{"id":46,"date":"1996-03-25T19:10:45","date_gmt":"1996-03-25T17:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fawwaztraboulsi.com\/?p=46"},"modified":"2026-04-13T17:14:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T14:14:30","slug":"modern-arab-feminism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/modern-arab-feminism\/","title":{"rendered":"Modern Arab Feminism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CS III Common Lecture, Monday, March 25th, 1996<\/p>\n<p><strong>I. The Nahda (mid-19th century-WWI)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. The woman\u2019s question central to the <em>Nahdah<\/em> problematic as the woman\u2019s inferior status was seen as the basic cause for the backwardness of the Arab and Islamic worlds. The main writers if the <em>Nahdah<\/em> were unanimous that there will be no renaissance for Arabs and Muslims without the participation and liberation of women. Bustani, Tahtawi, Afghani, `Abdu, Qasim Amin and Tahir Haddad<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; great emphasis on women\u2019s education<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. The pionneers <\/strong>have in common idea that women\u2019s liberation comes mainly through education. But they envisaged an educated bourgeois or aristocratic woman confined to her home and the rearing of her children.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Qasim Amin (1863-1908): first book on the liberation of women \u201cTahrir al-Mar\u2019ah\u201d (1899). \u201cNew woman\u201d (1900): woman\u2019s equality: she is not an inferior creature; polygamy impedes the progress of woman and society<\/p>\n<p>3. Ahmad Faris al-Chidyaq (1804-1887):<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <em>Al-Saq `Ala al-Saq<\/em> (Paris 1855): founding text in Arabic modernity and literature (a new Arabic language) was written in praise of women and the Arabic language as the author declares and adds that while writing his book, \u201c<strong>as if he had become himself a woman<\/strong>\u201d. In contrast to the rest of the <em>Nahdah<\/em> pioneers, Shidyaq considered that the right to work was not only the main value of modern civilization but the main factor in the renaissance of the Arabs. He urged the right of women to work; attacked segregation because it treats woman as a sexual object. He was the first toraise the equal right of women to divorce, and critiqued the double standards in dealing with women\u2019s infidelity. The radical novelty of Shidyaq writings on women was<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>repression of woman\u2019s instincts as basis of male domination<\/li>\n<li>woman\u2019s equal right to pleasure<\/li>\n<li>treated prostitution not as a moral question but as a consequence of poverty<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>II. The Beginnings (between the two wars)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Battle against veil and segregation. \u201cunveiling or death\u201d! (Zahhawi)<\/p>\n<p>2. The battle for Education, Work, Access to administative posts, Equality of Rights&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1928, Egyptian Universities opened to girls,<\/li>\n<li>Work: in1920, Egyptian women workers impose first legislations on working hours,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>3. Women\u2019s press:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hind Nawfal: <em>Al-Fatat<\/em> (November 1892-),<\/li>\n<li>Rosa Antoun:<em> Majallat al-Sayyidat wa-l-Fatayat<\/em> (1903-),<\/li>\n<li>Mustafa `Abd al-Raziq: <em>Al-Sufur<\/em> , weekly (1915-),<\/li>\n<li>Nabawiyyah Musa: <em>Tarqiyat al-Fatat <\/em>(1923-),<\/li>\n<li>Munirah Thabit: <em>Al-Amal<\/em> (1925-)&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4. Second generation of feminists (include women)<\/p>\n<p>i) Ahmad Sudqi al-Zahhawi: (Iraq\u2019s great poet):<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Article on the \u201cEvils of the veil\u201d (1908):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>will not guarantee woman\u2019s chastity, encourages infidelity (anonymity);<\/li>\n<li>segregation encourages pederasty;<\/li>\n<li>veil breeds ignorance and lowers women to animal status<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211; Article \u201cIn Defence of Women\u201d (1910): outcry (demonstrations) against it, Ottoman wali of Baghdad dismisses Zahhawi as teacher at Law school.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>man is the one who is incomplete without women<\/li>\n<li>freedom, a gift common to both men and women<\/li>\n<li>man\u2019s superiority based on his superior physical strength: animals are stronger than men, should they have rights over men?<\/li>\n<li>equal right to divorce: if given right to approve her marriage, why not right in its dissolution?<\/li>\n<li>against polygamy<\/li>\n<li>criticises inequality in Islamic promise of Heaven: men promised seductive <em>houris <\/em> (700 to 70.000) women promissed to desire only their husbands<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>ii) Mansour Fahmi (1886-1959):<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; First scientific study on veil: <em>La condition de la femme dans la Tradition et l\u2019\u00e9volution de l\u2019Islamisme. <\/em>Paris, 1913.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; On basis of ample philological and historic evidence, proves that neither in pre-Islam nor in prophet\u2019s time, there existed a piece of cloth designed to hide woman\u2019s face from men. The <em>Hij\u00e2b<\/em> in \u00e2yah 52 of Surat al-Ahz\u00e2b refers to a cloth partition inside the tent and the <em>Jilbab<\/em> in \u00e2yah 59 (of Al-Ahz\u00e2b also) refers to a shawl for the body.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Back in Egypt, Fahmi forced to renounce his theory; his book still untranslated into Arabic.<\/p>\n<p>iii) May Ziadeh: writer, animated literary salon in Cairo 1915-1916, unhappy love-affair with `Abbas Mahmud al-`Aqqad, broke up due to `Aqqad\u2019s conservative positions on women, accused of madness by her relatives and interned in Lebanon, released, dies alone in Egypt. Her only refuge, an obsessive correspondance and platonic love affair with Jibran Khalil Jibran, author of <em>The Prophet<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>iv) Huda Sha`rawi (1879-1947): organisation of women. One of the first women to unveil in Egypt. In 1923, created the first woman\u2019s organisation in Egypt, the Woman\u2019s Union, defended Arab and Moslem women\u2019s rights in international congresses. In 1940, created first pan-Arab women\u2019s organisation.<\/p>\n<p>v) Nazirah Zayn al-Din (1908-1975, Ba`klin, Lebanon, daughter of a judge): one of first Syrian women to unveil and defend women\u2019s rights. Influenced by French culture. Advocated complete equality between men and women, right to vote, participate in government and <em>ijtih\u00e2d <\/em>in religion. In <em>Al-Sufur wa al-Hijab<\/em>, it is not a piece of cloth which will defend woman\u2019s chastity. (Same argument will be advanced by reformist Iranian mullah Talq\u00e2n\u00ee at beginning of Iranian revolution). The hijab= Darkness; unveiling= LIGHT.<\/p>\n<p>Her book came out at a time of bitter struggle in Damascus between <em>Hij\u00e2biyyin <\/em>and<em>Suf\u00fbriyy\u00een<\/em>. The latter included pionneers such as Hafni Nasif, Nazik al- `Abid, Huda Sha`rawi, Laure Thabet, Julia Tu`mah Dimashqiya, Marie `Ajami, May Ziadeh, Ibtih\u00e2j Qaddoura, Mariana Marrash, Labiba al- Hachem, Salma Sayegh, Habbouba Haddad, Hind Nawfal, etc.). No less than 20 sheikhs answered and attacked her and many defended her (Muhammad Kurd `Ali, `Ali `Abd al-Raziq, Amin al- Rihani, Muhammad Jamil Bayhum, Felix Faris, sheikh Tahir al-Nafsani, P\u00e8re Lammens, Khalil Mutran, sheikh Abi Yusuf `Abd al-Quddus, etc.)<\/p>\n<p>vi) Nabayiwwah Musa (Egypt): Women and work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>III. Feminism after WWII<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Women in liberation struggles <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; equality in sacrifice\/equality in rights<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jaffa women to the General Islamic Congress (1930\u2019s) ask for right to fight alongside men against Zionism and Imperialism<\/li>\n<li>In Egypt (1919) as in Algeria (1962) and Democratic Yemen (1972), women shed the veil, now that the coloniser has gone and \u201cwe are among ourselves\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211; After independence, priority for national goals at women\u2019s expense: they are asked to return home and rear her children.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Transformations and reforms: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; progress in access to education<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Algeria (1963 Law), 13% in 1921-1922, 23,3% in 1977-78,<\/li>\n<li>Egypt, 1956: free schooling for all, mixed schools,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211; progress in access to work (women 3% of salaried in Egypt 1956),<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; restrictions on most obvious forms of discrimination against women:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>clitoridectomy (prohibited in Egypt, 1956),<\/li>\n<li>polygamy, forced marriages, repudiation (abolished in Egypt in 1925),<\/li>\n<li>political rights and right to vote (Lebanon 1952, Egypt 1956),<\/li>\n<li>inheritance (Iraq adopts Ja`fari code calling for equality in inheritance)<\/li>\n<li>minimum age for marriage 16 for girls, 18 for boys (Algeria, 1963)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211; reforms in personal status of women:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>dissuasion on second wife, woman obtains right of guard of children in case of divorce<\/li>\n<li>advanced family codes especially in Tunisia and Democratic Yemen (family code of 1973: abolishes dowry, establishes monogamy and equal right to divorce),<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>3. The new feminists: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; new topics cover all aspects of woman\u2019s question, based on research (in medecine, psychology, law and sociology): circumcision of young girls, prostitution, sexual aggression, the problems of `<em>ayb <\/em>(shame), honour and dishonour, sex, marriage, divorce, problems of women at work, discrimination in law, at home, etc.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; new feminists revive Chidyaq\u2019s problematic: the repression of women\u2019s sexuality as the basis of man\u2019s control over women.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Nawal Sa`dawi, doctor, feminist and political activist (Egypt).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>locates woman\u2019s question in the social structure, especially in what she calls the <strong>patriarchial class structure<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>relates women\u2019s liberation to wider movement for national and social liberation; but does not consider it a sufficient condition for women to win equal rights and equal status; calls upon women to become a strong political force and impose their rights;<\/li>\n<li>at the beginning, Sa`dawi distinguished between the priorities of Western feminism and those of Arab feminism, but moved later to a radical feminism which pitts women against men<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211; Fatimah Marnisi, sociologist (Morocco): <em>Sex, Ideology and Islam<\/em> (1983), <em>Beyond the Veil<\/em>, <em>The Political Harem <\/em>(1987, translated as <em>The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist interpretation of Women\u2019s Rights in Islam<\/em>, (1991), <em>Islam and Democracy<\/em> (1994).<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the manipulation of the Past as means of political control; including control of men over women<\/li>\n<li>a feminist reading of Islam of the Prophet Muhammad in which she reveals the struggle between God\u2019s new message of equality between all believers (including equality between men and women) and the ancient norms of tribal society based on sabi, raids &amp; slavery<\/li>\n<li>evokes the fear of the modern world as the basis for male domination and relates the liberation of women to democracy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8211; The Litterature of freedom:<\/p>\n<p>Layla Ba`albaki, Emilie Nasr Allah (Lebanon), Etel Adnan, Colette Khouri, Ghada Samman (Syria), Nazik al-Mala\u2019ikah, Daisy al-Amir (Iraq), Samirah `Azzam, Fadwa Tuqan, Sahar Khalifah (Palestine).<\/p>\n<p>Ghadah al-Samman, to describe woman\u2019s unbearable condition and uncertain fate, evokes the <em>wa\u2019d<\/em> (old pre-Islamic tradition of killing female children at birth, by burrying them under the sand; prohibited by Islam) :<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite my white flesh, I am a negro woman, because I am an Arab woman. Victim of the<em>wa\u2019d<\/em> under the sand of the Jahiliyyah\u2019s desert, I am now the victim of the new <em>wa\u2019d<\/em> buried under inherited disdain,<\/p>\n<p>I am not looking for love, I am only looking for a lonely and suffering woman like myself, to hold her hand while both of us deliver among the thorns of the field, begetting children for the <strong>tribe<\/strong>, children who will be soon be taught to hate us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>V. The backlash<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Back to square one: women\u2019s rights at centre of the debate, now as the main victim of the <strong>fundamentalist backlash<\/strong> against distorted modernism of the last quarter century:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Same topics pioneers evoked are again on agenda: the veil, segregation, banning women from work (what a na\u00efve solution to the problem of unemployment!), political and legal equality of women, etc.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Women\u2019s rights first concessions governments concede to fundamentalists\u2019 demands<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; \u201cWoman, the last vestige of man\u2019s sovereignty\u201d (Jacques Berque) .<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Women, scapegoats for all frustations and problems of society. Reaffirmation of male superiority: a futile and displaced <strong>symbolic act<\/strong> to cover up for incapacity to face up to real challenges and problems of modern world:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; 66 years ago, Nazirah Zayn al-Din, replied thus to her male critics:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have not developed with time. Time has folded your flags and you have delapidated your ancestors\u2019 heritage &#8230; Do you want, now, to unfurl your flags over your women\u2019s faces, taking your women for a substitute kingdom to the kingdoms you have lost?\u201d (<em>Al-Fatat wa-l-Shuyukh<\/em>, 1929, vol. 1, p. 40).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CS III Common Lecture, Monday, March 25th, 1996 I. The Nahda (mid-19th century-WWI) 1. The woman\u2019s question central to the Nahdah problematic as the woman\u2019s inferior status was seen as the basic cause for the backwardness of the Arab and Islamic worlds. The main writers if the Nahdah were unanimous that there will be no [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[],"content_type":[529],"themes":[318],"country":[421],"language":[66],"archive_type":[113],"archive_author":[246],"media_type":[],"keywords":[573,582,622,641,650,838,865,898,900,992,1009,1182],"ft_dossier":[3367],"ft_categories":[],"published_in":[439],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","content_type-lectures-conferences-en","themes-sociology-en","country-arab-world-en","language-english","archive_type-by-ft-en","archive_author-fawwaz-traboulsi-en","keywords-19th-century-arab-thought-en","keywords-ahmad-faris-al-shidyaq-en","keywords-arab-feminism-en","keywords-arab-modernity-en","keywords-arab-renaissance-en","keywords-egypt-kw-en","keywords-feminism-en","keywords-gender-en","keywords-gender-equality-en","keywords-iraq-kw-en","keywords-islamism-en","keywords-nahda-en","ft_dossier-women-feminism-en","published_in-conference-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"themes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/themes?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"archive_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive_type?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"archive_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive_author?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keywords?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"ft_dossier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ft_dossier?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"ft_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ft_categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"published_in","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fawwaztraboulsi.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/published_in?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}