A look at Egyptian women’s marginalisation in recent history (1/2)
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Figure 1. Khedive Ismail (1906). From Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA), |
Egyptian women have a great struggle history – and, like all African women, also a history of marginalisation of their social and political struggles. In the Egyptian Revolution of 1919 women struggled for their rights in terms of education and equality. They also struggled against the British occupation, as well as against men. However, there have been many attempts to distort women's historical struggle in Egypt, mostly contributed to by religious-political propaganda. Hence, although women were very influential in Egyptian society from the 1960s until the start of the 1970s, the Sadat regime allowed many religious men to denigrate the feminist pioneers, as well as any women who demanded their rights. This situation continues to this day. This open forum discusses this largely silent history, as well as the impact of ingress by Islamic groups in the marginalisation of women's social and political role. It also considers the question of whether the employment of women in the highest positions of State is due to a genuine conviction of their role in society, or just political propaganda.
When I started to write about the history of Egyptian women’s marginalisation, I discovered that this subject requires the study of many sources and references – and would certainly exceed the limits of this open forum, or a chapter in a book. This subject really deserves to have an entire book devoted to it, explaining some of the ambiguities and thorny issues involved. Although there are multiple historical and social studies on topics concerning Egyptian women, when it comes to the subject of marginalisation, such studies remain confined to academic bookshelves. Most of these are not available to the public or intellectuals, and thus the subject remains largely unknown – the intent behind this being a point of suspicion. Whenever the matter of marginalisation is raised, the many voices denying its existence are linked to claims of religion and heritage, and may even revile those who raise issues of Egyptian women’s marginalisation in their attempts to support and regain some of their human rights.
The rising tide of religious extremism in the region has made the issue of the marginalisation of Egyptian women a hornet’s nest. Feminists should warn and be warned of the potential for violent reactions, whether verbal or physical. Those who hold extremist religious views consider the Egyptian women's liberation movements and women's struggle to be a reflection of the Western secular thought which began to spread in Egyptian society after the British occupation in July 1882.
Egyptian women's struggle is also a call to liberate society from religious ethics and legal requirements; a call to relax wearing of the hijab/veil, restrict divorce, prevent polygamy, and allow for equal inheritance, as well copying Western tradition. Thus, women’s struggle is also against the religious norms in society. This may lead to reprimands by traditional members of society against those who adopt, support and advocate the ideas of women’s struggle, and often their ideas of women's liberation lead to demands for atonement from traditionally religious men. Therefore, those who engage in women's movement fieldwork in Egypt, and scholars who seek to study the movement, its history and development, are walking through a proverbial minefield.
In spite of the long history of women’s struggle in Egypt, it is often dated and linked in recent history to women’s participation in the demonstrations of the 1919 revolution. This is especially highlighted by the fall of the first Egyptian martyr, Ms Shafiqa Mohamed, who was slain by British occupation forces during the revolution (Huda Sha'arawi, in Badran, 2013:122). Four years later, on 16 March 1923, the anniversary of the first political demonstration which Egyptian women took part in, the Egyptian Women's Union (EWU) was established.
Egyptian women’s struggle to obtain some of their natural rights officially started during the 1870s. In 1873 Princess Jeshm Afet Hanimefendi, the wife of Khedive Isma'il, who ruled from 1863 to 1879, founded the first free public school to teach girls in Egypt. By August 1873, Al-Waqa'i’ al-Misriyya, the official gazette of Egypt, had published the Khedive’s decision on establishment of the school in issue No. 519, under the title ‘The establishment of an internal and external school for educating the girls’. The Sioufia School started out in the palace of Prince Taz in Cairo, and by 1889 the Office of Education (Dewan Al-Ma'arf) had reorganised the school and transferred it to the home of Hafez Bey Ramadan at El Madina Street. In 1891 it moved into its current headquarters in Cairo and became known by its current name, El Sania School. Establishment of this school could be considered as the first seed of the women's struggle in Egypt.
I discuss here part of the history of the Egyptian feminist movement, by linking it with the policy orientations of successive governments, especially during the second half of the 1970s, a critical period of political alliances in Egypt at both official and popular level. This was a period of major developments, with very serious repercussions on the gains achieved by the feminist movement during its recent history. I shall attempt to answer the question of whether the government’s policy actually supports the women's liberation movement in Egypt, or secretly opposed it and exploited it in public for political gain.
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A promising beginning
Prior to establishment of the Egyptian girls’ school, only the financially secure social class could educate their daughters, and this was done at home. Previously, girls and women never left their houses for education; this would have been disapproved of and regarded as reprehensible in Egyptian society during that period. However, most women were working in the labour market due to widespread poverty across Egyptian society, and they and their young daughters were not allowed to go to school.
It should be noted that education was not widespread among Egyptian people in general, of either gender, and especially not among the poor – which was, and still is, the vast majority of society. Only those who could afford to do so sent their sons for religious education. The reign of Khedive Ismail (1863–1879) (Figure 1) is very important, as this really was the time of an educational renaissance. He aspired to elevate the Egyptian State to be on par with modern European countries. Parliament made remarkable progress during Isma'il's reign, and he also aspired to have a Constitution by organising the relationship between State institutions, as well as between Government and citizens of the State. Mohamed Sherif Pasha, the Prime Minister, presented the first draft of the Egyptian Constitution to Parliament in 1879, but Khedive Isma'il was removed from office by 26 June 1879, and hence neither he nor Parliament were able to ratify it.
Figure 1. Khedive Ismail (1906).
From Travelers in the Middle East Archive (TIMEA),
https://hdl.handle.net/1911/20885. CC 2.5
Britain and France sought the support of Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in order to dismiss Khedive Isma'il Pasha from ruling Egypt in 1879. This was due to fear of the Egyptian State’s influence increasing under Khedive Ismail's rule, since he developed education and established a parliamentary system, and his regime also controlled the maritime trade route of all coasts along the Red Sea up to Hafun/Xaafuun in Somalia on the Indian Ocean, and opened the Suez Canal in 1869. It also controlled from the Nile Basin in Sudan up to northern Uganda, and was keen to annex Ethiopia; such a strategy could have seen Egypt inherit the collapsed Ottoman Empire, forming an obstacle between Europe and its present and future colonies in Africa. This would have made Egypt a partner in the imperialist system ruled by Britain and France. Hence their keenness to eliminate this regime. Controlling the future political system in Egypt would guarantee and preserve the form of the Ottoman Empire, and guarantee the interests of Britain and France.
The first public and fee-free school for girls was a very important step in the Egyptian women's liberation movement, and many of the pioneers of this movement graduated from El Sania School. This includes Nabawiyya Musa (Figure 2), one of the pioneers in education and advocacy for equality with men, and the first Egyptian woman to receive the higher teacher’s degree, in 1906. By 1923 the EWU Committee had been formed:
The Egyptian Women's Union Committee was formed following up an invitation from the International Women's Union Association in early 1923 to attend the Rome Conference. Such participation has been a major contribution to changing the Westerners’ perception of Egyptian women. (Huda Sha'arawi, in Badran, 2013:270)
Figure 2. Nawabiyya Musa (Creative Commons C0).
It is certain that women's participation in the demonstrations against the English occupation of Egypt in the 1919 revolution had an impact on this invitation by the International Women's Union. The fact that the Egyptian women's delegation was traveling to Rome aroused the ire of reactionaries during that period, but despite this they still left. The women's delegation included feminist personalities such as Huda Sha'arawi (Figure 3), Siza Nabarawy, Regina Khayat, and Esther Wissa Wassef (Abou-Ghazi, 2009). In 1921, during the activities of the Revolution, Huda Sha'arawi, as the head of the Women's Committee, sent several letters of political protest to Lord Edmund Allenby, British High Commissioner for Egypt and Sudan, as well as to the Egyptian Prime Minister and European ambassadors. This was to decry the fact that European governments had supported the policy of violence during British occupation in Egypt, with martial law imposed, and peaceful demonstrators facing gunfire. On 20 January 1922 the Central Committee of the delegation held an extraordinary meeting which resulted in a political statement containing nine resolutions. These included the return of the nation's leader and head of the Egyptian delegation, Saad Zaghloul and his colleagues from exile, with restoration of their freedoms; the abolition of martial law; the abolition of British protection, imposed on Egypt from 1914; and a boycott of all English goods and service providers, whether merchants, doctors, pharmacists, employees, etc. (Huda Sha'arawi, in Badran, 2013:190).
Figure 3. Huda Sha’arawi, head of the Egyptian Women's Union Committee,
in round about 1900 (CC-PD-Mark).
At the social level the EWU played a very decisive role in adopting two important principles, which every girl in Egypt is grateful for to this day. The first was the right to full equality between girls and boys in secondary and higher education, and the second was enactment of a law prohibiting the marriage of girls before the age of 16 years (Huda Sha'arawi, in Badran, 2013:177).
However, despite the gains which women made during this period of political and social struggle, neither the monarchy in Egypt at the time nor successive governments paid genuine attention to the status of Egyptian women, unless EWU pressed to impose some natural rights of women. Also, most of the issues that EWU was struggling against, such as the early marriage of girls to much older husbands, and polygamy, primarily affected the rights of women of the aristocratic class and bourgeoisie. While these customs pervaded all classes of Egyptian society, daughters of the upper classes and women in society first expressed their rejection of these unnatural and illogical situations, but needed moral support from all classes of society in order to fight the battles of liberation.
While gains in the natural rights of all women without discrimination benefitted all Egyptian women over time, the benefits achieved were less than would have been achieved if education and enlightenment extended to most of the middle and poor classes in Egypt. I assume that this was the aim of educational policy during the Khedive Isma'il's reign. At the time of his founding of the El Sania School for the education and enlightenment of Egyptian peasant girls in 1873, there were about 200 students; by the following year, this had doubled to 400. Tuition was completely free at first, in addition to funds being spent on the girls’ food and clothing. Subjects included arithmetic, geography, history, embroidery, and textiles. As mentioned earlier, in 1889 the Office of Education decided to relocate the school, and in 1891 it was moved and its name changed to El Sania. At this point school fees were imposed, which the common people of Egypt were not capable of paying. It should be noted that the imposition of tuition fees occurred after British occupation of Egypt in July 1882.
By the late 19th century cinema had entered Egypt, and from the beginning of the 20th century cultural changes became more evident. Both the Egyptian University and the School of Fine Arts were opened in 1908. The Egyptian University had halls dedicated to educating women of the upper classes through lectures by feminist pioneers. Establishment of the Fine Arts School led to patronage of the fine arts by women of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie (Abou-Ghazi, 2009), and also led to middle-class interest in fine art, especially in larger towns such as Cairo and Alexandria.
Therefore, it can be said that most of the Egyptian regimes’ general policy after 1882 have considered women's issues as a sort of beautification of the ruling aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. Women's issues would have achieved more in society, and faster, if the pioneers had demanded opening a free section at the Egyptian University in 1908 to educate every girl and woman from all social classes. Narrowing accessibility to just the upper classes indicates a kind of racism in dealing with women of the middle and poor classes.
The feminist pioneers published articles on women’s liberation in newspapers, while the writings of Qasim Amin, one of the staunchest supporters of Egyptian women’s liberation, were prolific.
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