Egypt's Female Candidates

Egyptian women braved sexual harassment and the fear of government military crack-downs, to appear alongside men at Tahrir Square last February to express their solidarity with the young men who led demonstrations protesting against unemployment, lack of opportunities, poverty and their militant, autocratic government leaving the people little in the way of social and political freedoms.

Inspired by the success of Tunisians who had protested against those very same issues, holding up before them the image of a young man who had martyred himself out of a sense of despair and loss of income to support his family, the Arab world was fired with the enthusiasm of mass dissent aspiring to the triumph of people power.

While the government of Tunisia has changed, from an imperious tyranny to that of an Islamist regime, the women of Tunisia who have long enjoyed equal rights enshrined in law have not yet received reason to be concerned that their rights of equality will be eroded under their new government. For the women of Egypt there is reason for concern.

The Muslim Brotherhood took the lions' share of voters' trust, while the Salafist Party has expressed its opinion that women should be restored to their proper place in a Sharia-led society, head-garbed and cloistered. Women in Egypt felt that finally they would find their place as elected co-leaders of government, with representation equal to their population numbers.

The country's first free elections left the voters options to express their aspirations for their country's future. Many women ran for office. But under the country's voting system candidate-name placement provides the guarantee for win-or-lose, and women's names were placed low down on every list.

In a vote that has brought the Salafists 25% of the vote, the Freedom & Justice Party of the Brotherhood 40%, and the female candidates not one win at all, how likely is it that Egypt will see equality of the genders legislated in the new Constitution any time soon?