"We often hear how the Middle East's failing economies have left many men unable to marry,

and some even use that to explain rising levels of sexual harassment on the streets".

Com um discurso simples e muito claro, Mona Eltahawy inúmera aspectos de uma revolução política, iniciada por Mohamed Bouazizi (o vendedor tunisino que se imolou) e de que poucos falam.

Esta defende que esta revolução apenas vingará se for acompanhada por uma profunda revolução de pensamento. Movimentos assim o fazem, lutando em várias frentes: religião, estado (legislação), social e cultural.

Sem comparações, por não existir comparação possivel, muitos dos pontos apresentados por Mona Eltahawy quando colocados à nossa escala, tocam-se assustadoramente com a realidade Portuguesa. Agora, juntou-se mais uma atenuante: a "troika".

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"When Egyptian women are subjected to humiliating "virginity tests" merely for speaking out, it's no time for silence. When an article in the Egyptian criminal code says that if a woman has been beaten by her husband "with good intentions" no punitive damages can be obtained, then to hell with political correctness. And what, pray tell, are "good intentions"?" (...)

"Saudi Arabia, where women still can't vote or run in elections, yet it's considered "progress" that a royal decree promised to enfranchise them for almost completely symbolic local elections in -- wait for it -- 2015. So bad is it for women in Saudi Arabia that those tiny paternalistic pats on their backs are greeted with delight as the monarch behind them, King Abdullah, is hailed as a "reformer"  -- even by those who ought to know better, such as Newsweek, which in 2010 named the king one of the top 11 most respected world leaders. "

"Why extremists always focus on women remains a mystery to me," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said recently. "But they all seem to. It doesn't matter what country they're in or what religion they claim. They want to control women." (And yet Clinton represents an administration that openly supports many of those misogynistic despots.)"

"On the November day I was sexually assaulted on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near Tahrir Square, by at least four Egyptian riot police, I was first groped by a man in the square itself. While we are eager to expose assaults by the regime, when we're violated by our fellow civilians we immediately assume they're agents of the regime or thugs because we don't want to taint the revolution."

Para ler o artigo completo: The real war on women is in the Middle East, por MONA ELTAHAWY.

E já agora, a 13 de Julho, mais um assassinato no Afeganistão:  A car bomb killed the head of women's affairs in eastern Afghanistan.