RISING UP

Egypt’s Women Demand Reform

Upcoming march will press for change after uprising.

At the height of the revolution in Egypt, roughly one quarter of its million protesters were women who fought alongside men, defying traditions of gender inequality. Now they’re looking for their fair share in the country’s reform movement. A million women’s march is planned for Tuesday, and women were spotted in Egypt’s Tahrir Square this weekend wearing unofficial police uniforms and urging men to remember the role women played in the uprising. Still, Egypt’s got a long way to go: The World Economic Forum recently ranked Egypt near the bottom of the ladder of 134 countries in terms of gender equality, partly because 42 percent of women cannot read or write and almost no women are political leaders. It’s a step ahead of other countries like Bahrain, where female protesters were only allowed to sleep and pray in a roped-off women's section.