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Polemics on the Modesty and Segregation of Women in Contemporary Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Valerie J. Hoffman-Ladd
Valerie J. Hoffman-Ladd
Affiliation:
Program in Religious StudiesUniversity of Illinois
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Extract

The issue of woman's proper role in society is a lively one in any country today, East or West. Perhaps in no other area has the rapidity of social and economic change touched the lives and values of the average person so deeply. In the Middle East this topic is particularly sensitive because one of the most frequent criticisms leveled at Islam by Western observers is that it degrades women. Male guardianship of women, forced marriages, polygamy, the seclusion of women, and the man's unilateral right of divorce are all, in Western eyes, indications of the inferior status of women in Muslim society and of the inferiority of Islam as a religious and cultural system. Furthermore, Westerners often see it as their duty, whether as mission or strategem, to assist the Muslim woman to liberate herself from these traditional bonds, and especially to remove her veil and educate her.

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Articles
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International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , February 1987 , pp. 23 - 50
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

1 For example, the British philosopher John Stuart Mill in The Subjection of Women, accused Muslim society of “the ultimate in the degradation and enslavement of womanhood” (see Abbott, Nabia, “Woman,” in Anshen, Ruth Nanda, ed., Mid East: World Center [New York, 1956], p. 203).Google Scholar

2 Fanon, Frantz, A Dying Colonialism, Chevalier, Haakon, trans. (New York, 1967), pp. 38ff.Google Scholar

3 E.g. Muhammad, ⊂Atiya Khamis, Mu⊃amarat didd al-usra 'l-muslima [Conspiracies Against the Muslim Family], (Cairo, 1961).Google Scholar

4 This is frequently implied. Mustafa Farghali al-Shuqayri blames women who work outside the home for neglecting their children, to the detriment of society, in “A Glimpse of Our Life,” al-Da⊂wa, Jan. 1981, p. 35. In the same issue of al-Da⊂wa, Zaynab al-Ghazali al-Jabili finds that women, by focusing on their own personal goals of work and fulfillment rather than using their education for training their children, are neglecting to build the true Islamic society (pp. 33–34). One often hears at women's religious meetings and in the media that women have a crucial and perhaps the most essential role to play in creating an Islamic society. This idea is well expressed in the title of Mahmud Muhammad al-Jawhari's book, al-Ukht al-muslima, asas al-mujtama⊂ al-fadil [The Muslim Sister, Foundation of the Virtuous Society], (Cairo, 1978).

5 Amin, Qasim, Tahrir al-mar⊂a [The Liberation of Women], reprinted in Muhammad ⊂lmara Qasim Amin: Al-a⊂mal al-kamila, Vol. I (Beirut, 1976), p. 12.Google Scholar

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7 On changes in the status of women in Egypt, see Smock, Audrey Chapman and Youssef, Nadia Haggag, “Egypt: From Seclusion to Limited Participation,” in Giele, Janet Zollinger and Smock, Audrey Chapman, eds., Women: Roles and Status in Eight Countries (New York, London, Sydney, Toronto, 1977), pp. 33–79Google Scholar; Khattab, Hind Abou Seoud and Daeif, Syada Greiss El, ‘Female Education in Egypt: Changing Attitudes Over A Span of One Hundred Years,” in Hussain, Freda, ed., Muslim Women (London and Sydney, 1984), pp. 169–97;Google ScholarGerner, Debbie J., “Roles in Transition: The Evolving Position of Women in Arab-Islamic Countries,” in Hussain, Muslim Women, pp. 71–99;Google ScholarMohsen, Safia K., “New Images, Old Reflections; working Middle-Class Women in Egypt” in Fernea, Elizabeth W., ed., Women and the Family in the Middle East: New Vocies of Change (Austin, TX, 1985), pp. 56–71;Google ScholarRugh, Andrea B., Family in Contemporary Egypt (Syracuse, NY, 1984), esp. pp. 262–76.Google Scholar

8 Ahmed, Leila, “Early Feminist Movements in the Middle East: Turkey and Egypt,” in Hussain, Muslim Women, p. 119. Fatima Mernissi also discusses this at length in ‘Spatial Boundaries,’ in her Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society (Cambridge, Mass., 1975).Google Scholar

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10 Huda al-Sha⊂rawi was the leader of the women's liberation movement in Egypt in the 1920s. After attending the International Women's Union conference in Rome in 1922, she shed her face veil; in 1923 she founded the Egyptian Feminist Union.

11 A number of articles have been written on the “new veil” in contemporary Egypt, including Williams, John Alden, “A Return to the Veil in Egypt,” Middle East Review, 11 (1979), 49–54;Google ScholarFernea, Elizabeth W. and Fernea, Robert A., ‘A Look Behind the Veil,” Human Nature, 2 (1979), 68–77;Google ScholarGuindi, Fadwa El, ‘Religious Revival and Islamic Survival in Egypt,’ International Insight, 1 (1980), 6–10Google Scholar, and “Veiling Infitah With Muslim Ethic: Egypt's Contemporary Islamic Movement,” Social Problems, 28 (1981), 465–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar This last is especially insightful regarding the use and symbolism of Islamic dress. Andrea Rugh also summarizes the issues surrounding the issue of Islamic dress in Family in Contemporary Egypt, pp. 227–34. On the ‘Islamic movement” or the “resurgence of Islam” in Egypt and other countries, there are a number of sources now available, including Dekmejian, Richard Hrair, “The Anatomy of Islamic Revival: Legitimacy Crisis, Ethnic Conflict, and the Search for Alternatives,” The Middle East Journal, 34 (1980), 1–12Google Scholar(reprinted in Curtis, Michael, ed., Religion and Politics in the Middle East [Boulder, Colo., 1981], pp. 31–42);Google ScholarIbrahim, Saad Eddin, “Anatomy of Egypt's Militant Islamic Groups: Methodological Note and Preliminary Findings,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 12 (1980), 481–99;Google Scholar and “Islamic Militincy as a Social Movement: The Case of Two Groups in Egypt,” in Dessouki, Ali E. Hillal, ed., Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World (New York, 1982), pp. 117–37;Google ScholarAyubi, Nazih N. M., “The Political Revival of Islam: The Case of Egypt,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 12 (1980), 81–99;Google ScholarGuindi, Fadwa El, “The Emerging Islamic Order: The Case of Egypt's Contemporary Islamic Movement,’ Journal of Arab Affairs, 1 (1981), 245–61Google Scholar (reprinted in Farah, Tawfic E., ed., Political Behavior in the Arab States [Boulder, Colo., 1981], pp. 55–66);Google ScholarDessouki, Ali E. Hillal, “The Resurgence of Islamic Organisations in Egypt: An Interpretation,” in Cudsi, Alexander and Dessouki, Ali Hillal, eds., Islam and Power in the Contemporary Muslim World (Baltimore, 1981), pp. 107–19Google Scholar, and “The Islamic Resurgence: Sources, Dynamics, and Implications,” in Dessouki, ed., Islamic Resurgence in the Arab World, pp. 3–31; Hanafi, Hassan, ‘The Relevance of the Islamic Alternative in Egypt,” Arab Studies Quarterly, 4 (1982), 54–74;Google ScholarGomaa, Ahmed M., “Islamic Fundamentalism in Egypt during the 1930s and 1970s: Comparative Notes,” in Warburg, Gabriel R. and Kupferschmidt, Uri M., eds., Islam, Nationalism and Radicalism in Egypt and the Sudan (New York, 1983), pp. 143–58Google Scholar, and in the same volume, Yadlin, Rivka, “Militant Islam in Egypt: Some Sociocultural Aspects,” pp. 159–82;Google ScholarKepel, Gilles, Le Prophéte et Pharaon: Les mouvements islamistes dans l'Egypte contemporaine (Paris, 1984). Not all of these authors adhere to Fadwa El Guindi's careful distinction of the Islamic movement from the general religious revival and from militant Islam.Google Scholar

12 Minai, Naila, Women in Islam: Tradition and Transition in the Middle East (New York, 1981), pp. 228–29.Google Scholar

13 Nawal al-Sa⊂dawi apparently refused to label herself a socialist at a public appearance in Berkeley in 1983, and preferred the label “humanist’ if a label was to be applied to her at all (personal communication, Muhaima Startt). No attempt is made here to squeeze Sa⊂dawi into any sort of mold, but although she is highly critical of Arab socialism as practiced, the label “socialist” appears appropriate, based on her own writings. See, for example, Saadawi, Nawal El, The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, Hetata, Sherif, trans., 2nd ed. (London, 1981): “Women can only become truly liberated under a socialist system where classes have been abolished and where, furthermore, the systems and concepts and laws of patriarchalism have been completely eradicated” (p. 180); “The more socialist a person is, and the more human, the greater will be his or her preoccupation with the situation of women” (p. 183).Google Scholar

14 Lecture on October 7, 1980, at All Saints' Cathedral, Cairo.

15 Amin, Qasim, Les Egyptiens: Réponse à M. le Duc d'Harcourt, trans. in ⊂Imara, Qasim Amin, Vol. I, pp. 279–80.Google Scholar

16 lbid., p. 281.

17 Many writers have speculated that Muhammad ⊂Abduh was in fact the inspiration for Amin's new attitude, and some have even suggested that he authored at least those parts of Tahrir al-mar⊃a that deal with the Shari⊂a: see ⊂Imara, Qasim Amin, Vol. I, p. 70; Fahmi, Mahir Hasan, Qasim Amin (Cairo, ca. 1962), p. 5.Google Scholar According to Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot, the book was coauthored with Muhammad ⊂Abduh and Ahmad Lutfi al-Sayyid when the three were vacationing together in Geneva in 1896: al-Sayyid, Afaf Lutfi, Egypt and Cromer: A Study in Anglo-Egyptian Egyptian Relations (London, 1978), p. 187;Google Scholar reference in Cole, Juan Ricardo, “Feminism, Class and Islam in Turn-of-the-Century Egypt,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, 13 (1981), 394.Google Scholar Husayn Muhammad Yusuf of the Youth of Muhammad Association says it was Nazli Fadil (a woman who ran a French-style salon in Qasr al-Dubbara frequented by ⊂Abduh, Amin, and Sa⊂d Zaghlul, among others) who urged Amin, with the encouragement of ⊂Abduh, to reverse the reactionary stance he took in Les Egyptiens: “Silat al-harakat al-nisa⊂iyya bi 'l-isti⊂mar” [The Relationship of the Feminist Movements with Imperialism], in Khamis, Muhammad 'Atiya, ed., al-Harakat al-nisa⊃iyya wa-silatuha bi 'l-isti⊂mar (Cairo, 1978), p. 74.Google Scholar

18 Tahrir al-mar⊂a, in⊂Imara, Qasim Amin, Vol. 2, pp. 14 and 79.

19 lbid., p. 21. Juan Cole analyzes the position of Amin and his opponents on women working in public with reference to their class affiliations and the economic situation at the time, in ‘Feminism, Class and Islam,’ pp. 387–407.

20 Tahrir al-mar⊃a, in ⊃Imara, Qasim Amin, Vol. 2, pp. 37, 38.

21 Ibid., p. 19.

22 Ibid., p. 23.

23 Ibid., pp. 53–54.

24 Ibid., pp. 110–11.

25 Ibid., pp. 12–13.

26 Ibid., p. 72.

27 Ibid., p. 51.

28 lbid., p. 45.

29 Ibid., p. 19.

30 149, 691 female students out of a total of 485,664, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, Statistical Yearbook (Cairo, 1980), p. 164.

31 One may note, however, that in some countries where Islamic norms of sexual segregation are imposed by the government, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, certain subjects are not considered necessary for women. On developments in Iran, see Azari, Farah, ed., Women of Iran: The Conflict With Fundamentalist Islam (London, 1983), p. 220.Google Scholar

32 al-Din, Muhammad Hilmi Nur, ‘Khatar al-huquq al-maz⊂uma ⊂ala kiyan almujtama⊂,” in Khamis, Muhammad ⊂Atiya, ed., al-Harakat al-nisa⊂iyya wa-silatuha bi l-isti⊂mar, p. 12.Google Scholar On the Muslim Brotherhood, see Mitchell, Richard P., The Society of the Muslim Brothers (London, 1969).Google Scholar

33 In the Qur⊂an, the word ⊂awra appears three times, but only once, in the plural, to mean the private parts of women (24:31). In 33:13, some of Muhammad's followers ask leave to return to their homes, arguing that their homes were defenseless (⊂awra), and in 2:57, ⊂awrat refers to times of day when the privacy of believers was not to be violated by the intrusion of servants or children without permission. These may be considered times of particular vulnerability and defenselessness, when a greater measure of protection is in order.

34 Fleischer, H. O., ed., Beidhawii Commentarius in Coranum (⊂Abd Allah ibn ⊂Umar al-Baydawi, Anwar al-tanzil wa asrar al-ta⊃wil) (Leiden, 1846–1948), Vol. 2, p. 20.Google Scholar The idea that the entire woman is ⊂awra is not contained in the Qur⊂an, and it is clear that this interpretation came to hold at the same time as modesty standards grew increasingly stringent. On the interpretation of Qur⊂anic standards for women's modesty through time via the medieval exegeses, see Stowasser, Barbara Freyer, “The Status of Women in Early Islam,” in Hussain, Muslim Women, pp. 11–43.Google Scholar

35 Manzur, Ibn, Lisan al-⊂Arab, 2nd ed., al-Kabir, ⊂Abd Allah ⊂Ali et al. , eds. (Cairo, 1981), Vol. 4, pp. 3166–67.Google Scholar

36 Krehl, L., ed., Sahih al-Bukhari (Leiden, 1862–1868), Kitab 67, Bab 17.Google Scholar

37 This is a point insisted upon and analyzed at length by Mernissi, Fatima in Beyond the Veil, e.g., pp. 1–14, 20. Mernissi seems to see fitna as linked only with unrestrained female sexuality, but Hadith and al-Ghazali's essay on marriage in Ihya⊃ ⊂ulum al-din make clear that unfulfilled male sexuality is equally threatening: “If someone comes to you with whose religion and trustworthiness you are pleased, get him married. If you do not, there will be discord (fitna) and great corruption (fasad) on the earth” (Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali [1058–1111], Ihya⊃ ⊂ulum al-din [Cairo, 1937], Vol. 4, p. 98).Google Scholar

38 ⊂lmara, Qasim Amin, Vol. 2, p. 50.

39 lbid.

40 al-Tabari, Abu Ja⊂far Muhammad ibn Jarir, Jami⊂ al-bayan ⊂an ta⊃wil ayy al-Qur⊃an, 2nd ed. (Cairo, 1954), Vol. 18, pp. 118–19;Google Scholaral-Zamakhshari, Abu ‘l-Qasim Jar Allah Mahmud ibn ⊂Umar, al-Kashshaf ⊂an haqa⊃iq al-tanzil wa ⊂uyun al-aqawilfi wujuh al-ta⊃wil(Beirut, 1947), Vol. 3, p. 230;Google Scholar Fleischer, Beidhawii Commentarius in Coranum, Vol. 2, P. 20.

41 Antoun, Richard T., “On the Modesty of Women in Arab Muslim Villages: A Study in the Accommodation of Traditions,” American Anthropologist, 70 (1968), 691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar His article (pp. 671–97) examines the modesty code from both ethnographic studies and word analysis. Abu-Zahra, Nadia M. argues against some of his points in American Anthropologist, 72 (1970), 1081–88; Antoun's reply appears in the same issue, pp. 1088–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 Qur⊂an, 33:33, addressed to the Prophet's wives: “Do not display yourselves (la tabarrajna) in the manner (tabarruja) of the first Jahiliyya.”

43 Guindi, Fadwa El, “Veiling Infitah With Muslim Ethic,” esp. pp. 471–72, and “The Emerging Islamic Order” (especially pp. 59–61 in Farah, Political Behavior in the Arab States).Google Scholar

44 Ni⊂mat Sidqi, al-Tabarruj (Cairo, 1975), p. 10.

45 Ibid., p. 13.

46 lbid., p. 15.

47 Ibid., p. 17.

48 Ibid., p. 18.

49 Ibid., pp. 18–19.

50 alSha⊂rawi, Muhammad Mutawalli, al-Mar⊂a kama aradaha Allah (Cairo, 1980), pp. 24–25.Google Scholar

51 Mernissi also argues that the Umma (Muslim community) consists primarily of males (Beyond the Veil, pp. 81–82).

52 Al-Mar⊂a kama aradaha Allah, p. 25.

53 Risalat al-mar⊂a 'l-muslima (Cairo, n.d.), p. 12.

54 Khamis, Muhammad ⊂Atiya, Mu⊂amarat didd al-usra 'l-muslima, pp. 31, 33. The date of the break from the Muslim Brotherhood is from Mitchell, The Society of the Muslim Brothers, p. 17.Google Scholar

55 Leopold Weiss, alias Muhammad Asad, was a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, and converted to Islam in 1926. He lived in Arabia and later moved to India, where he became a friend of Muhammad Iqbal and later served as director of Pakistan's Department of Islamic Reconstruction and then as Pakistan's representative to the United Nations. The story of his conversion to Islam is told in his book, The Road to Mecca (London, 1954). Khamis is not alone in seeing Weiss's conversion as a Zionist attempt to pervert Islam from within, but Weiss's own writings defend Islam against Western biases and describe both his antipathy to Zionism and his conversion to Islam, which seems to have been quite sincere. As to the specific accusation that Weiss advocated the replacement of family ties with regional or national ties, I have not been able to find evidence of this. Asad's discussion of state and government in Islam in his book The Principles of State and Government in Islam (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1961) uses the Islamic sources in a discussion that is fairly typical by modern Islamic standards. Asad clearly prefers Islamic ties over national or cultural ties as the basis of state organization, as both his writings and his enthusiasm for the idea of Pakistan demonstrate. In the same book, he writes, “Most people of our time have grown accustomed to accepting racial affinities and historical traditions as the only legitimate premises of nationhood: whereas we Muslims, on the other hand, regard an ideological community—a community of people having a definite outlook on life and a definite scale of moral values in common—as the highest form of nationhood to which man can aspire. We make this claim not only because we are convinced that our particular ideology, Islam, is a Law decreed by God Himself, but also because our reason tells us that a community based on ideas held in common is a far more advanced manifestation of human life than a community resulting from race or language or geographical location” (p. 96).

56 Mu⊂amarat didd al-usra 'l-muslima, p. 34.

57 Husayn Muhammad Yusuf, “Silat al-harakat al-nisa⊂iyya bi 'l-isti⊂mar,” in Khamis, ed., al-Harakat al-nisa⊂iyya, p. 88.

58 Risalat al-mar⊂a 'l-muslima, pp. 12–13.

59 The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was originally published in Russian in 1903 and 1905, and was carried to the West by refugees from the Bolshevik revolution in 1920. Translations were made into numerous languages, and in Nazi Germany it was made a required textbook in 1935. On the sources of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, see Bernstein, Herman, The Truth About “The Protocols of Zion”: A Complete Exposure, 2nd ed. (New York, 1971).Google Scholar On its spread, see Cohn, Norman, Warrant for Genocide: The Myth of the Jewish World-Conspiracy and the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (New York and Evanston, Ill., 1966)Google Scholar. On its impact and distribution in the Arab world, see Brinner, William M., “An Egyptian Anti-Orientalist,” in Warburg and Kupferschmidt, Islam, Nationalism and Radicalism; p. 233.Google Scholar

60 al-Bahi, Muhammad, al-Islam wa ittijah al-mar'a 'l-muslima 'l-mu'asara (Cairo, 1979?), esp. pp. 26–27, 35–36.Google Scholar Other writers have also commented on the widespread suspicions of Western and Zionist conspiracy against Islam among members of the new Islamic movement: Ibrahim, “Anatomy of Egypt's Militant Groups,” p. 430; Haddad, Yvonne Y., Contemporary Islam and the Challenge of History (Albany, 1982), pp. 33–45.Google Scholar

61 Al-Islam wa ittijah al-mar⊂a 'l-muslima, p. 14.

62 Ibid., p. 6.

63 Al-Tabarruj, p. 21.

64 Risalat al-mar⊂a 'l-muslima, pp. 9, 11.

65 E.g. Musa, Muhammad Yusuf, “Mawqif al-Shari⊂a 'l-gharra⊃ min huquq al-mar⊂a,” in Khamis, al-Harakat al-nisa⊃iyya, p. 51.Google Scholar

66 al-Din, Nur, “Khatar al-huquq almaz⊂uma ⊂ala kiyan al-mujtama⊂,” pp. 9, 11–12.Google Scholar

67 Ibid., p. 21.

68 Ibrahim, Muhammad Zaki and ⊂Ali ⊂Ali al-Mansuri, “Mawqif al-ta⊂rikh al-Islami min huquq al-mar⊂a l-maz⊂uma,” in Khamis, al-Harakat al-nisa⊂iyya, p. 31.Google Scholar

69 lqbal al-Siba⊂i, “al-Mar⊃a fi 'l-intikhabat: Halal am haram?” [Women in Elections: Permitted or Prohibited (in Islamic Law)?], Roz al-Yusuf, May 14, 1984, pp. 18–20.

70 Musa, “Mawqif al-Shari⊂a 'l-gharra⊃ min hugug al-mar⊃a,” p. 46.

71 Al-Ghazali sums up the evidence favoring marriage from the traditional sources in Ihya⊃ ⊂ulum al-din, Vol. 4, pp. 97ff. This is one of the many hadiths he quotes in favor of marriage.

72 Al-Bahi, al-Islam wa ittijah al-mar⊂a 'l-muslima, p. 42.

73 Ibid., p. 53. Nawal al-Sa⊂dawi harshly criticizes the distorted concept of femininity that damages the psychological development of both men and women, in The Hidden Face of Eve, pp. 74–90.

74 Risalat al-mar⊃a 'l-muslima, pp. 53–54.

75 Quoted in al-Jawhari, al-Ukht al-muslima, asas al-mujtamaca⊂ al-fadil, pp. 24–25.

76 Nawal al-Sa⊂dawi, Qadiyat al-mar⊃a 'l-Misriyya 'l-siyasiyya wa 'l-jinsiyya (Cairo, 1977), pp. 18–19.

77 Ibid., pp. 41–42.

78 lbid., p. 43.

79 al-Rahman, ⊂A⊃isha ⊂Abd, al-Mafhum al-Islami li tahrir al-mar⊃a (Omdurman, 1967), p. 10.Google Scholar

80 Ibid., pp. 10–11. For a further analysis of the issue of equality and complementarity between the sexes as reflected in writings in English by Muslim authors, see Smith, Jane I., “Women in Islam: Equity, Equality, and the Search for the Natural Order,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 47 (1979), 517–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

81 al-Rahman, ⊂Abd, al-Mafhum al-Islami li tahrir al-mar⊂a, p. 12.Google Scholar

82 Ibid., p. 4.

83 Ibid., p. 6.

84 lbid., p. 9.

85 E.g. al-Ghazali, Ihya ⊂ulum al-din, Vol. 4, pp. 148–49: “He [the husband] must come to her once every four days, more or less, depending on the frequency she needs in order to remain chaste, for her chastity is his responsibility.” And Ibn Taymiyya, in a fatwa regarding a woman who had committed adultery, does not allow execution of the appropriate legal punishment, because the fault lies not with her but with her grown children and paternal relations. The obligation rests on them to prevent her from engaging in forbidden acts, by confinement and by literally binding her to her house, if necessary (in Makhluf, Hasanayn Muhammad, ed., al-Fatawa 'l-kubra (Cairo, 1966), Vol. 4, p. 288).Google Scholar lbn Taymiyya stresses that whereas men are given full responsibility for their actions before the Law, women are kept chaste by means of seclusion and covering their bodies. He says, “Women must be covered by means of clothes and houses in a way that is not necessary with men, because the appearance of women is the cause of fitna, and men are in charge of them” (in Salah ⊂Azzam, , ed., Tafsir surat al-nur [Cairo, n.d.], p. 15).Google Scholar

86 al-Rahman, ⊂Abd, al-Mafhum al-Islami li tahrir al-mar⊂a, p. 9.Google Scholar

87 Ibid., p. 14.

88 Whether a society can undergo technological transformation and industrialization without suffering from the negative social change and dislocation that the West has undergone is, of course, questionable. But the evidence of such a desire is apparent everywhere–for example, in the common effort to find in Islam, and especially in the Qur⊂an, the origin of or evidence for all modern scientific knowledge. The fact that the majority of the members of al-Jama⊂a 'l-lslamiyya are engaged in scientific or highly technical professions is also evidence of this. On the use of the terms fundamentalist and neofundamentalist, see Humphreys, R. Stephen, “Islam and Political Values in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria,” The Middle East Journal, 33 (1979), 1–19Google Scholar (reprinted in Curtis, Religion Politics in the Middle East, pp. 287–306); Voll, John, Islam: Continuity and Change in the Modern World (Boulder, Colo., 1982), pp. 30–31Google Scholar and passim; Rahman, Fazlur, Islam, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 1979), pp. 221–30; Ayubi, “The Political Revival of Islam”; and Ibrahim, “Anatomy of Egypt's Militant Groups.”Google Scholar

89 Rifa⊂a al-Tahtawi, al-Murshid al-amin Ii 'l-banat wa '-banin [Trustworthy Guide for Girls Boys]. See Hourani, Albert, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798–1939, 2nd ed. (London, 1967), pp. 77–78.Google Scholar

90 See Guindi, Fadwa El, “Veiling Infitah,” esp. pp. 477–79, 482.Google Scholar For a discussion of the emergence of the importance of “authenticity” in contemporary Egypt, see Yadlin, Rivka, “Militant Islam Egypt: Some Sociocultural Aspects,” in Warburg and Kupferschmidt, Islam, Nationalism and Radicalism, pp. 159–82.Google Scholar On the opposition and synthesis of modernity and authenticity, see Gardet, Louis, “Des réformistes (islahiyyun) aux mutations en cours,” in Welch, Alford T. and Cachia, Pierre, eds., Islam: Past Influence and Present Challenges (Albany, 1979), pp. 70–89.Google Scholar

91 al-Sa⊂id, Amina, “al-Mar⊃a l⊂Arabiyya wa tahadi al-mujtama⊂ [The Arab Woman and Challenge of Society], lecture delivered in Beirut on Dec. 12, 1966Google Scholar, translated by the editors Fernea, Elizabeth W. and Bazirgan, Basima Q., eds., Middle Eastern Muslim Women Speak (Austin, TX, 1977), p. 375.Google Scholar

92 lbid., p. 376.

93 lbid., p. 377.

94 Ibid., pp. 377–78.

95 Hawwa⊂, August 22, 1981, p. 3.

96 lbid., p. 17.

97 lbid., p. 26.

98 Guindi, El, “Veiling Infitah,” p. 481. The threatening aspect of the new hijab is also demonstrated by the following incident. On March 31, 1981, Sheikh Zakariya⊃ ⊂Amir a lawyer for al-Azhar, visited the women's section of the ⊂Ashira Muhammadiyya to urge the women to attend a court hearing the legality of interest in light of the Islamic prohibition against riba. He suggested that the presence of a large number of veiled women would intimidate the court into deciding against interest.Google Scholar

99 Rugh, Andrea B., “Women and Work: Strategies and Choices in a Lower Class Quarter Cairo,” in Fernea, Women and Family in the Middle East, pp. 273–88.Google Scholar On middle-class women, see in the same volume, Mohsen, “Working Middle-Class Women in Egypt.”

100 E.g., al-Da⊂wa's January 1981 issue offers the example of Layla Bint Tarif (p. 35), al-Ghazali cites the woman who inspired her in her youth, Nusayba Bint Ka⊂b al-Maziniyya, in February 1981 issue (p. 34). On al-Ghazali, see Hoffman, Valerie J., “An Islamic Activist: Zaynab al-Ghazali,” in Fernea, Women and Family in the Middle East, pp. 233–54.Google Scholar

101 “l-muslima, Al-Mar⊃a,” al-Da⊂wa, Jan. 1981, p. 34.Google Scholar

102 E.g. Rida, Rashid, al-Manar, January 2, 1922, p. 112, cites examples of the integration of the sexes in early Islam. ⊂A⊃isha ⊂Abd al-Rahman cites the importance of Muhammad's wife ⊂A⊃isha, from whom, according to Hadith, Muslims were to receive half their religion, and relates the story of the woman who corrected ⊂Umar ibn al-Khattab in the mosque (al-Mafhum al-Islami li tahrir al-mar⊃a, p. 15). Muhammad Zaki Ibrahim and ⊂Ali ⊂Ali al-Mansuri, on the other hand, use historical examples to support the limitations imposed on women in the early Muslim community, in “Mawqif al-ta⊃rikh al-Islami.”Google Scholar

103 Founded by Muhammad Zaki Ibrahim, Sheikh of the Muhammadiyya Shadhiliyya SufiOrder, in 1930. By so doing he was able to circumvent the official prohibition of female membership in Sufi Orders and to establish a women's section for the association The ⊂Ashira has a nationwide membership of about 20,000 men and 7,000 women, according to the Sheikh (personal communication).

104 Risalat al-mar⊃a 'l-muslima, pp. 27–28.

105 Al-Tabarruj, pp. 21–22.

106 Azari, Farah, ed., Women of Iran: The Conflict With Fundamentalist Islam (London, 1983), Ch. 6.Google Scholar

107 E.g., The Hidden Face of Eve, pp. 125–31.