Statements

Statement issued March 2001:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

On the 6 March 2001 a weekly newspaper published an interview I had given a few days before I left for a long lecture tour in Germany, France and the United States. In this interview I reiterated the views I have defended in all my writings during the last forty years and pronounced publicly in many parts of the world including the Arab Region. In these views I link questions of sex and gender to politics, economics and culture at the local and international level and strike at the roots of all forms of exploitation and oppression whether class, patriarchal, racial, national, or religious. Those who are in power have always tried to silence my voice. These attempts to silence me have increased steadily in the past years which have witnessed the predominance of capitalist neo-liberal forces and their allies including religious fundamentalism.

In the interview which I gave I repeated my opposition to the veiling of women which implies that women are only bodies,to polygamy, to inequality in inheritance rights and insisted that all of these were in contradiction with the true spirit of Islam and the correct interpretation of the Qoranic text.I also mentioned that some of the practices of Islam had been inherited historically from the pre- Islamic era and that this was a natural phenomena in all religions and gave as an example that of the pilgrimage. The newspaper like many other newspapers appearing all over the world depends heavily on sensationalism for its sales. My views were manipulated, quoted out of context and blown up with provocative headlines.

The powers that be which have always been unhappy with my views seized the occasion of a deteriorating cultural atmosphere coupled with a rebound of fundamentalist tendencies in Egypt The Mufti of Egypt issued a declaration to the same newspaper accusing me of having strayed out of the bounds of Islam. A few days after a lawyer raised a case against me for separation between me and my husband on the grounds of apostasy. The case is appearing before a personal law court (Shariat Court) on the 18 June 2001. But since all cases must be raised by the General Prosecutor himself according to the amendments made to the law of Hizba, the same lawyer sent a request to the General Prosecutor asking him to have me tried on the same grounds. If the General Prosecutor agrees I can be tried and sentenced to a period of imprisonment for attacking religion or separated from my husband by Hizba on grounds of apostasy. We are waiting to see what will happen.

What you are all doing is wonderful and we are very thankful to you. Expand it more and more until it becomes an irresistible wave. You will be defending the human rights and dignity of many men and women in our region and all over the world.

Send your protests to:

Farouk Seif Al Nasr
Minister of Justice
Ministry of Justice
Midan Lazoughly
Cairo
Arab Republic of Egypt
Fax: +202 355 8103 (Salutation: His Excellency)

Maher Abdel Wahab
General Prosecutor
The High Court
July 26 Street
Cairo,
Egypt
Fax +202 575 7165

President: Mohammad Hosni Mubarak
Abedine Palace
Cairo
Arab Republic of Egypt
Fax: + 202 390 1998
E-mail: webmaster@presidency.gov.eg (Salutation: Your Excellency)

First Lady Suzanne Mobarak
Abedine Palace
Cairo
Arab Republic of Egypt
Fax: + 202 390 1998
E-mail: webmaster@presidency.gov.eg (Salutation: Your Excellency)