Why Does Democracy and Freedom in Egypt Leave Out Women?

03.08.2011 By
women-egypt-530

Here we have a very clear situation where an integral understanding brings clarity into an otherwise utterly puzzling situation. The question we are solving for is this: Why Does Democracy and Freedom in Egypt Leave Out Women? As the world witnessed, throughout the protests in February, women were at the forefront. Their courage and sacrifice of the Egyptian women was equal to the Egyptian men. Yet, during the protests they not emphasize gender rights in a country where women have faced rampant discrimination and received little legal protection against widespread violence and sexual abuse. Egyptian women were careful not to display any intention of wanting to advance one groups rights over those of another. Why? "We did not speak of our gender rights during these protests because it was not the right time. We spoke for the political and social rights of all Egyptians. If we were to campaign for our rights as women in parallel with the revolutions national goal, that would … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Current Events, Featured, Worldviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Internet-Fueled Revolutions in 12 Countries… and Counting

02.21.2011 By
laptop-saudi-ahmed-al-omran-530

Have you been following the articles about how these young, new-breed leaders are using modern technology, especially social media, to start movements and transform their communities and countries? Inspired by Tunisia, Egyptian youth, armed only with internet skills, planned, executed, and succeeded in starting a revolution that ousted a 30-year authoritarian regime. And if you've been following the headlines, their success has inspired courageous groups across the Middle East and into North Africa. What began in Tunisia spread to Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria, Bahrain, and now Libya, Morocco, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Pictured on the right is Ahmed al-Omran, a 22-year-old Saudi university student, checks his Internet blog on his laptop computer at a cafe in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He represents tens of thousands of young people in the Middle East and North Africa that are active on Facebook, Twitter and Google. Technology poses big threats for autocratic and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture and Society, Current Events, Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Worldviews in Conflict: Egypt

02.08.2011 By
Egypt-protestors-530

Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square in February calling for Hosni Mubarak's government to step down. How might we view these important events through an integral lens? Worldview – a core concept in integral theory – would be a good place to start.  In leadership theory and practice, we look closely at individual and group worldview because it is indicative of people's values and beliefs about how the world is and should be, what they care about, and what motivates them. Can an entire society change (or attempt to change) worldviews? Of course. History is full of examples and we need to look no further than the current (Feb 2011) protests and government crisis in Egypt. For generations, Egyptians were more or less accepting of government rule by leaders that used "autocratic" and "authoritarian" leadership styles. These approaches to leadership tend to work well (be resonant) with people and cultures that have predominately "Imperial" and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Culture and Society, Current Events, Worldviews Tagged With: , , , , ,