ORAN, Algeria — AFTER Tahrir came
Cologne. After the square came sex. The Arab revolutions of 2011 aroused
enthusiasm at first, but passions have since waned. Those movements have come
to look imperfect, even ugly: For one thing, they have failed to touch ideas,
culture, religion or social norms, especially the norms relating to sex.
Revolution doesn’t mean modernity.
The attacks on Western women by
Arab migrants in Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve evoked the harassment of
women in Tahrir Square itself during the heady days of the Egyptian revolution.
The reminder has led people in the West to realize that one of the great
miseries plaguing much of the so-called Arab world, and the Muslim world more
generally, is its sick relationship with women. In some places, women are
veiled, stoned and killed; at a minimum, they are blamed for sowing disorder in
the ideal society. In response, some European countries have taken to producing
guides of good conduct to refugees and migrants.
