Unveiling in Early Twentieth Century Egypt: Practical and Symbolic Considerations

Middle Eastern Studies

Volumn 25, Issue 3, 1989, Pages 370-386

  Baron, Beth ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FASHION; ISLAM; UNVEILING; VEIL; WOMEN;

EID: 0024931668     PISSN: 00263206     EISSN: 17437881     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00263208908700787     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. Frontispiece, al-`Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 26 (12 May 1911), Vol. 1, No. 29 (9 June 1911); Sulayman al-Salimi, ‘Didd al'Afaf’, Vol. 1, No. 28 (29 May 1911), p. 14.
2. Consider these review articles and books: Donna Divine, ‘Unveiling the Mysteries of Islam: The Art of Studying Muslim Women’, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Winter 1983), pp. 3–19; Amal Rassam, ‘Unveiling Arab Women’, The Middle East Journal, Vol.,36, No. 4 (Autumn 1982), pp. 583–7; David Waines, ‘Through a Veil Darkly; The Study of Women in Muslim Societies’, Comparative Study of Society and History, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Oct. 1982), pp. 642–59; Carla Makhlouf, Changing Veils: Women and Modernisation in North Yemen (Austin, 1979); Fatima Mernissi, Beyond the Veil (New York, 1975); Unni Wikan, Behind the Veil in Arabia: Women in Oman (Baltimore, 1982).
3. For pre-Islamic practices, see Emile Marmorstein, ‘The Veil in Judaism and Islam’, Journal of Jewish Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1954), pp. 1–11, and the chapter on veiling in Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy New York, 1986). For the introduction of veiling into early Islam, see Leila Ahmed, ‘Women and the Advent of Islam’, Signs, Vol.,11, No. 4 (Summer 1986), pp. 665–91.
4. See for example Huda Shaarawi, Harem Years: Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist, trans. and ed. Margot Badran (London, 1986), p. 7.
5. See for example Charles Vial, ‘Rifa'a al-Tahtawi (1801–1873) precurseur du féninisme en Egypte’, Maghreb-Machrek No. 87 (March 1980), pp. 35–48; Juan Cole, ‘Feminism, Class and Islam in Turn-of-the-Century Egypt’, IJMES, Vol.,13, No. 4 (Nov. 1981), pp. 387–407; Margot Badran, ‘Huda Sha'rawi and the Liberation of the Egyptian Woman’ (D.Phil., Oxford University, 1977); Ijlal Khalifa, al-Haraka al-nisa'iyya alhaditha (Cairo, 1973); Muhammad Kamal Yahya, al-Judhur al-ta’ rikhiyya litahrir al-mar'a al-misriyya fil-‘asr al-hadith (Cairo, 1983).
6. Byron D. Cannon, ‘Nineteenth-Century Arabic Writings on Women and Society: The Interim Role of the Masonic Press in Cairo’, IJMES, Vol. 17, No. 4 (Nov. 1985), pp. 463–84.
7. Thomas Philipp, ‘Feminism and Nationalist Politics in Egypt’, in Lois Beck and Nikki Keddie (eds.), Women in the Muslim World, (Cambridge, MA, 1978), pp. 277–94; Ijlal Khalifa, ‘al-Sihafa al-nisa'iyya fi misr, 1919–1939’ (MA thesis, University of Cairo, 1966); ‘al-Sihafa al-nisa'iyya fi misr, 1940–1965’ (doctoral thesis, University of Cairo, 1970). These dissertations emphasize the development of the women's press and its chronology over its content; Beth Ann Baron, ‘The Rise of a New Literary Culture: The Women's Press of Egypt, 1892–1919’ (Ph.D. diss., UCLA, 1988).
8. See for example Ibrahim Ramzi (ed.), al-Mar'a fil-Islam (1901); ‘Abd al-Hamid Hamdi (ed.), al-Rihana (1908) and al-Sufur (1915); and Sulayman Ahmad al-Salimi (ed.), al-'Afaf (1910).
9. Labiba Hashim, ‘al-Nisa’ al-sharqiyyat’, Fatal al-sharq, Vol. 1, No. 4 (15 Jan. 1907), p. 113.
10. Women's dress should likewise be set in the context of general fashion and compared with men's dress. Researchers could tell us how men's dress altered during this period, whether rates of change coincided with that of women's dress, and whether headgear proved as controversial.
11. Nancy Micklewright, ‘Women's Dress in 19th Century Istanbul: Mirror of a Changing Society’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1986), p. 212.
12. There is little available on female dress in Egypt during this period comparable with Micklewright's study on Ottoman dress. For the medieval period see Yedida Stillman, ‘Female Attire of Medieval Egypt: According to the Trousseau Lists and Cognate Material from the Cairo Genizae (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1972); for a general survey see idem, ‘Libas’, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition (Leiden, 1983), pp. 732–42, and idem., ‘Attitudes Toward Women in Traditional Near Eastern Societies’, in S. Morag, I. Ben-Ami, and N.A. Stillman (eds.), Studies in Judaism and Islam (Jerusalem, 1981).
13. Elizabeth Cooper, The Women of Egypt (Westport, CT, 1981), p. 241.
14. Keddie discusses resistance to Western values in the face of Western rule in Nikki R. Keddie, ‘Western Rule Versus Western Values: Suggestions for Comparative Study of Asian Intellectual History’, Diogenes, Vol. 26 (Summer 1959), pp. 71–96.
15. Cole analyses class behavior as such in his ‘Feminism, Class and Islam’.
16. Cooper, Women of Egypt, pp. 133, 129–30.
17. See advertisements, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 12 (27 Jan. 1912), p. 4.
18. Cooper, Women of Egypt, p. 121.
19. Shaarawi, Harem Years, p. 48; Cooper, Women of Egypt, p. 236.
20. For example, see the advertisement for the Grand Magasin du Printemps Nouveautés in Alexandria in Anis al-jalis, Vol. 4, No. 6 (1901), p. 2 of ads.
21. Shaarawi, Harem Years, p. 69.
22. Fatima Rashid, ‘Tabarruj al-nisa‘, Tarqiyat al-mar'a, Vol. 1, No. 4 (1908), p. 62; Z.S. of Helwan, ‘al-‘Afaf wa nisa’ al-yawm’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 8 (30 Dec. 1910), p. 2; Layla al-Shimakhiyya, ‘al-Mar'a wa-safsatat al-kitab’, Tarqiyat al-mar'a, Vol. 1, No. 12 (1908), p. 181.
23. Sarah al-Mihiyya, ‘Awda 'ala bad’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 14 (10 Feb. 1911), p. 2.
24. Rosa Antun, ‘Taqlil al-malabis’, al-Sayyidat wal-banat, Vol. 2, No. 9 (June 1906), pp. 256–7.
25. Antun, ‘al-Moda’, al-Sayyidat wal-banat, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Dec. 1904), pp. 37–8.
26. Sandas ‘Abd al-Rahman, ‘Khutba’, Tarqiyat cd-mar'a, Vol. 1, No. 8 (1908), p. 118.
27. Alexandra Avierino, Anis al-jalis, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1904), pp. 1680–82; see also ‘Sina'at al-tajammul’, Anis al-jalis, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1903), pp. 1315–22.
28. Micklewright, ‘Women's Dress’, p. 217.
29. Sarah al-Mihiyya, ‘al-Mar'a wal-zina’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 30 (17 June 1911), p. 11.
30. Cooper, Women of Egypt, p. 129. In Istanbul, the yashmak, a white headdress, and the ferace, a long coat, were being replaced at the end of the century by the carsaf, a two-piece skirt and shawl of black silk. Micklewright, ‘Women's Dress’, pp. 140, 159.
31. ‘Kayfa narfa'u al-hijab’, al-Jins al-latif, Vol. 3, No. 10 (5 April 1911), p. 265.
32. Layla al-Shimakhiyya, ‘Ayna ghirat al-rijal’, Tarqiyat al-mar'a, Vol. 1, No. 7 (1908), pp. 101–3.
33. Edward Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (London, 1890), p. 41.
34. Cooper, Women of Egypt, pp. 106, 109.
35. Ibid., p. 29.
36. See for example, al-Mihiyya, ‘Awda ‘ala bad’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 15 (17 Feb. 1911), p. 2; Antun, al-Sayyidat wal-banat, Vol. 2, No. 7 (May 1906), p. 183.
37. Antun, ‘Khuruj al-mademoiselle wahdaha min al-bayt,’ al-Sayyidat wal-banat, Vol. 1, No. 7 (1 Oct. 1903), pp. 215–16.
38. Janet Abu-Lughod, Cairo: 1001 Years of the City Victorious (Princeton, NJ, 1971), p. 132.
39. ‘al-Madrasa al-Saniyya’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 31 (25 June 1911), p. 13; ‘al-Madrasa al-Saniyya’, al-`Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 34 (4 Aug. 1911), p. 16.
40. Abu-Lughod, Cairo, p. 132.
41. Zaynab Fawwaz, al-Rasa'il al-Zaynabiyya (Cairo, 1915), pp. 75–7.
42. Qasim Amin, al-Mar'a al-jadida (Cairo, 1984), pp. 36–7; Mary Arnett, trans., The New Woman in ‘Qasim Amin and the Beginnings of the Feminist Movement in Egypt’ (D.Phil. diss., Dropsie College, 1965), pp. 30–31.
43. ‘Difa’ al-mar'a ‘an karamatiha’, Tarqiyat al-mar'a, Vol. 1, No. 3 (1908), p. 41.
44. Antun, ‘al-Taharrush bil-sayyidat’, al-Sayyidat wal-banat, Vol. 2, No. 8 (25 May 1906), p. 223.
45. ‘Difa‘,’ p. 41.
46. See for example ‘Shaja'a ghaniyya’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 7 (23 Dec. 1910), p. 4.
47. ‘Haditha ghariba’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 8 (30 Dec. 1910), p. 4.
48. Amin, al-Mar'a al-jadida, pp. 36–7; Arnett, trans., p. 31.
49. Sir Valentine Chirol, The Egyptian Problem (London, 1920), p. 167.
50. See for example Malik Hifni Nasif [‘Bahithat al-Badiyya’], al-Nisa'iyyat (Cairo, 1910), p. 24; Anis al-jalis, Vol. 5, No. 4 (1902), p. 1018; ‘al-Mar'a al-wataniyya’, al-Sufur, Vol. 3, No. 140 (24 Jan. 1918), pp. 2–3.
51. Reader to Antun, ‘Hijab al-nisa”, al-Sayyidat wal-banat, Vol. 1, No. 5 (1 Aug. 1903), p. 148.
52. Amin, al-Mar'a al-jadida, p. 69; Arnett, trans., p. 52.
53. Salama Musa, Tarbiyat Salama Musa (Cairo, 1948), p. 25; Musa, The Education of Salama Musa, trans. L.O. Schuman (Leiden, 1961), p. 15. Schuman translates al-tark to mean abolition (of the veil); abandonment would be a better term. Stillman suggests that the Alliance Israelite Universelle influenced North African and Levantine Jewry to abandon the veil. Stillman, ‘The Costume of the Jewish Woman in Morocco’, in Frank Talmage (ed.). Studies in Jewish Folklore (Cambridge, 1980), p. 344.
54. Buchanan in Earl Elder, Vindicating a Vision: The Story of the American Mission in Egypt, 1854–1954 (Philadelphia, PA, 1958), p. 138.
55. Photograph in the collection of al-Mathaf al-markazi al-qawmi li-buhuth al-tarbiya, Wizarat al-tarbiya wal-ta'lim, Cairo.
56. ‘A student in the house’, ‘Aflaha tullab al-sufur’, al-'Afqf, Vol. 1, No. 20 (24 March 1911).
57. Shaarawi, Harem Years, p. 115.
58. Amett, ‘Qasim Amin’, pp. 113–14.
59. Salma Muhammad al-Ridawiyya, ‘Khudhu banasir al-'afaf’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 32 (4 July 1911), p. 7.
60. See Ihsan Muhammad, ‘Hukm al-fatayat’, al-'Afaf Vol. 1, No. 12 (27 Jan. 1912), p. 3.
61. Fatima Rashid, ‘Kalima ‘an al-hal al-hadira’, Tarqiyat al-mar'a, Vol. 1, No. 5 (1908), p. 76.
62. Rashid, ‘al-Hijab’, Tarqiyat al-mar'a, Vol. 1, No. 6 (1908), p. 84.
63. Z.S. of Helwan, ‘al-'Afaf wa-nisa’ al-yawm’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 8 (30 Dec. 1910), p. 2.
64. al-Mihiyya, ‘Qata'tu,’ al-'Afaf, Vol. 1, No. 5 (2 Dec. 1910), p. 2.
65. al-Mihiyya, ‘al-Mar'a wal-zina’, p. 11. Apparently half the women on the streets in Istanbul wearing a similar veil left their faces uncovered. Sec Lucy Garnett, The Women of Turkey and Their Folklore (London, 1891), p. 104 cited in Micklewright, ‘Women's Dress’, p. 159.
66. ‘Anbara Salam al-Khalidi, Jawla fil-dhikrayat bayna lubnan wa-filastin (Beirut, 1978), p. 64.
67. ‘Bushraki ya misr’, al-'Afaf, Vol. 2, No. 57 (7 March 1914).
68. Edith Louisa Butcher, Things Seen in Egypt (London, 1910), p. 63.
69. ‘Abd al-Hamid Hamdi, ‘al-Sufur’, al-Sufur, Vol. 1, No. 1 (21 May 1915), p. 1.
70. Ibid., p. 2.
71. A writer using the name ‘Unveiled Muslim’ in ‘al-Mar'a wal-sufur’, al-Jins al-latif, Vol. 11, No. 1 (May 1918), pp. 4–8.
72. ‘Unveiled Muslim’, ‘al-Mar'a wal-sufur’, al-Jins al-latif Vol. 10, No. 9 (March 1918), p. 232.
73. Nabawiyya Musa in Anwar al-Jundi, Adab al-mar'a al-'arabiyya (Cairo, n.d.), p. 71.
74. ‘Aliyya, ‘al-Mar'a al-misriyya’, al-Sufur; Vol. 5, No. 204 (5 June 1919), pp. 2–3.