Welcome to a new era of politically sanctioned patriarchy
I will force myself to watch the inauguration of Donald Trump because I want to stay angry. The sight of a sexual predator taking the oath to become the president of the most powerful country on earth will keep my pilot light of rage burning bright.
I take pride in that anger. As I do my declaration of faith: “Fuck the Patriarchy”.
As an Egyptian-American feminist, my cup of patriarchy overfloweth.
The first foreign leader to call and congratulate Trump upon his election victory in November was the Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Of course! I could not imagine two world leaders whose public record of misogyny better capture the politically sanctioned patriarchy that so challenges feminism today.
One, Trump, has openly boasted that his fame allowed him to “grab women by the pussy”. At least 24 women have accused the next US president of inappropriate sexual behaviour in multiple incidents spanning the last 30 years.
The other, Sisi, was the head of military intelligence in March 2011 when 17 female activists detained at protests were subjected to “virginity tests” by the military. The women were vaginally examined against their will by military doctors. Sisi justified the tests at the time, saying they were to protect the military against accusations of rape – as if only virgins could technically be raped.
When the leader of a country is so misogynist, so abusive and cavalier with regards to women’s bodies, it sends a green light that women’s bodies are fair game, not worthy of respect.
Some, especially on the right wing in the US, like to tell American women to consider the sorry plight of women in Egypt, for example. Look how bad it is over there, they say, in order to make women grateful that they live in the US. Such myopic misogyny, in essence, is telling women to shut up, accept their lot and be grateful they have it so good.
Some, especially among those who deny misogyny in Egypt, like to tell Egyptian women to consider the reality of women’s lives in the US, for example. They still have not elected a woman as president, they say, to make them realise that the US isn’t that much better than Egypt. Such denial of misogyny in essence is telling women to shut up and accept their lot because it’s shit everywhere.
Then Trump happened. And before him, Sisi happened. And as 2014 election results from Egypt and 2016 results from the US reminded us, they happened with the help of a lot of women who voted for those two Misogynists in Chief. Gratitude and acceptance be damned!
I’ve become obsessed with those white women voters who showed up at Trump rallies with “Talk Dirty to Me”, “Adorable Deplorables” and “Grab This Pussy” T-shirts; the women who said that if men don’t use Trump’s awful language about women’s bodies there was something wrong with them; the women who dismissed as liars all the women who accused Trump of assaulting them.
Those white women Trump voters allowed their race to trump their gender. They were a reminder that decades of Republican racist policies mixed with increasing Christian fundamentalism and bigotry had succeeded in turning women against their own interests. Those women think they will be protected from Republican patriarchy by allying themselves with it but nothing protects women from patriarchy.
In Egypt, I have been obsessed with the women who voted for Sisi: the women who danced at polling stations; who gushed over Sisi as if he were a sensitive beloved whereas he was head of military intelligence during the 25 January 2011 revolution responsible for untold violence.
Much like the adoring women at Trump campaign rallies, adulating women at a Sisi conference shortly before his electoral victory in 2014 flocked around him as if he were a teen pop star. Those women voted for Sisi and intentionally forgot that he justified sexual assaults in the form of “virginity tests” because they accepted Sisi’s narrative that he had “saved” them and Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood. But Sisi just ensured the survival of military rule. Nothing protects women from the patriarchy of military regimes. The roles of Egyptian women in the military are limited to being nurses and administrators. Sisi often talks about women as mothers and wives. He is a conservative, devout man who has overseen a moral crusade against LGBTQ Egyptians. He is no feminist.
The religious fundamentalists of the Republican party are a mirror image of the religious fundamentalists of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. I like to call the Republicans the Christian Brotherhood of the US so that my fellow Americans recognise the line that connects their mix of religion and politics with their Muslim equivalent in Egypt. Both the Christian Brotherhood of the US and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood are obsessed with women’s bodies – specifically our vaginas. As I like to tell them both: stay out of my vagina unless I want you in there. Examine the record of Trump’s vice president Mike Pence – a Christian fundamentalist who governed Indiana with a mix of misogyny and homophobia while engaged in war with women’s reproductive rights.
Another horrifying parallel between Trump and Sisi is their authoritarianism. Trump has appointed the highest number of generals of any US president. Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism and militarism are inherently patriarchal and hierarchical. You can guess where in that hierarchy women stand.
Challenging this hierarchy is 2017’s crusade. The war will be waged most effectively by recognising the global sisterhood of the oppressed and knowing that our battles are local. That is how we will defeat this era of politically sanctioned patriarchy.
