The demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square continue. Although Egypt’s citizens have toppled Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year dictatorship, they still lack the basic rights that are taken for granted in a modern democracy. The complaint holds particularly true for Egypt’s women, whose role in the current interim government is even smaller than what they had under the Mubarak regime.
At a U.N.-sponsored meeting in New York last week, Hillary Clinton spoke out for the women of Tahrir Square. Calling the fight for women’s rights around the world “one of the great pieces of unfinished business in the 21st century,” the U.S. secretary of state warned that if the women who were vital participants in Egypt’s revolution are excluded from remaking the country, “it will not be a true democracy.”
Egypt hasn’t always been so inhospitable to women’s rights. In ancient times, historians say, it enjoyed vastly greater sexual equality than most other societies of the era. Today, however, the country has some serious catching up to do. Here are nine of the women – some prominent, some obscure – who are working to build a new Egypt.
