A Battered Wife

Imagine the scene … a dim light in small house, a woman sitting down crying with her hands covering her face. In comes a big guy into the room and looks at her and ask her to stop crying. She does not want to listen to him. She tells him it is over between them, as she removes her hands from her face; the light is shinning on the marks on her face of the fight they had.

But he sits down and try and talk to her, he tells her that he loves her and that she is the one for him, he says that she pushed his buttons and made him so angry that he had to hit her, he tells her that he wants the family to stay together and for the sake of the kids she must stay with him. He tells her that he is not like other guys who beat their wives so badly that they end up in hospital when their men are angry, and it is only few bruises on her face and it will heal very quickly. He tells her that he knows best and she is better leaving all the decisions for him and not to interfere in the future.

Now….this is what is happening in Egypt at the moment, A battered and helpless wife's relation with the one who is in charge, the one the wife used to love. Look at the army arresting and killing innocent civilians, “but we are not like the Syrian or the Libyan armies” you hear them say. “We know best and for the sake of stability of the country we need to rule with an iron fist”. “Some people are protesting so much and stopping normal life and so we had to intervene by force” the “you pushed me to do it” story. So many excuses and while the battered wife used to be able to call for her neighbours for help, at the moment the world is watching and getting more immune to the numbers who are getting killed each day. The majority respond by saying: “but at least it is not like Syria”. True, but how do you feel if I say to the people of Norway after the killings last week, “ah at least it is not like the twin towers in USA” This will be the most inappropriate thing to say.

A life is a life; injustice hurts whether it is against 10 people or 1000 people. The whole police force in the UK was under huge, long and expensive investigation for the unlawful death of a newspaper seller in London during a protest last year. What is happening in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Palestine and many other places is not acceptable on any level. However, brutal force in one place does not excuse extreme force in another.

One thing about battered wives, they may believe the lies first, but they soon learn to stand up and defend themselves. I believe that Egypt will.