...in terms of the general women’s movement, are finding it very difficult to deal with these women and with the notion of what they do and what they… - Azza Karam

Yet the realms of religion dwarf all of us. At the same time, we are living in times where power brokers communicate in soundbites (if not tweets), and this only complicates how we understand.

I was afraid for the safety of the youth demonstrating so courageously, creatively, and with so much passion. I was afraid for the millions left in the clutches of a government that deliberately instigated instability for the first four days of demonstrations.

It is seriously myopic to assume that the Muslim Brotherhood is “anti-women.” I first started studying the Brotherhood, as part of a range of Islamist formations around the world, back in the late 1980s. Even within the organization itself, there are diverse perspectives on women’s rights: there are extremely active, very well-educated, cultured, and articulate women members of the Brotherhood, just as there are some members who are deeply conservative when it comes to women’s roles in public.