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The patriarchy is alive and well in Egypt and the wider Arab world. Just because we got rid of the father of the nation in Egypt or Tunisia, Mubarak or Ben Ali, and in a number of other countries, does not mean that the father of the family does not still hold sway.

The patriarchy is alive and well in Egypt and the wider Arab world.

Israel's behavior when it comes to Egypt is that of a battered wife. Nothing but apologies.

If everyone got a divorce and looked for a second wife, the Coptic family would lose its moral compass.

My family lived in Egypt from 1993 to 1996.

Women enjoyed rights in Egypt they would not again enjoy for more than 2,000 years. They owned ships, ran vineyards, filed lawsuits, practiced medicine. Their husbands supported them after divorce. Their power was unprecedented.

Under Tunisian law, a woman can divorce her husband. Total equality.

Egypt was the first democracy in the Middle East. Women were unveiled in the 1920s. Egypt is a country of civilization, of culture. It shouldn't be suffering.

Egypt is the oldest, largest and most important Arab country in the region. What happens there affects them all.

We were the outliers: my mother was the only Western woman (khawagayya, in Egyptian Arabic) to have married into the family, and during my childhood, we were the only members living outside of Egypt. So between my father's prestige as the eldest son and my own exotic pedigree, I basked in the spotlight.