Violence and ugly scenes marred International Women’s Day in parts of Africa yesterday as gangs of men and security forces broke up protests, beat women with sticks and killed one protester.
International Women’s Day is intended to celebrate female achievements and equality. Yet in Egypt, Ivory Coast and Sudan, female-led protests ended in violence and chaos.
A planned Million Woman March in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, descended into misogynistic abuse after a crowd of male counter-protesters disrupted the rally and harassed some of the participants.
The march, staged to demand equal representation in government and an end to the daily harassment by men on the streets, attracted 200 protesters in Tahrir Square. A larger group of Egyptian men soon appeared. According to female demonstrators the men were intent on disrupting the rally in the conservative and male-dominated Muslim country.
“It was really bad, it was really ugly,” said Pakinam Amer, a female journalist. Men surrounded the women, tearing their posters and threatening them, chanting: “A man is a man and a woman is a woman,” until soldiers separated the groups. In Sudan about sixty women who gathered in Omdurman to protest against rape and other abuses found themselves surrounded by 250 police and security officers.
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Witnesses said that after a few minutes half of the women were thrown into a lorry and when they continued to chant slogans police officers beat them with sticks.
In Ivory Coast, where a political crisis is stoking tensions, women took to the streets to protest against the killing of seven unarmed women last week by security forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo, who lost the elections but refuses to cede power.
This time one group of protesters in the Treichville area of Abidjan, the commercial capital, was broken up by men wielding machetes and firing guns in the air. Reports said that one woman and four men were killed. All-female protests elsewhere in the city were peaceful.
In Cairo Ms Amer was shocked by the anger that the men displayed as they accused female protesters of being bad Muslims and bad Egyptians. “They were very aggressive and very hostile,” Ms Amer said. “They would corner two or three girls together and start shouting at them and harassing them.”
During the anti-government protests last month a female foreign news reporter working for a US network was beaten and sexually assaulted by a mob before being rescued by a group of women and soldiers. Women were prominent in the recent overthrow of President Mubarak, making yesterday’s scenes a disappointment.
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Anti-government rallies attracted a high proportion of female protesters of all religions. Women in Egypt have greater freedom than in many other Arab countries but there is much chauvinism among men. Egyptian women have been judges, parliamentarians and government ministers. However, for many men the idea of a woman as a prime minister or president is regarded as laughable and subversive.
Rabie Ahmed, a tailor, had little sympathy. “People can’t find food. Women’s demands are legitimate, but these protests are just creating chaos,” he said.
Additional reporting from Nairobi by Tristan McConnell
Around the World
Turkey Thousands of women took to the streets in Ankara, Istanbul, and elsewhere in the country to protest against “honour killings” and other violence against women
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Morocco The Moroccan Organisation for Human Rights used the day to call for gender equality to become a constitutional right
West Bank Palestinian women took to the streets across the West Bank, calling for political unity and an end to Israeli occupation
Democratic Republic of Congo The President’s wife, Maria Olive Kabila, took part in a march in Kinshasa calling for the Government to take action against rape
South Korea In Seoul, women danced in the streets to demand more rights in the workplace. Some wore pyjamas and called on the Government to cut down on night shifts
Philippines About 1,500 women took to the streets of Manila to push for a reproductive rights bill and to protest against rising prices
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Air India and Air France flew some flights staffed and operated by women-only crews to mark the day
United States The Women of Courage Awards, which recognise individuals who have tried to further women’s rights, was attended by Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, and Michelle Obama. The winners included the Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez and Maria Bashir, the Prosecutor-General in the Afghan province of Herat