earlier, marriage is not simple. When someone proposes to a girl he has to pay her Mahr - about L.E.20,000 to L.E.50,000 - and bring her Shabka - A diamond ring that costs much too. Some parents put extra financial, sectarian, and many other obstacles.

Sure there are many other reasons for such issue, such as the bad education system we have here, where students don't go to school, and as you know one of the main tasks of a school beside education, is discipline. People don't trust the religious system here - such as Al Azhar - any more, and they now get their religious knowledge from uneducated and untrusted sources. And what I mean by uneducated sources are those underground Sheiks who suffer from financial and may be sexual frustration, and they keep on talking about women as the main source of evil, and focus more on them as an object of amusement instead of a human being. Drugs and alcohol are becoming more common as well. Even the media here, including movies and music, which are supposed to build people's taste and mind are degrading.

Finally, I tried to put here what can be the reason for such shameful acts according to my point of view, however I think bloggeresses comments can help in building a more complete image here.

Update 3:20 AM:
It came out that Zeinobia wrote a great article about the same issue, you'd better read it too.
Egyptian chronicles, Searching for reason
You may also see Mechanical Crowds' "When The Crowds Are Gone".

Tags: Egypt, Middle East, Arabia, Sex, Society, Blog Her, Feminists, Harassment, Gr33n Data

Blog Her

It seems that Laila is becoming more popular and international. Today I found this post, by Liz Henry, on BlogHer, about Laila.
BlogHer is a blog aggregator for female bloggers (bloggeresses), as well as feminists and those who write for women's rights etc. And this is how they describe their mission:

"BlogHer's mission is to create opportunities for women bloggers to pursue exposure, education, and community", BlogHer's Mission

Actually it is normal that a comunity like BlogHer write about the idea. But the question is how did the idea get all that fame in no time. There may have been some arrangement between some girls at the beginnig, but this is not enough.
I think female bloggers are like any other females, they like to socialise with each other, and pay each other visits. That's why you find a lot of inter-comments between bloggeresses, which is not always the case with male bloggers. And of course, this also proves that women had their own problems in our society and that's why such idea came in reasonance with them, and that's what made them willing to participate. Finally, may be my blogeresses-theory had it effect on attracting more readers to read their blogs too, yet spreading the idea more and more.

Tags: Laila, BlogHer, Gr33n Data

Laila, A Call for Comments

After seeing all those Laila related posts, I - as well as many other Men - feel that Women here in Egypt and may be the whole world as well have some problems. They feel that there is a discrimination against them. They feel that the society doesn't treat them fairly. But the point is that we do not know what we are supposed to do, and what actions and attitudes we have to change. Also the Lailas are just telling individual stories, which are not easily generalized. So, I need all the Leilas to participate it this post, and tell us frankly the stuff that piss them off, and what are the points that they think we have to change. And then after understanding these points, it is going to be easier for us to argue with them and even change those points that we are going to be convinced with.
P.S. Please, we would like you to make it just direct points. A list of points such as, "we would like you to do so and so", and "stop doing so and so".

بعد رؤية المدونات المتعلقة بموضوع ليلي ، أنا - وكذلك العديد من الرجال - نرى ان المراه هنا في مصر و ربما في كل العالم كذلك عندها بعض المشاكل. وتري ان هناك تمييز ضدها. و ان المجتمع يعاملها معاملة فيها ظلم لها. لكن النقطه المهمه هي اننا لا نعرف ما هي هذه المشاكل ، و ما هي النقاظ والمواقف التي تريد لها أن تتغير. كما أن الليلات تحكي قصص فردية فقط ، و لا يمكن تعميمها. لذلك نحتاج من كل كل ليلى علي أن تشارك و تقول بصراحه الأشياء التي تضايقهم ، وما هي النقاط التي تعتقد انها يجب ان تتغير. وبعد فهم هذه النقاط سيكون من السهل علينا ان نتناقش معهم فيها بل و نغيرها لو إقتنعنا بها.
يرجي ، ان تكون التعليقات في صورة نقاط مباشره فقط. قاءمه من النقاط ، مثل "نود منكم فعل كذا و كذا" ، و "الاقلاع عن كذا و كذا".
ملحوظة: تمت الإستعانة بجوجل لعمل الترجمة العربة لذلك أعتذر على ردائتها

One Final Note: Dear Lailas, please try to talk to us in our language, in order to be able to help you. Make it clear and just to the point.

Tags: Laila, Feminist, Women, Girls, Egypt, Gr33n Data