Hijacking Revolutions: Changes in minorities’ roles in pre and post- revolutionary society in the Middle East and North Africa

International Women’s day was celebrated throughout the world with women in regions in the Middle East and Africa holding peaceful demonstrations demanding their rights as citizens and from sexual harassment. Egyptian women, likewise saw the day as a perfect opportunity to march against discrimination. Rather than being welcomed to protest, they were instead faced with jeers by hecklers who shouted things like “Go back to the house where you belong”. The women were scolded and told that their concerns were not urgent in the recent aftermath of the January 25^th revolution. The women, on the other hand, were appalled by the marginalization that they faced because of the central role that they played in the revolution. 

On the same day, sectarian violence broke out in a Cairo suburb between Christians and Muslims following the burning of a church that occurred last week. Six people, thought to be mostly Christian, were shot dead during tensions, placing the two groups at odds with one another for the first time since the January 1^st church bombing. During the revolution, images of Christians forming rings of protection around their Muslim counterparts as they prayed reached all corners of the globe, reaffirming the image that this was an Egyptian revolution and not an Islamic revolution. Now, as the old regime continues to crumble, the struggle for power is taking shape at the expense of small minority groups like the Egyptian Copts.

This, unfortunately, was not the first time in history that women and minority groups suffered after revolutions that they fought side by side to make successful. In Algeria, women were a central part of the anti-French Colonization movement under the helm of the FLN. After the French finally left, Algerian suffered tremendously, especially during the Algerian civil war between Islamist parties and the state. In Iran, women also played a huge part in the success of the revolution to overthrow the Shah. What followed, however, was the Islamic Revolution, which slowly forced women into an unwanted, legal submission, despite being educated. All women were made to wear the veil and women are not allowed to attend sporting events where men are present. Women participated in each of these movements, yet were never obliged their rights as equal citizens.

Minority groups’ places in society are moved and manipulated during revolutions, which confuses their role in post-revolution society. During revolution, they are lifted up as equal citizens of a movement, but afterwards they are often pushed off to the side and their concerns are considered not urgent or worthy of the nation’s attention. So why do minorities in the Middle East and North Africa continued to be overlooked and ignored after they assist in revolutions and why do they continue to participate in them if they will only be marginalized by society later?