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International Women's Day 8th March
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Shanta Gdeeda: [QB] Well I just got back from there. I travelled there on microbus + metro and back again on metro and minibus (that's the small bus bigger than a microbus). Things were a little bit confusing with some women on the central area with the tents and others outside Tahrir. Anyway, I got there about 2pm and spent a couple of hours mooching about talking to people before finally managing to meet up with Citizen for a while! There seemed to be a couple of demonstrations today - one was the women's thing and the other I didn't catch but might also have been that - let's just say things were a bit confusing!! (Btw I'm not talking about the men's demo - there was another one with mixed men and women marching along the road for about 10 minutes). I did talk with some of those guys who were against the women's day. At first I had a joke over them saying I should go home and cook for my husband and I said if I did he would die. But their main point (which they explained to me anyway) was that at the moment they are demonstrating for One Egypt and the International Womens' Day was divisive because (1)It was not Egyptian and (2) It was dividing between men and women. Well it's a point of view and one that has been expressed by others. Anyway, there were also plenty of men in support of it giving out 'aims of the women's day' leaflets and stickers advertising Harassmap. Everyone was really nice and a few people just came up and said "Thank You" (for being a tourist), a few asked me what I thought about it (the revolution generally), I got my hands painted in Egyptian flags and my hands were photoed by quite a few people :) There were a number of banners and areas dedicated to the martyrs, and I was touched by a row of quite elderly women all dressed in black abayas but with Egyptian flags and posters painted on them who seemed to be related to the martyrs. There were lots of groups having open discussion eg two women - one in niqab and one uncovered having a heated debate with men listening intently, another group obviously MB - involved in heated debates, and other groups discussing and arguing other points. (Obviously my Arabic isn't good enough to understand debates in full flow let alone I couldn't hear it clearly enough) but from my point of view seeing something not unalike 'speakers corner' in Hyde Park, London on a Sunday was encouraging). If you want to go up onto the central bit where the tents are, then you have to show ID to the volunteers (my UK provisional driving licence does the trick as I don't like carrying my passport about). I also noted that volunteers were doing the traffic cop duties. There are zillions of flags, t-shirts, badges available all round the area. I enjoyed it and glad I went up - first time I've been up there since the revolution! In other related news: (1) In the metro carriages I used today (women's ones), I noted that the metro station known as Mubarak had had its Arabic name scratched out and replaced with الشهداء(martyrs) (2) One version of the Lara Logan incident mentions bus stops in Tahrir - I noted two today - both near the Arab League building, one on the Mogamma side of the road and one on the same side of the road near one of the entrances to the metro. If I were going to give some credence to that version of events, then the one near the metro is the one I would say it could have most easily occurred at. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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