Is "Democratic" Egypt Progressing or Regressing?

As elections in Egypt continue, Western politicians and Western media assure us of one thing: that Egyptians can finally vote is great “progress.”

But is the mere right and act of voting a valid sign of “progress”? No, at root, democracy is a mode of governance that simply empowers the people. True “progress” is gauged by what these people do with their empowerment—the civilization they create, the codes they institute.

Consider this picture: on the right is a painting of an Egyptian woman, as women appeared some three thousand years before the invasion of Islam, when Egypt was among the first of civilizations; on the left is a typical Egyptian woman of today, a product of Arab-Islamic civilization.

Far from “romanticizing” the past, these juxtaposed portraits, separated by nearly 5,000 years, make a valid point. As many historians agree, ancient Egyptian women were “liberated” by antiquity’s standards. Today, on the other hand, not only are Muslim women in Egypt kept “under wraps,” but, indoctrinated by the words of their prophet, some maintain that “women are deficient in intelligence.”

So, euphemisms and semantics aside—”democracy,” “elections,” “voting”—is Egypt progressing or regressing in time?

In fact, with each passing decade it has been regressing, bit by bit; and now that the people have spoken—empowering the Muslim Brotherhood and their Salafi henchmen—Egypt prepares to plummet headlong into a new dark age of primitivism.