"The Street is Ours"

Journalists' Syndicate Cairo June 9 2005 Press Statement

"The Street is Ours" is the slogan upheld by the gathering of Thursday June 9 at the Journalists' Syndicate. This gathering has been organized by a group of Egyptian women who were present at the May 25 demonstrations. The democratic forces that had boycotted the May 25 referendum came together on this day to protest attempts to cast a veneer of legitimacy over a regime which has oppressed the Egyptian people for 24 years through emergency rule, detention, torture, unemployment, impoverishment and which still desperately hangs on to power.

On Wednesday the 25th, the Ministry of the Interior and the thugs hired by the ruling National Democratic Party targeted female demonstrators with violence and sexual harassment. Though this tactic is not new, its use in broad daylight in the streets of the capital sets a new precedent. The message of the Ministry of the Interior to the women present at the demonstration was clear: STAY HOME.

This was not the first time that sexual harassment has been used to frighten women away and discourage them from participating in public life. They have harassed us before on public buses…when we have objected they simply said: stay home…they have harassed us in the workplace…when we have objected they simply said: stay home …they have harassed us at demonstrations…when we have objected they simply said: stay home.

The event of the following Wednesday, June 1st was our response to all those who seek to frighten the sons and daughters of this nation. Egyptian women led hundreds of protesters shrouded in black outside the Journalists' syndicate demanding the dismissal of the Minister of the Interior and senior officers and a legal investigation into the events of May 25. The demonstrators showed the world that the will of the Ministry of the Interior was broken by the will of the people who aspire for a dignified life in a democratic country.

"The street is Ours" is a popular political gathering organized by women to which men, women and children are invited to hear the testimonies of women on attempts to frighten them away from politics, the workplace and public life in general. At this gathering we will reassert our equal rights as citizens of this country. Men and women gathered at this meeting will lay down a common strategy to reclaim public space and to advance the struggle for democracy and equality in Egypt.