Feminists, Islam, and nation: gender and the making of modern Egypt

371 Pages·1995·1.58 MB·English

by  Margot Badran

Feminists, Islam, and Nation

Feminists, Islam, and Nation
GENDER AND THE MAKING OF
MODERN EGYPT
• MARGOT BADRAN •
P R I N C E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
P R I N C E T O N , N E W J E R S E Y
Copyright©1995byPrincetonUniversityPress
PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet,
Princeton,NewJersey08540
IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress,
Chichester,WestSussex
AllRightsReserved
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Badran,Margot
Feminists,Islam,andnation:genderandthemakingof
modernEgypt/MargotBadran.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-691-03706-X
1.Feminism—Egypt—History. 2.Women—Egypt—History.
3.Muslimwomen—Egypt—History. I.Title.
HQ1793.B33 1994
305.42′0962—dc20 94-19055 CIP
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinLaserSabon
PrincetonUniversityPressbooksareprintedonacid-freepaperandmeettheguidelines
forpermanenceanddurabilityoftheCommitteeonProductionGuidelinesfor
BookLongevityoftheCouncilonLibraryResources
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
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T O T H E M E M O R Y O F M Y P A R E N T S
MARGARET WOODS FARRANTO
• •
JOSEPH DOMINIC FARRANTO

• C O N T E N T S •
PREFACE ix
NOTEONTRANSLITERATIONANDTRANSLATION xiii
ABBREVIATIONS xv
INTRODUCTION 3
PARTONE:RISINGFEMINISTCONSCIOUSNESS 29
CHAPTER1
TwoLivesinChangingWorlds 31
CHAPTER2
ClaimingPublicSpace 47
CHAPTER3
Thinking Gender 61
CHAPTER4
EgyptforWhichEgyptians? 74
PARTTWO:THEFEMINISTMOVEMENT 89
CHAPTER5
TheHouseoftheWoman 91
CHAPTER6
CitySisters,CountrySisters 111
CHAPTER7
RecastingtheFamily 124
CHAPTER8
EducatingtheNation 142
CHAPTER9
WomenHaveAlwaysWorked 165
CHAPTER10
TrafficinWomen 192
CHAPTER11
SuffrageandCitizenship 207
viii • C O N T E N T S •
PARTTHREE:THEWIDENINGCIRCLE 221
CHAPTER12
ArabFeminism 223
NOTES 251
BIBLIOGRAPHY 317
INDEX 339
• P R E F A C E •
IFIRSTHEARDofHudaSha‹rawiwhenafellowAmericangraduatestudent
suggested I study her. Who was Huda Sha‹rawi, I silently wondered. He
confessed that he too had never heard of her until he moved into a flat on
Huda Sha‹rawi Streetin thecenterof Cairo.Aftermaking inquiries hedis-
covered that she had led the first feminist movement in Egypt early in this
century. I instantly became interested. This was in the 1960s, when
“women’s history” had scarcely been imagined. I had no idea how to go
about researching this feminist leader except by “asking around,” as one
wouldseekoutalostfriend.OnedayImettwowomenwhohadbeenclose
to Huda Sha‹rawi: her lifelong feminist associate Saiza Nabarawi and her
niece Hawwa› Idris, also a committed feminist. They became the first
womeninalongchainwhooverthemonthsandyearsledmetofarcorners
ofCairo, to Alexandria, toMinya,andbeyondEgypt.Thesemanywomen
unlockedtheirmemories,sharedtheirpersonalpapers,andopeneduptheir
privatelibrariestome.
Newlyarmedwithnamesofwomenwritersandtitlesofbooks,Imarched
to the old Dar al-Kutub in Port Sa‹id Street where I discovered a cache of
women’s magazines and newspapers from the 1890s. At al-Azhar, where I
wasstudyingArabic,IborrowedbooksonwomenandIslamanddebatedat
great length with my teacher, Shaykh Yahiya Hashim. A few years later I
begangraduatestudiesatOxfordUniversitywhereIcontinuedmyhistorical
investigationofEgyptianfeminismunderthesupervisionofAlbertHourani,
writing a dissertation entitled “Huda Sha‹rawi and the Liberation of the
EgyptianWoman.”Bythistimewomen’sstudiesandwomen’shistorywere
taking shape as disciplines, and I eagerly plunged deeper and deeper into
more research, continually thinking and rethinking Egyptian feminism as I
moved between Egypt and the West. Earlier fruits of this labor have ap-
peared in two books and numerous articles I published in the 1980s and
1990s.
With the completion of this book the pleasurable moment has come to
rememberthosewhohelpedmealongthewayandtooffermythanks.Istart
with Bruce Craig, then agraduate student in Cairo and now Bibliographer
for Middle EasternStudiesattheJoseph RegsteinLibraryoftheUniversity
ofChicago,forintroducingmetoHudaSha‹rawi.Iamdeeplygratefultothe
women in Egypt who started me on my journey into Egyptian feminism,
who accompanied me along the way, and without whom this book, which
tellstheirstory,wouldnothaveexisted.Hawwa›IdrisandSaizaNabarawi
openedtheirpersonalarchivesofcorrespondence,memoranda,andphoto-
graphs,andtheircollectionsofbooksandjournals.Hawwa›Idrisloanedme
hercopyofHudaSha‹rawi’smemoirs.MaryKahil,oneofthelastoftheold
salonnières, placed me in contact with numerous women and also turned