Excerpt from Skirt.com, click the link to read the rest
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Egypt is the word in everyone’s minds the past few days. One question I keep hearing surprised me, though–some have asked me why no women have been out protesting. I could only raise an extremely skeptical eyebrow at them, because on the BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera English I’ve seen many, many women filmed protesting and being interviewed for their thoughts.

What this says to me is that the people I speak to are seeing what they expect to see, the Egypt of their banal stereotypes, instead of what’s actually happening. With my research findings in mind perhaps I should have expected that people’s imaginings of Egypt are often stronger than the reality with which they are presented. Nevertheless I think this is very unfair to the women of Egypt who have been out campaigning to have their voices heard and influence the future of their country.

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