Modern Egypt is like its dynastic counterpart, drawing sustenance from the Nile River. Today, as in the ancient period, most of the country's population is concentrated along the river, fully 20% of it around Cairo. Modern Egyptian society is identified not with the ancient civilization but with the Arab culture of the Middle East. That culture is overwhelmingly identified with Islam, the religion followed by 90% of Egypt's population (Library). Much about women's position in modern Egypt can be traced to a famous verse of the Koran:
Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because Allah has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband's) absence what Allah would have them guard. As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (next), refuse to share their beds, (and last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them means (of annoyance): for Allah is Most High, Great (above you all) (Koran 4.34).
Islam is strongly implicated in the generally inferior and subordinate social position of women. Particularly among the rural and lower socioeconomic classes--largely illiterate--an ethos of patriarchy predicated of Islamic law, or the sharia, has long been standard custom and practice. Over the course of the 20th century Egyptian women achieved education and status as working professionals, and by 1982 women comprised 14% of all workers in Egypt (Library). There is also a history of women's political activism in Egypt reaching back to 1919, when men and women, mainly of the middle class, both alike mobilized against British colonial rule. Women obtained the right to vote in 1956 (Wassef and Wassef 72).
But suffrage did not end women's inferior social standing in Egypt. Since 1956 only 64 women have ever been elected to Egypt's...