When she read these words by chance on a website, Omnia's life flashed before her eyes. She recalled getting married a few years ago to a man, who, her father said, was the right one for her.
She got married to him, not out of love but because she was brought up to say yes; she never knew the meaning of no.
After a year of marriage, she discovered that her husband was sterile. And for the first time she opened mouth and said no, demanding a divorce.
But the man was madly in love with her and tried his best to convince her to stay. However, her deep desire to be a mother was stronger.
She then recalled her long wait at the family court and the shock she felt when she was told that her husband’s sterility was not a good enough reason to ask for divorce, according to Article 29 of Law 25/1920, although the man has the right to marry another woman if his wife is sterile.
She also recalled selling her few properties in order to file for a khula’ divorce, according to which a Muslim woman can divorce her husband, provided she give up all her financial rights.
She had to return her husband’s dowry to him and even reimburse him for what he had provided during the marriage.
Then she looked at herself in the mirror; a few years previously, her face had been much more youthful and prettier.
"I spent years to take this simple right of mine. Justice in Egypt moves too slowly. I participated in the revolution because I had suffered a lot. I was one of millions shouting in Tahrir Square. I was saying 'Enough! I have rights and I will take them now!’," she explained.
"But it seems that 'now' is still far away," added Omnia, referring to the very slow pace of justice in Egypt, even since the revolution.
Omnia is one of many Egyptian women who have fought hard for their rights, but have yet to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
A few days ago, experts from different countries were invited to Cairo by the Swedish Institute in Alexandria and Karama, a regional NGO seeking to end violence against women, to attend the fourth meeting of the Think Tank for Arab Women.
The experts said that Egypt cannot move ahead while half of its population and half of its economic and intellectual potential is being neglected or marginalised.
"We can't neglect 50 per cent of Egyptians if we want to achieve democracy," said Ambassador Mervat el-Telawi, Egypt's former Minister of Social Affairs and a staunch supporter of women’s rights, during the meeting.
During the January 25th Revolution, thousands of women poured into Tahrir Square each day. They came on their own or with friends, colleagues, husbands and children. They included university students, teachers, doctors and housewives, Muslims, wearing the hijab or not, and Christians.
They took turns checking the IDs and bags of protesters, handing out food and manning the clinics, leading chants to fire up the protesters and running a steady stream of Facebook and Twitter posts.
The protests in Tahrir were meant to achieve freedom. Eight months later, women fear their rights are about to be taken away.
It seems that no-one remembers the leading role of women, who are now asking, "Don’t we have a political role to play in post-revolution Egypt?"
"We have had laws guaranteeing women's political rights since the days of Nasser, but they are rarely put into effect," said Mervat.
In general, women are considered second-class citizens in Egypt. Many of them lack any education, while more than 50 per cent can neither read nor write.
"The media play a very important role in marginalising women. They always turn the spotlight on men and rarely ask woman to speak about politics or democracy. You only see them on programmes about fashion and hairstyles," added the former Minister.
Eight months after the Egyptian revolution, as the country prepares for its first democratic elections, that elation and electrifying unity of purpose has given way to disappointment, even dread.
Egypt is preparing for its first democratic elections this autumn, but the timetable for a transition to civilian rule remains murky, and the country is beset by unrest and insecurity.
Many women fear they won’t be represented – or, worse, that existing rights may be taken away.
The Constitutional Amendments Committee appointed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) did not include any women.
The interim Government formed to oversee the country during the current transitional period only has one female Minister, even though there were four in the old regime.
The SCAF has been criticised for cancelling the quota of female MPs, which could well mean that women will end up occupying very few seats.
"The purpose of the revolution was to give Egyptians freedom, dignity and social justice. We don't want new dictators to control the country in the name of elections. If that happens we will object and demonstrate for women's rights and freedom," stressed Mervat. "The revolution wasn’t just for men; it was for all Egyptians."
Meanwhile, many of the laws that Egyptian women have been fighting to implement for the past 30 years are now under threat.
These laws include Law 1 of 2000, otherwise known as the Khula’ Law, which acts as an alternative for women whose husbands refuse to grant them divorce. Through this law, the court grants a woman a divorce, as long as she returns the dowry paid by her husband prior to the marriage.
Women also object to amendments made to several articles in Egypt’s Personal Affairs Law.
These amendments include changes made to the Custody Law 25 of 1929, amended by Law 4 of 2005, which gave divorced mothers the right to keep their children until the age of 15, instead of ten for a son and 12 for a daughter, as was previously the case.
The amendments also covered two articles in the Childhood Law, one of them being Article 31, which raises the age of marriage to 18.
After burning down the National Council for Women's Rights during the revolution, some men began demanding that the Government revise all laws related to marriage, divorce, and even child custody and visitation.
Protesters claimed that most women's rights were only designed to please the wife of ex-president Mubarak.
These protesters misinterpret Islam if they think that women are inferior to men. According to their misinterpretation, they deny women the right to judge or rule.
There is real concern that Egyptian women, who have fought so hard for rights and equality, are losing what they have gained and the opportunity of tomorrow.
This was very clear in the way women were treated during their march on International Women’s Day on 8th March. It was swift and brutal, as groups of men accosted the women, hurling insults and much worse. They were told to go home and wash clothes, that their actions were ‘un-Islamic’. Some of the women were groped or otherwise sexually harassed.
Things didn’t get any better the next day, when the Army cleared Tahrir Square of encamped protesters. Amnesty International reported that at least 18 female protesters were arrested, tortured and subjected to ‘virginity tests’.
The women told Amnesty that they had been handcuffed and beaten, strip-searched and photographed by male soldiers, then restrained by female soldiers while a man in a white coat performed a virginity check.
The military denied the accusations, but, in the past few days, a senior general has confirmed to CNN that, indeed, the virginity tests happened.
The general justified the abuse by saying these women "were not like your daughter or mine. These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters."
Also, when activist Bothaina Kamel announced that she would run for the country’s presidency (the only woman to do so thus far), the media here asked: “Can society accept this?”.
Islamic preachers have suggested that a woman can’t be President because menstruation incapacitates her!
"Women in Egypt feel oppressed. When I think about the status of women in Arab countries like Kuwait and Tunisia, I really feel sad for Egypt," she said.
Tunisia, which will hold elections for the Constituent Assembly late this month, has taken the lead by passing a law that there be an equal number of men and women candidates on the lists for the Assembly, with women and men appearing alternatively on the lists.
This latter requirement is critical for maximising the number of women who will actually get elected.
According to a recent Freedom House report, "Women have played a visible role in Tunisian society, representing 37 per cent of the working population, 56 per cent of students, 24 per cent of magistrates and 22 per cent of the executive positions in the Tunisian Civil Service."
The previous Parliament, dissolved after the fall of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s regime, had the most women in the region. This Constituent Assembly will frame how Tunisia will govern itself in future and how women will fare in that future.
"As Tunisian women, we believe that democracy should reach every Arab country. We wish to achieve equality between men and women.
This doesn't mean fighting men. I will vote in the elections. I won't vote for a woman because she is a woman, but because she is efficient. In Tunis, women play top roles but, still, we feel that there is a long way to go," said Ensaf Wahba, a Tunisian cinema researcher and activist.
Meanwhile, this year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded jointly to three women – Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian Leymah Gbowee and Tawakul Karman of Yemen.
They were recognised for their "non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work".
The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to these three women recognises that democracy and lasting peace cannot be achieved without giving women the full opportunity to participate, Human Rights Watch said last week.
It also highlights the challenges that women continue to face, in Yemen and all over the world, to ensure that their human rights remain at the top of the agenda.
"This is a tribute to all women whose tireless work and brave protests have helped bring about peace and democracy, and to those women who are still fighting for this today,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch.
