Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Women and Gender in Islam
Women and Gender in Islam
Women and Gender in Islam
Methods
1800’s- women in middle east go through huge transformation b/c of interaction with
Europe and global economy.
European economic influence was both negative and positive for women
For the first time since its est. Islamic laws treatment of women was openly discussed in
middle eastern society
This discussion started among intellectual men in Egypt and turkey as to how muslim
countries could catch up with Europeans economically
Ppl who thought that the role of muslim women needed to change, thought that they
should almost trade their who culture for a more European one, which the author says is
impossible, and crazy b/c Europeans have also mistreated its women. Ex) witch trials and
burnings
She focuses on the developments in Egypt, who were at the forefront of the changes
Issue of the veil marked a huge discourse: Western vs. “indigenous” or “authentic” values
It is a discourse of women and the veil in which another history is also inscribed, that of
colonial domination and the struggle against it.
Muhammad ‘Ali came into and stayed in power in Egypt for 33 years. His initiatives
gave women development in economic, educational, industrial and cultural arenas
This and other ‘Alis initiatives adversely affected some lower class women. European
involvement in textiles lowered the production in the middle east and this was one of the
few jobs that women participated heavily in. Egypt b/c supplier of raw material and an
importer of the more expensive European finished good.
Schools and universities for men to learn European technologies were created.
Turkey also created state action plans that noted that they were in favor of women’s
education
Many intellectual thinkers of the time called for muslims to disgard the misinterpretations
of the Islamic doctrine and to elevate the status of women
‘Abdy was probably the first to make the argument, still made by muslim feminists today,
that it was islam an dnot the west that first recognized the full and equal humanity of
women