Feb. 15–The night Hosni Mubarak told Egyptians he was not going to step aside as president, CNN interviewed Wael Ghonim, the young Google executive credited with giving the protest its rolling start. Tears streaking down his face, he made his own defiant statement: “Kidnap me, kidnap all my colleagues. Put us in jail; kill us; do whatever you want to do. . . . We are getting back our country. . . . Enough. Enough. . . . “

Enough of the weight of fear. Enough of the insolence of power.

The cry for freedom rings in many tones. People stand up from time to time to fight authoritarian rule or racism or corruption and exploitation of all sorts.

Underneath it all, as in these past few weeks, is a desperate cry for respect rising from those whose voices are rarely, if ever, in the mix at the tables where decisions are made.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson used to raise the chant: “I am somebody.” He hit on the shortest, sharpest way to say: See me. Hear me. Acknowledge my worth. Treat me with the respect and dignity due a creature made, like you, in the image of God.

Respect and dignity. It’s the chant of millions. In Egypt, the hope is that the call has been heard. With vigilance and a heap of luck, those who stood up for the dignity of the masses may accomplish the change they seek.

Across the Mediterranean, in Italy, a different group of Somebodies is demanding the same. Thousands of Italian women are demanding the resignation of their prime minister. If the odds seemed slim of tossing out the immovable Mubarak, the prospect appears even slimmer that the Italian women will get the affirmation they are after.

Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, has what one might call a skirt problem. The 74-year-old has been at the center of many scandals involving relationships with comely young women, some underage, who get invited to wild parties in his mansion. In the latest scandal, a judge is considering whether Berlusconi should stand trial on charges that he paid for sex with a then-17-year-old exotic dancer who goes by the nickname Ruby the Heartstealer. Another allegation is that someone from the prime minister’s office got the Heartstealer released from police custody when she was arrested for theft. The phone call claimed — falsely — that she was the granddaughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The prime minister’s penchant for sex scandals is said to have prompted Pope Benedict recently to advise public officials to “rediscover their spiritual and moral roots.”

While Cairo was sweeping up after Mubarak this weekend, more than 100,000 women and supporters marched across Italy, according to the Washington Post, protesting Berlusconi’s conduct as degrading to female dignity. The New York Times quoted organizers as saying as many as a million protesters altogether turned out in 230 Italian cities and 28 cities worldwide, including Tokyo and Paris. At the central square in Rome where the main protest was held, the reports say, the music included the Aretha Franklin song pleading for a little Respect. Just to make the point.

The escapades of Berlusconi and other powerful men continually illustrate how difficult it can be to achieve the revolution in respect that eludes women and girls in so many situations. It would be so much easier, wouldn’t it, if respect could simply be legislated the way a constitution can be amended to give political voice to the powerless?

Egyptian revolutionaries have vowed to watch like hawks that the military put in place the mechanisms for freedom. It is hard to see what kinds of mechanisms would balance out the unequal relationships that create the equivalent of harems. Some of the Italian protesters incensed by the prime minister’s behavior with minors complained that many parents would do anything to get their daughters on television. Doing whatever. For the visibility and opportunity to catch the eye of a powerful “patron”?

Inequalities rooted in gender have been the norm for so long that it will take generations and millions more women refusing to be “dissed” to change the attitudes and behaviors that undermine respect.

Women have come a great long way in the past half-century, no question. The school doors are open wide, for example. There are few professions anymore that can’t point, at least, to its “first woman” this or that. But women still earn much less than men doing the same jobs. Respect has been a long time coming.

Ofobike is the Beacon Journal chief editorial writer. She can be reached at 330-996-3513 or by e-mail at [email protected]

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