Are women worse off after the Arab Spring?

While ridding the Muslim world of the dictators who made life difficult for men living under their iron fists was good for the men, what has this done for the women? Women who were briefly given equality during the Russian occupation in Afghanistan were rudely torn away from their jobs and education as soon as the Mujaheddin took over. Women professors in Iran were fired once the Mullahs took over Iran from the students who started the rebellion and were forbidden to teach.

The story is repeating itself in Egypt and Libya. There have been a spate of articles detailing the disenfranchisement of the women who were equal partners in the rebellion but have been shunted to the sidelines as the men consider enforcing Shariah law.

In this recent NY Times article, the women who aided the rebellion against Qaddafi are being given no place in the emerging leadership. "Libya’s 45-member Transitional National Council includes just one woman. The council’s headquarters does not have a women’s bathroom."

In 'Three cups of tea,' Mortensen writes that to lift a village out of poverty, one must educate the girls. They return to the village and rise it up out of poverty. The same must apply to a country. We must encourage the countries that emerge from the Arab spring to ensure education of women to bring them out of poverty and into the first world.