NAWAL EL SAADAWI feminista, psiquiatra, escritora y activista egipcia

Sus críticas acerbas a las leyes y a la interpretación del islam que institucionalizaban el patriarcado represivo que impedía crecer a las mujeres la llevaron a perder todos sus puestos en la sanidad pública de su país, a la cárcel y posteriormente al exilio.

"Deberían de haber incluido mujeres en el comité para la reforma de la Constitución. Nombraron a ocho hombres y a ninguna mujer, por ello estamos organizando una marcha de un millón de mujeres en El Cairo.

Todos los comités e instituciones del nuevo Egipto deben de contar con mujeres. Se ha acabado eso de que solo sean hombres los que deciden.

El problema de las mujeres es crónico y está enraizado en el patriarcado y la religión. Por eso pedimos una Constitución secular, un código familiar secular y un Estado secular separado de la religión. Las mujeres han muerto en Tahrir igual que los hombres y tienen que tenernos en cuenta.

Hay mucha discriminación. Todavía tenemos poligamia y queremos abolirla, además el hombre puede divorciarse sin que se tenga en cuenta para nada a la esposa.

¿La Constitución respalda la poligamia?

Sí, porque dice que el Código Familiar no puede contradecir la sharia (ley islámica) y la sharia permite la poligamia. Egipto tiene uno de los códigos familiares más atrasados del mundo árabe.

El secularismo es fundamental para la democracia. En los cambios realizados estos días han seguido manteniendo el Artículo 2 que dice que el islam es la religión de Egipto y eso debe de desaparecer.

¿Teme que el nuevo Egipto pueda quedar bajo el control de los Hermanos Musulmanes?

No. Tengo miedo de Estados Unidos e Israel porque ellos serán los que traigan a los Hermanos Musulmanes. Estuve en Irán al principio de la revolución de 1979. La revolución iraní al principio fue secular y socialista pero EEUU se sintió amenazado por una revolución socialista e impulsó su aborto. Jomeini llegó a Irán de la mano de Francia, Reino Unido y Estados Unidos. Ellos prefirieron una revolución religiosa a una socialista.

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Revolution in Cairo

Frontline

Building Egypt's Future

What happens next for those who dreamt of a free and democratic Egypt?

The young activists from Egypt's April 6th movement were among the key players in the uprising that brought down Hosni Mubarak, the then-Egyptian president.

So how have they fared in the weeks since? Though the news of the president's resignation was greeted with wild jubilation by the massed crowds in Tahrir Square, the revolution is far from over.

A military council now runs the country and many of the political and economic conditions that led to the revolt are still in place.

The challenge facing the activists and the pro-democracy movement in general is how to build on their gains and secure real and lasting change.

But as reporter Elizabeth Jones found out, the cold reality of the morning after is that there is still much to do. People & Power follows the activists as the future of a democratic Egypt hangs in the balance.

Intervention in Libya Would Poison the Arab Revolution

Western military action against Gaddafi risks spreading the conflict and undermining the democratic movement

The western powers which have backed authoritarian kleptocrats across the Middle East for decades now face a loss of power in the most strategically sensitive region of the world as a result of the Arab uprisings and the prospect of representative governments. They are evidently determined to appropriate the revolutionary process wherever possible, limiting it to cosmetic change that allows continued control of the region.

In Libya, the disintegration of the regime offers a crucial opening. Even more important, unlike Tunisia and Egypt, it has the strategic prize of the largest oil reserves in Africa. Of course the Gaddafi regime has moved a long way from the days when it took over the country's oil, kicked out foreign bases and funded the African National Congress at a time when the US and Britain branded Nelson Mandela a terrorist.

Along with repression, corruption and a failure to deliver to ordinary Libyans, the regime has long since bent the knee to western power, as Tony Blair and his friends were so keen to celebrate, ditching old allies and nuclear ambitions while offering privatised pickings and contracts to western banks, arms and oil corporations such as BP.

Now the prospect of the regime's fall offers the chance for much closer involvement – western intelligence has had its fingers in parts of the Libyan opposition for years – when other states seem in danger of spinning out of the imperial orbit.

But Libya has a compelling history of foreign occupation and resistance. Up to a third of the population are estimated to have died under Italian colonial rule. Those calling for western military action in Libya seem brazenly untroubled by the fact that throughout the Arab world, foreign intervention, occupation and support for dictatorship is regarded as central to the problems of the region. Inextricably tied up with the demand for democratic freedoms is a profound desire for independence and self-determination.