THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT IN EGYPT The Women's Movement in Egypt

The focus of this research is the contemporary women's movement in Egypt. Historical aspects of the issue of women's rights in Egypt are also addressed, however, because the contemporary women's movement is an outgrowth of earlier efforts to promote the status of women, and because the current status of women's rights in Egypt is a manifestation of the interaction of modern and traditional values and events.

The women's movement in Egypt is frequently described within the context of phases (Khater and Nelson 465). This framework places the first phase of the Egyptian women's movement as the 1923-1939 period, with the second phase extending from 1940 through 1959, and the third and contemporary phase beginning in 1960 (Khater and Nelson 465). This structure is in many ways useful in the analysis of the Egyptian women's movement; however, acceptance of this frame of reference omits consideration of relevant events occurring prior to 1923.

Through Al-Nisaiyat in 1909, Malak Hifni Nasif, writing under the name Bahithat al-Badiya, "advocated improvement of women's lives, including new education and work opportunities, and the recuperation of lost freedoms understood to be granted by Islam" (Badran and Cooke xiv). Some Egyptian women of the day argued that Islam "guaranteed womens rights of which they had been deprived because of 'customs and traditions

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n, some aspects of British rule were positive, with state-supported secondary education for women introduced in 1925 and university degree programs opened to women in 1929 (Badran and Cooke xxiii). Egyptian society was more open to change during the period of British occupation than was true in other Islamic countries. In the summer of 1952, the Society of Free Officers, led by General Mohammed Neguib forced King Farouk to abdicate, and assumed control of the Egyptian government. A republic was proclaimed in the summer of the following year, with Neguib as the first president and premier. In 1954, Colonel Gamel Abdul Nasser, also a member of the Society of Free Officers, won a power struggle with Neguib, and assumed the officer of premier. Since this time, Egypt has been a politically independent nation. It was not until the time of the reign of Sadat, however, that Egyptian law was changed to promote the status and rights of women. In 1979, Egypt's Personal Status Law was changed to provide women with fixed rights in the event she is divorced by her husband, place practical constraints on the right of a man to enter into multiple marriages, provide women with an ability to divorce their husbands, and con

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