Meanwhile back at the Egyptian, He-man, Woman Haters Club

This just makes my head hurt. (Tip of the aching head to LGF)
Woman candidate for Egypt parliament holds men superior

Makarem al-Deiri is standing for election to the Egyptian parliament next month after a long academic career but she makes no bones about her view that a woman's place is in the home. The only woman candidate backed by Egypt's influential Muslim Brotherhood, the 55-year-old mother of seven insists there is no point arguing for sexual equality as such a demand "goes against nature."

Let's start with the Muslim Brotherhood. Here's what the CIA factbook had to say about them:

Despite a constitutional ban against religious-based parties, the technically illegal Muslim Brotherhood constitutes MUBARAK's potentially most significant political opposition; MUBARAK tolerated limited political activity by the Brotherhood for his first two terms, but moved more aggressively since then to block its influence.

Back to our candidate. She's riding the coattails of her dead convict husband. Ick. Her opponent, Mustafa al-Sallab sounds like he should be a Republican. Interesting. Even more interesting, she's a wolf in sheep's clothing as well. She is running as an Independent and says things like this:

We want to govern according to our Islamic sharia" law.

I always like to look at the literacy rates in the countries with He-Man-Women-Haters Clubs. Here's Egypt's courtesy of the CIA factbook:

total population: 57.7%
male: 68.3%
female: 46.9% (2003 est.)

In case you're wondering. Here's the latest US stats:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 97%
male: 97%
female: 97% (1999 est.)

Our candidate is one of the lucky few that can read. She has a PhD on "Islamic references in the poetry of Hazef Ibrahim and Ahmed Shawki." She is also a throwback.

...she is adamant that the drive for gender equality is behind many of the social problems of the West. "Violence against women and children in Western societies stems from going against the idea that men are superior to women," she says. "Almighty God entrusted man with being the family's breadwinner and granted him the right to repudiate his wife. "Women are impulsive, they ask for divorce and then they regret their decision." She denies that her views prevent her being an effective advocate of women's rights and vows to campaign against "men's abuse of their superiority," if elected to parliament. "The problem in our society is that Islam is misunderstood," she says.

Damn that Eve in the Garden of Eden! It's always the girl's fault... but what does Muslim News have to say about our girl and the Brotherhood's chances for electoral success?

The officially banned Muslim Brothers groups in Egypt nominated 150 members for the next parliamentary elections in the country, doubling thereby number of its candidates in which it took part in the elections of year 2000, in what it considered as an increase in freedom and political awareness.

Among the groups's 150 candidates is only one woman taking part in the elections. She is a professor at the literary criticism at al-Azhar university Makarem al-Deiri. Al-Deiri, 55 year old) and a mother of six, would be the first parliamentarian in the Egyptian people's assembly to fight discrimination against veiled women in the work place, and would defend the rights of the oppressed women and would work to correct misconceptions such as that Islam repress the woman.