On the campaign trail, Egypt's next president, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, has aimed much of his attention at women. They are "the calm, soft and rational voice in the house", he said in one interview. "I'm asking you now to preserve our bigger house: Egypt."
On Monday, women at several polling stations in north Cairo appeared to respond to his call, vastly outnumbering male voters. But one women's group stayed home – the female wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, which boycotted the election.
If the last 11 months have been brutal for the Brotherhood, they have also been transformative for the women who have long operated in its shadow: the Muslim Sisterhood.
Not long ago, this was a group that rarely protested on its own and was usually led by men.
Now some of its members gather almost daily inside university campuses in protests co-ordinated and attended exclusively by women – and sometimes they have gathered in the streets.
When 14 members of the Sisterhood were initially sentenced to 11 years in prison [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/07/egypt-frees-21-female-protesters] for protesting last winter, it was not just the severity of the jail terms that raised eyebrows: it was that they were in the streets at all.
"The girls can speak their thoughts now, and they can have their own demonstrations," says one young member, Fatima. "And that never happened before."
This has led some to demand a bigger long-term role within the wider Muslim Brotherhood group. "It can't be like before, when we were blindly loyal," says Fatima. "We are getting detained, we're getting attacked in the streets – so we must have some say."
Founded in the 1930s, less than a decade after the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood previously focused on social work. Members of the Brotherhood have often expressed extremely regressive ideas about women's role in society. Sisterhood members have never been allowed to join the Brotherhood's leadership board, and cannot vote on internal decisions. Now its youngest members increasingly say they should be given both rights.
"We were used to playing a secondary role," says Sarah Kamal, a designer in her 20s, and a Muslim Sister. "Both men and women were used to women playing a secondary role. But that's changing for sure."
The turning point came last August, after the massacre of hundreds of Brotherhood supporters at their Rabaa al-Adawiya protest camp was followed by the arrest of thousands of the group's upper ranks. This wrecked the rigid chains of command in the space of a few days, causing the group to become far less centralised.
In official interviews, Brotherhood spokesmen in Europe claim the group's hierarchical structure remains intact. In practice the post-Rabaa crackdown left few leaders at liberty, so junior members became more autonomous – not just in the Sisterhood, but across the wider group.
"One of the problems in the Brotherhood before the revolution, or even Rabaa, was that the youth were not very involved in taking decisions. But after the coup, and after Rabaa, many of the leaders were arrested. So things changed. The students inside the Brotherhood started making their own way," says Sara Mohamed, a student who left the Sisterhood because of its attitude towards women but retains strong ties to its members.
Many members speak of the seismic effect the massacre had on the group, in both psychological and operational terms. "It made us rethink our whole way of thinking – both externally and internally," says Kamal. "We're against the arrests [of leaders], but it's in our interests for us to work without leadership, because it gives us space to think without the old routine."
What will come of this space is unknown. The Brotherhood may never rise again – and when imagining a hypothetical future in which its leaders are released, no one can predict whether the hierarchy would remain intact, or whether women would play a greater role.
"When we come again, God willing, the old way of working won't work," says Kamal. "We shouldn't just have orders without consultation. And I think the youth movement will be the main force of power." Otherwise, according to Fatima the protester, "there will be a revolution inside the group".
But others are less sure – particularly about women. According to Hoda Abdel Moneim, a senior Muslim Sister, women have long been active in the Brotherhood, and do not need to be a part of its leadership. "We always had a role – before, during and after the [recent] events," she says, noting that one of ousted president Mohamed Morsi's key advisers – Pakinam el-Sharkawy – was a woman. "It's not true that women's opinions are only considered because the men are absent. It was always like this."
Others may disagree, but they admit that the appetite for change may not be universal, even among the Sisterhood: the number of members who have taken on more political responsibility since last summer is still small. And even some of those who would like a bigger role say they would ultimately defer to their husbands.
"Obeying your husband is a very important value that we have to respect,even if you're not convinced about what they are saying," says Esra, a member in her 40s.
But on this score, there may be a generational divide. Sitting next to Esra, Hend – a Muslim Sister half Esra's age – cuts off her colleague. "My social and political work is not something my husband should be involved in," Hend says. "I think that the women will push for representation because we're now a separate group, and they will have to accept that."
The difference of opinion may also fall along geographic lines. "The people in Cairo and Alexandria will never accept the old ways of dealing with things, " says Mohamed. "But in the Said [the south of Egypt], in the countryside, they believe that the old people never go wrong, never say anything that will harm us. And they're the biggest sector inside the Brotherhood – so we need a lot more time."
• Some names have been changed for safety reasons.
Additional reporting by Manu Abdo and Lotfy Salman