Maram Muhammad* was born and raised in Helwan in a family that supports the Muslim Brotherhood. Her parents enrolled her in Brotherhood sessions for girls when Maram was in the 10th grade.

“I began to have many problems inside the Brotherhood because of the way I used to dress and walk, especially since I wear a veil other than the long loose one they deemed legitimate. The biggest problem was gossip and talking behind my back. They even talked to my mother about me as if I had been doing something wrong,” Maram remembers.

Maram Muhammad* was born and raised in Helwan in a family that supports the Muslim Brotherhood. Her parents enrolled her in Brotherhood sessions for girls when Maram was in the 10th grade.

“I began to have many problems inside the Brotherhood because of the way I used to dress and walk, especially since I wear a veil other than the long loose one they deemed legitimate. The biggest problem was gossip and talking behind my back. They even talked to my mother about me as if I had been doing something wrong,” Maram remembers.

Following the January 25 Revolution, Maram’s relationship to the Brotherhood took a new turn. “I decided to stop attending the sessions to reflect on it. I did not feel that I wanted to stay with them after the revolution. I wanted to be freed from several things. I started to revolt at home against anything I had to do. When the party was established, they text messaged us, ordering us to go at a specific time and sign applications for the party, otherwise we would be deemed defectors. The message was so exasperating for me so I refused to go and I argued with my parents.”

When Maram refused to participate in protests against the Military Council in November 2011 it led to a heated phone call with her supervisor in the Brotherhood after which point she resigned.  

“Defection is difficult because all our companions and acquaintances are supporters of the Brotherhood and our trips, memories and entire life are with them,” says Muhammad.

Women and the Brotherhood

The historical roots of the relationship between the Brotherhood and women can be found in the book of the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder Hassan al-Banna, entitled ‘Letters to a Muslim Student.’ According to ‘Letters,’ the rules of society should adhere to include “accustoming the people to have respect for public morals; developing relevant guidelines protected by the law; increasing the penalties for moral crimes; banning make-up and dissoluteness and guiding women to what should be done in this regard, especially teachers, students, doctors and the likes; reviewing the curricula of the females so as to be different than those of the males; banning mixed schools; deeming any conclave between a man and a woman a crime; shutting down bars and discos; forbidding dancing, etc.”

Al-Banna believed that women were inferior to men. Surprisingly enough, al-Banna’s thoughts came half a century after the issuance of Qasim Amin’s two works: ‘Liberation of Women’ in 1899 and ‘The Young Woman’ in 1901. Thus, al-Banna was not at all affected by a contemporaneous culture.

The Brotherhood’s version of Islam

Many female supporters wish to defect once and for all but the social blockade they suffer from makes them get cold feet. “Imagine you suddenly find yourself cast away alone on an island,” says Tuqa, an attractive veiled woman, explaining what she went through psychologically and socially when she decided to defect.

Living in a family that supports the Brotherhood in a suburb of Giza, Tuqa has recently joined the Strong Egypt Party, which was founded by Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, the most famous defector of the Brotherhood.

Many express astonishment vis-à-vis the rupture that has taken place between Tuqa and her friends of the Brotherhood following her defection, even though she has joined yet another Islamic party which is considered a descendant of the Brotherhood.

“Loyalty in the Brotherhood’s point of view is to the Brotherhood itself rather than to the Islamic thought or Hassan al-Banna’s thought. If you believe in al-Banna but do not believe in the Brotherhood, you are non-existent to them,” says Tuqa, talking about the fierce violence with which her views regarding the Brotherhood have been dealt with while she de facto belongs to the Islamic project too. “They thought I would be a female version of Tharwat Kharbawi – a defector from the Brotherhood who wrote many books criticizing it,” says Tuqa jokingly.

“There is nothing much to say. The Brotherhood changed after the revolution. Dr. Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh – one of the most honorable members of the Brotherhood – defected when the Brotherhood was about to rise to power and the latter even provided untrue justifications. In addition, many female supporters started, to my great surprise, talking behind my back when I was engaged to a non-supporter. I insisted on the relationship, but our engagement was eventually broken off. I did not believe they could be so low,” relates Tuqa.

“The last session I had with the female supporters,” says Tuqa, was early 2012 when I announced my support of Aboul Fotouh, which made them voice anger. My parents were shocked and my father even hit me with a pen, which prompted me to refrain from having food for a whole week. I stayed home, but no one would talk to me and I then started to eat alone. One day, I tried to provoke them. I headed towards the door without putting my veil on. When I was about to open it, my mother screamed and my father called me asking what I was doing. I replied: ‘You now deem me godless.’ He said ‘Says who?’ I said: ‘Dad! I am convinced that Dr. Aboul Fotouh is the one who expresses my thoughts.’ He remained silent for a while then said: ‘May God grant you success.’ As for my relation with the female supporters, it has greatly deteriorated since they consider any criticism leveled against the Brotherhood as a personal insult to them,” recalls Tuqa.

Once a breeding ground of the Brotherhood, universities have become a favorable environment for many young men and women to create an alternative social life where they can get rid of the Brotherhood’s social and psychological authoritarianism. But yearning for freedom sometimes outdoes the Brotherhood’s capacity and ability to besiege them.

*All names have been changed.