In his speeches for the last two years, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has focused on promoting women’s roles, but women’s organizations in Egypt come under scrutiny and their work has been thwarted on several occasions, despite an Egyptian law that protects civil society organisations (CSO).

In his speeches for the last two years, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has focused on promoting women’s roles, but women’s organizations in Egypt come under scrutiny and their work has been thwarted on several occasions, despite an Egyptian law that protects civil society organisations (CSO).

On June 27, executive director and co-founder of Nazra for Feminist Studies (NFS) Mozn Hassan was surprised by the Cairo Airport Passport Department’s decision to ban her from traveling. She was intending to travel from Cairo to Beirut to attend the Executive Committee’s meeting of the Women Human Rights Defenders Regional Coalition in the Middle East and North Africa as a regional expert.

Hassan says the travel ban came against the backdrop of Case No. 173 of 2011 – concerned with foreign funding of organizations – which was reopened several months ago.

Three NFS members, says Hassan, were summoned to appear before the investigating magistrate on March 22, 2016. Then Hassan was subpoenaed to appear before the judge in the New Cairo Court on March 29. The judge informed the lawyers that he would set a date for them to have access to the case’s documents and would then send for Hassan. Hassan considered the travel ban to be a third step in the investigations.

“State of hostility towards women”

Hassan is a board member of the Global Fund for Women and a member of the International Planning Committee of the 13^th Forum of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development.

Since 2001, Hassan has been working on many women’s issues, including violence against women in the public sphere; psychological, medical and legal support for sexual violence survivors, women’s political participation in Egypt and the Middle East and their participation in decision-making. She received the Charlotte Bunch Award for women’s human rights advocacy in 2013.

“The state of hostility to human rights and women organizations should end,” says Hassan referring to the need for opening the public domain for all powers in society. “What is happening now is the exact opposite.”

It is well known that the NFS – comprised by women of various ages and backgrounds – plays an active role in communicating with many community initiatives in different governorates. NFS members were motivated by the January 25 revolution to engage in the public domain, and a new feminist movement began to take shape.

“A CSO, the NFS was licensed on December 28, 2007, and all its activities are legal and public,” Hassan told Correspondents. “I have been its director since then. The NFS has been a special consultant in the United Nations Economic and Social Council since January 2014.

The threat of feminism

She argues that feminism always faces many risks when the defense of women and of their bodies becomes a crime. “There is always a price,” she says, “Women’s liberation is linked to libertinism, and feminists are prisoned or put under house arrest for demanding rights.”

The penalties of the indictment (of treason) range from six months to 25 years in prison. Socially speaking, there are attempts to distort feminists’ work concerned with providing a safe space for women.

“Do these accusations only come under a trend to nationalize the public domain? Or because society still puts women’s issues in the context of political rivalry as the weakest link?” she wonders. “Is the defense of women a crime? What violations have we committed?

We have been working according to the Egyptian law and under the oversight of the state since 2008. We have an official headquarters known to all, as well as clear, accessible and disciplined records reviewed and audited by official accountants and public bank accounts in Egyptian banks, supervised by the Central Bank of Egypt and the Anti-Money Laundering Unit. We pay our taxes and contributions to workers’ security insurance. Our activities are public and attended by young women, academics, politicians, psychiatrists and lawyers. Donations and grants are publicly deposited in our bank accounts. Our events are covered on a regular basis through our website. We also have research, studies, publications, statements and news releases sent periodically to newspapers, officials and all concerned sectors. If the state considers us a threat to its security, why has not it shut us down all these years?

I do not know how women’s activists can threaten the homeland when they fight abuse or violence against women or demand their right to a safe public and private domain. Is the protection of women’s bodies, the treatment of survivors of violence and rape, talking about women’s representation, trying to help communities work at full capacity without exclusion of women, or working with civil society, politicians and the state to empower women a threat?

 Do we still see all demands of feminists, from Hoda Shaarawi to Badria Shafiq, as a risk? Today, the concern is not only that feminists have become prosecuted, but also that Egyptian feminism is in decline. How can feminism exist without freedom of organization? The state should understand that women’s issues are not part of a Western conspiracy against Egypt. The NFS will not pay attention to all impending risks and will continue support women.”