Genere, modernità e politiche sociali nell'Egitto di Nasser

2010

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This article addresses the Egyptian women's movement of the 1950s–1970s through a recent film entitled Four Women of Egypt, which focuses on the lives of four prominent Egyptian women active in the movement during that period. Using the concept of political memory, the article traces some of the major debates within the women's movement throughout this era. By focusing on the ways in which these women conceptualize the geopolitical, I show that the twin concepts of imperialism and capitalism were central to the ways in which they understood gender. The result was a complex understanding of how gender intersected with Egypt's position within a broader global system of imperial capitalism. Following the transition in the 1970s to an open-market economy, the women's movement shifted away from critiques of imperialism and capitalism. This shift can be understood only in terms of geopolitics: the rise of neoliberalism in Egypt. New neoliberal policies had dramatic effects on the women's movement, showing why both the rise and fall of the movement must be contextualized geopolitically and transnationally. The 1950s saw Egypt gain independence from Britain and establish its first independent government, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Free Officers. Memories of this period can often be nostalgic, as people recall a time during which there was a strong women's movement<1> that was active and that managed to achieve crucial gains. In this article I raise several questions about the Nasser years and the women's movement, and argue that in order to understand the ways in which it has been remembered, we need to look at the geopolitical situation on the one hand, the women's movement on the other, and the ways in which these constituted each other. What was the role of geopolitics in the Egyptian women's movement during the 1950s and 1960s, and how did this build on feminist activism of the previous era? How did this particular geopolitical context affect the ways in which feminists negotiated difference and what does this reveal about sites of contestation? Finally, how did the shift to an open-market economy in the 1970s affect feminist organizing and in turn construct the 1950s as a time of intense activity and advancement? Numerous scholars have pointed to the importance of regional and international factors in the development of the Egyptian women's movement (. I argue that in the case of the Nasser era, many feminists focused on geopolitics via the concepts of imperialism and capitalism, and that this stemmed from the 1952 revolution and the focus on Egyptian independence. This particular era also saw rich debates around Marxism and socialism, and this too affected the ways in which Egyptian feminists debated issues of gender as it provided a structural lens through which to understand inequality. Gender liberation was understood through the lens of independence— in the broadest sense of the word. There was an explicit critique of " Western feminism " that saw gender as the main axis of oppression that united women universally, and a clear articulation of nationalism, anti-imperialism, and anticapitalism as the main problems facing

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There is a permanence of a patriarchal approach to politics by the ruling elites in Egypt. In this context, feminism stands as a resilient revolutionary force, which over the twentieth and the twenty first century contributes to the complex cultural process that Michael Hardt conceptualizes as ‘human revolution’. Building on this concept, and on the history of Egyptian feminism, this essay analyzes the 25th January Revolution as a challenge to the remnants of the patriarchal culture. If feminized bodies, as the site of cultural and political contestation, have been constructed, in both nationalist and colonial discourses, as objects in need of protection, women’s agency has challenged these narratives and, in the context of the 2011 revolution, has re-shaped the all discourse about protection. The views and actions of the emerging women’s movement are situated along the extended line of the feminist revolution, which here is examined through the methodology of oral history. Focusing on cultural, more than institutional, change, and shedding light on the shift from women to gender agency, this essay investigates the strategies through which the young revolutionaries in Egypt today are creating a new political discourse, imagining new forms of political participation.

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NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 2013

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Advances in Gender Research Special Issue Gender and Race Matter: Global Perspectives on Being a Woman, ed. Shamider Takhar, pp.3-22., 2016

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2013

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Arab Youth Research Platform, 2020

This study was aimed at exploring society's attitudes and beliefs, and its effects on women's mental and emotional needs, and the extent of women's awareness of their societal and personal constraints. To investigate the themes, I conducted a small piece of semi-structured, in-depth qualitative interviews in Egypt with Egyptian women. Using thematic analysis, a set of recurring themes were identified. My findings indicated that all participants carried deep understandings and awareness of their conflicts and constraints within the public and private sphere. Second, participants who struggled within the familial household to maintain complete autonomy, did not prevent them from developing psychologically and becoming self-realised. Third, participants were able to function within the male-dominated system through creating indirect ways to make the system better work for them, by applying Rappaport's concept 'locally developed solutions'. In addition, to Foucault' s 'freedom practices', participants resorted to various means in achieving self-fulfilment and realisation, aside from achieving it through financial independence. Examples were given such as writing, volunteering, etc. Thus, the dominant discourse that Egyptian women are passive victims of oppression is disassembled in favour that they are active and conscious agents within a patriarchal system. Finally, it is worth noting that Western liberal feminism, does not fully define the ideals of Egyptian women.

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Review of Middle East Studies

A primary concern of this project is to integrate the discussion of gender and gender subjectivities in the discussion of the overall dynamics of revolutions including the conditions that led to them, the understanding of their different actors, and their agendas for change. Another focuses on understanding the way revolutions and the crises of modernity to which they responded influenced the production of gender subjectivities and contributed, in turn, to the development of working subjects who were also private actors shaped by technologies of the self that helped them deal with complex tensions and dilemmas.

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