Nationalism, Feminism, and Islamism: Middle Eastern Women
Digitalization of Beth Baron's book "Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics"
Why is this digitalization important?
Digitalization: the process of converting something to digital form (Merriam Webster)
Digitalization is an extremely important process in modern education. Through both digitization (analog to digital) and digitalization (digital to more concise digital), resources and education become more accessible. According to the International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, "Foreign studies on the digitalization of education describe the general consensus of scientists that digital technologies are an integral part of the modern learning process." By creating projects such as this where information is easily available, people have a broader view of topics in a format that is much easier to understand. Beth Baron's book Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics is a great resource to digitalize as it contains many movements, pictures, people, etc. that could benefit from being presented in an organized, digital way. Digitalizing it also gives one the opportunity to connect her book with other relevant information and expand on topics she presents.
The Importance of Collective Memory
"Collective memory helps to define a nation" [2].
Collective memory serves as the basis for many aspects of history that seemingly get lost in historical narratives such as women's history in the Middle East. Through stories, photographs, journals, museums, memorials, texts, etc., memories are triggered and recalled in order to piece together a story. By remembering the events that occurred in women's political history in the Middle East, the events help to "[define] moments for a national community and subsequently form the core of the collective memory" [2].
The "Ladies' Demonstrations"
After World War I, the revolution of March 1919 broke out in Egypt. Because of their involvement with the British in the war, the Egyptians were under the idea that they would receive independence, however, this was not the case. Sa‘d Zagh-lul, ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Fahmi Bey, and ‘Ali Sha‘rawi Pasha, a group of prominent Egyptian men, went to the British high commissioner and requested they go to Europe and get Egyptian independence. They denied their request. Soon after, these men were arrested and exiled to Malta, an island just south of Italy. Their arrest sparked a widespread revolution for their release and also for Egypt’s independence [2].
The reason behind the Egyptian women falling into this nationalist movement differs between classes. For lower-class women, they had to take over their husbands’ jobs when they went off to war. They worked in fields and did hard labor. Middle- and upper-class women no longer had access to education, social events, etc. as the war had taken over the country. Thus, upper-class women especially were stuck inside their homes, causing them to grow weary and want to take action. Elite women prominently led these revolutions, however, women of all classes participated [2].
The exact date of the events of the March 1919 revolution is unclear as all information stems from memory rather than definitive facts. The most accepted date is March 16 however it is also likely to have happened on March 19 or 20. Upper-class elite women created banners, signed petitions, and called each other in order to plan a protest. On the day of, the “women met at the home of ‘Atiyya Abu Isba‘a, which was located in Garden City” [2]. According to Janice J. Terry in World History: A Comprehensive Reference Set, “Led by Safia and Huda Shaarawi, upper-class Egyptian women staged a political march through the streets of Cairo, throwing off their veils, waving banners, and shouting nationalist slogans.” They shouted things such as, “We protest the shedding of the blood of the innocent and the unarmed” and “We demand complete independence” [2]. They originally marched towards the foreign legations however they went off track towards Sa‘d Zaghlul’s house. This is where the majority of the action unfolded.
Once the women reached the end of Rue Saad Zaghloul Pasha, they were met by British troops with weapons. Huda Sha'arawi, the founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (described below), yelled at the troops but a fellow marcher restrained her for fear she would be hurt. The troops surrounded the women for hours without letting them leave in order to wear them down. Eventually, the women were released but they did not stop there. They wrote up many petitions with prominent, elite women’s signatures.
It is extremely important to note that this was NOT a feminist movement rather it was strictly nationalist. Baron argues that while the protest was mostly elite women, there were some lower-class women as well. However, there was no mingling or mixing of the two groups. Baron explains, “The evidence belies the myth that the ‘lady demonstrators’ expressed social solidarity and unity across class boundaries. Rather, their actions reinforced a hierarchical class vision for society.” They never once raised any feminist concerns or had any ideas for making society a better place for women. Their concerns were strictly and completely nationalist so to regard these women as feminists would be a gross understanding of the revolution. These women gained respect as they used their elite social standings to fight for their nation and thus will always be remembered as the nationalist women of March 1919 [2].
Photos associated with the women's demonstrations of March 1919
Why are they remembered as "The Ladies' Demonstrations"?
As mentioned previously, collective memory places a major role in the way these events are remembered. The name, "The Ladies' Demonstrations" comes from a poem written by a famous poet, Hafiz Ibrahim. According to Baron, “The Ladies’ Demonstration” was printed and circulated anonymously, according to Huda Sha‘rawi, and appeared thus in the journal Lisan al-Umma. It was later published under Hafiz’s name as part of a collection of nationalist poems. It became a key trigger to remembering the women’s demonstration and shaped subsequent images of it." This is an example of why collective memory is so important. This one poem became the historical name for the women in this revolution. The poem reads as follows:
The fair ladies went out to protest,
and I approached to see them gathering.
Behold! from underneath the black
of their clothes, their hair is shown free!
They went up like shining stars
that rise in the middle of darkness.
They marched along the roads, and
made for Sa‘d’s house, their goal;
There they went in dignified demeanour,
and their feelings were clearly demonstrated.
Then, suddenly, an armed band came,
and the horses were given free rein.
Behold the soldiers! Their swords
are drawn, and pointed at their breasts!
And the guns, and the rifles!
The sharpness of the swords, the teeth,
All those horses, how they strike
a cordon all around them!
Roses and basil were on that day
the only weapons on which they relied.
The hours of struggle seemed so long
that embryos might have become grey-haired.
But then the women became feeble,
for the fair sex has no physical strength.
They were defeated and fled,
dispersed, to their palaces.
What a glorious army indeed!
What a victory, to have defeated women!
Was it not as if the Germans
had dressed up in veils, and appeared
Among the women, having come secretly
to Egypt, with Hindenburg himself to lead them;
That would explain why they so much
feared their courage and their stratagem.
Egyptian Feminist Union
The Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU) was bred out of the revolutions of March 1919 to fight for women’s suffrage and education and was the first feminist movement in Egypt. Founder Huda Sha’arawi (pictured right) was one of the leading elite women in the march for Egyptian independence. In 1923, Huda publically removed her veil at a train station, a major turning point in her fight for nationalism [7]. What started as the Wafdist Women’s Central Committee in 1920 eventually led to the Egyptian Feminist Union [5]. The EFU, like many other feminist movements to follow, used nationalism as a basis for feminism. Margot Badran writes in the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, “Looking through a nationalist lens, the feminist argued that educated women would be better equipped to raise succeeding generations of Egyptians and would eliminate the need for foreign nurses and nannies employed in upper-class Egyptian homes and the alien cultural influences they introduced into the early socialization of children.” Because of Huda’s background in nationalism and nationalist movements, this transition to feminism was a smooth one. The Egyptian Feminist Union set the stage for many feminist movements to come including the All Arab Feminist Union.
Mother of the Egyptians
Safiyya Zaghlul (pictured right), also known as the “Mother of the Egyptians”, was one of the leading members of the nationalist movement. Her title is directly correlated with her nationalism as it not only meant that the people were loyal to her but that her identity itself was within the people. Just as the name “The Ladies’ Demonstrations” was brought from collective memory, so was the title “Mother of the Egyptians”. According to one account, a protester was fatally wounded and was brought to Safiyya’s home. He spoke about dying far from his mother and she asked if she was also his mother. His response- “Yes, but you are also the mother of all Egyptians.” Others say that a group of women protesters shouted outside of her house that she was the Mother of the Egyptians. The name stuck [2].
Wife to Wafdist leader Sa’d Zaghlul, Safiyya was extremely politically involved as a woman and as an upper-class member of society. She was constantly in the spotlight and used this recognition to her benefit. Baron notes, “Her picture appeared regularly in periodicals, proof that she was one of the most visible and popular female figures of the period.” She knew that she was constantly being photographed so she made sure the photographers photographed her at the right times- with her husband, with Wafdists, with other elite women [2].
Safiyya’s husband, Sa'd was one of the deported Wafdists that sparked the March revolution of 1919. While her husband was away, she took on the role of continuing to run the Wafd meetings just like he would have. Essentially, Safiyaa became Sa’d. This is where she did most of her political activism as she was no longer just the wife of the Wafdist leader, she was a Wafdist leader. This did not end once Sa’d returned home. Safiyya still had a profound influence on her husband’s political actions. She continued to follow her husband to various events and meetings, still spoke to the brotherhood and the women demonstrators, and helped to unify the nation. Baron argues that her talk of a “national family” helped to nationalize the nation and ultimately helped Egypt gain its independence in 1922.
Even after her husband’s death, Safiyya continued to play a role in Wafdist politics and movements. Like the women’s demonstrators, it is important to note that Safiyya was not a feminist but strictly a nationalist. Her use of the mother title and the family rhetoric reinforced traditional gender roles and she would exclude women in her calls to action, instead leaning on the influential mother-to-son trope [4]. Baron makes sure to note, “In addition, by reinforcing domesticity, it ultimately circumscribed women’s possibilities, and although it modified the gender order, it did not seriously challenge it.” Baron insists that while Safiyya achieved unparalleled status for a woman of her time, her goals were focused on nationalism and she should be regarded as such.
Left: Safiyya's departure to Gibraltar /////// Right: Safiyya with Huda Sha’arawi
The Path of an Islamic Activist
While most women during and after the March 1919 revolution heavily supported the Wafdists, Labiba Ahmad favored the Watani Party, an Islamic nationalist party. She supported this group over the others because of its “…stress on Muslim brotherhood and gender segregation. She spearheaded a movement that conceptualized women’s rights in Islamic terms and pushed for a fusion of Islam and nationalism, helping to strengthen an Egyptian Islamic nationalism” [2]. Labiba found a way to bridge traditions with modernity in order to create a “new Islamic woman” instead of a “new secular woman” [2].
Because Labiba was more modest with her life and instead promoted her association, the Society of Egyptian Ladies’ Awakening, she has often been overlooked in historical narratives. Her main focus was on Islamic nationalism, especially as it related to women. She had a magazine called al-Nahda al-Nisa’iyya where she regularly interacted with readers, posted her commentary on politics, interviewed people, and posted photos of herself. She believed that “the path to women’s and national progress was through a return to Islam, not through copying Western ways” which was very different than most feminists in Egypt during her time [3]. Like Huda and Safiyya, Labiba’s followers were mostly elite or upper-class women and she only gained a true following after the revolutions of 1919. Prior to that, her political involvement is virtually unknown.
Even though Safiyya Zaghlul and her husband Sa’d were known Wafdists, Labiba received support from Sa’d on her magazine and her society. When Safiyya was leaving Cairo for Gilbraltar to be with her husband, Labiba met her at the train station where she presented Safiyya with “a book of blessings (Dala’il al-Khayrat), and a list of women and girls who had pledged on the Qur’an to support the principle of complete independence for Egypt and the Sudan.” She used Islamic symbolism by following the ritual way of sending Safiyya off [2]. Labiba supported the Wafd even though she was still pledged to the Watani Party and was always in close correspondence with the Zaghluls. Baron explains that in doing so, she created huge differences between herself, an Islamist, and secular nationalists as she kept returning to Islamic content and mixing it with modernity.
Cover of al-Nahda al-Nisa’iyya, Labiba's monthly (https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/32/1168/190448/Folk/Inspiring-Women/Republished--Women-and-the-press-I-The-right-to-a-.aspx)
Page from al-Nahda al-Nisa’iyya (https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/32/1168/190448/Folk/Inspiring-Women/Republished--Women-and-the-press-I-The-right-to-a-.aspx)
Baron's Impact
Egypt as a Woman has a massive impact on other scholarly works such as journals, books, dissertations, projects, and more. Below, there is a map tracking a handful of works in which Baron's book has been cited. Not only is there a wide range of countries that cite her but also a wide range of topics. The importance of Egypt as a Woman is undeniable.
Bibliography
[1] Badran, Margot. "The Feminist Vision in the Writings of Three Turn-of-the-Century Egyptian Women." Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies) 15, no. 1/2 (1988): 11-20.
[2] Baron, Beth. Egypt As a Woman : Nationalism, Gender, and Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
[3] ---,. “Islam, philanthropy, and political culture in Interwar Egypt: the activism of Labiba Ahmad”, City University of New York, 2003, pp. 293-251.
[4] Booth, Marilyn. "May Her Likes Be Multiplied": "Famous Women" Biography and Gendered Prescription in Egypt, 1892-1935." Signs 22, no. 4 (1997): 827-90.
[5] Deb, Basuli. "Cutting across Imperial Feminisms toward Transnational Feminist Solidarities." Meridians 13, no. 2 (2016): 164-88.
[6] Ronzhina, Natalia, Irina Kondyurina, Alla Voronina, Konstantin Igishev, and Natalya Loginova. 2021. “Digitalization of Modern Education: Problems and Solutions.” International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (IJET) 16 (04): 122–35.
[7] Shaarawi, Huda, and Margot Badran. Harem Years: The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist (1879-1924). Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2003.
[8] Terry, Janice J. "Egyptian Revolution, 1919." In World History: A Comprehensive Reference Set, edited by Facts on File. Facts On File, 2016.
