This part of the study involves the aims to fully understand and focus on Egyptian

Women and their Rights that explains the feminist perspective

Egyptian Women and Their Rights

An Egyptian feminist who contributed greatly to

the intellectual and political discourse on the
advancement of Egyptian women in the early 20th
century, Malak Hifni Nasif who used the
pseudonym Bahithat al-Badiya (Seeker in the
Desert), was born in Cairo into a literary family.
Her father, who had studied at al- Azhar with
Muhammad Abduh encouraged his daughter's
education. She graduated from the first teacher
training school for women in Egypt, the Saniyya
School, where she later taught. On Fridays she
gave women's lectures at the Egyptian University
and elsewhere, which she published along with feminist essays in 1910. The present
selection was one of these lectures, delivered to hundreds of upper-class women, and
addressing some of the most sensitive social issues of the day: changing gender relations,
the symbolic and practical implications of women's garb, and the need for legal change in
women's status. The program listed at the end of the lecture formed the kernel of the more
extensive set of demands that she sent in 1911 to the Egyptian Congress in Heliopolis, a
meeting of (male) nationalists. Her life then took an abrupt turn when she married a
Bedouin chief, gave up teaching, and went to live with him in the Fayyum oasis west of
Cairo. She discovered he already had a wife his cousin and a daughter he expected her to
tutor. Some of the sufferings she experienced and observed were expressed in her
writings.

Malak lived in Egypt during a period of growing intellectual and political discourse on
the status of women in society. She advocated greater economic and educational rights
for women in rapidly changing society and wrote at a time when egyptian nationalists
were demanding independence from Britain. Intellectuals were debating the merits of
modernity as opposed to tradition and offered a program for improving women's lives.

As an early feminist writer who stood at the crossroads of many of these tensions, she
provides an interesting lens through which to examine the relationship between two
interrelated concerns: feminism and the colonial enterprise in the tumultuous milieu of
the early twentieth century. An activist, lecturer, and writer, Nasif was one of the first
local women to articulate feminist ideas about issues of import to Egyptian women.

Meanwhile, the women on whose behalf Qassem Amin was waging this battle remained
quite silent, and for good reason: those who could read and may have had a chance to
know about it remained in seclusion, while the majority of uneducated women remained
uninformed. It was only a decade later that the lonely voice of Malak Hefni Nassef rose
in a semblance of protest: Bahithat Al-Badiya, as she called herself, was probably
acquainted with Amin's work, and the list of ten modest demands she presented to the
Legislative Assembly were reminiscent of his suggestions to improve the condition of
women. Her petition, unsurprisingly, was summarily dismissed by the Assembly,
composed solely of men. From then on, Nassef, like many women after her, took solace
in speaking to women of her class.

In 1909, she delivered the first lecture in a series by and for women only, at the Umma
Party club. It was published the following year as part of a collection of her essays under
the title Al-Nisa'iyat. Nassef ended her talk with a set of 10 demands, which she was sent
in 1911 to the Egyptian Congress in Heliopolis, a meeting of (male) nationalists

Nasif have largely contributed to the wide variety of arguments pertaining to womens
rights in the Islamic world and the womens rightful place next to the man, neither below
nor behind him. She argues that its not women that have been created lesser than men but
that the men have replaced the womens job with machinery and that the idle mind of the
woman without the jobs she used to do, is a harmful thing not only to herself but to the
whole of national progress and then advocates that women should have the same
occupational and education opportunities as men as she endorsed the principle of full
political equality for both sexes. In the end of her talk she presented a petition which
contained ten demands for women.

1. Teaching girls the Qur'an and the correct Sunna [Prophetic practice];

2. Primary and secondary school education for girls, and compulsory preparatory school
education for all;

3. Instruction for girls on the theory and practice of home economics, health, first aid and
childcare;

4. Setting a quota for females in medicine and education so they can serve the women of
Egypt;

5. Allowing women to study any other advanced subjects they wish without restriction;

6. Upbringing for girls from infancy stressing patience, honesty, work and other virtues;

7. Adhering to the Shari'a concerning betrothal and marriage and not permitting any
woman and man to marry without first meeting each other in the presence of the father or
male relative of the bride;

8. Adopting the veil and outdoor dress of the Turkish women of Istanbul;

9. Maintaining the best interests of the country and dispensing with foreign goods and
people as much as possible;
10. Making it incumbent upon our brothers, the men of Egypt, to implement this
programme.

Modest as they may appear, the 10 demands were rejected. In all of her articles Despite
the rejection of her recommendations, Nasif succeeded in promoting the elements that
would enable women to become an effective asset to egyptian society: Education, Faith,
and Equality and she emphasized the importance of education not only the role of women
in the society, but also value of women in sustaining Egyptian society and Islamic values
into the new century.

For Malak Hifni Nasif, the distinction between the European and the colonial becomes
instructive on several levels. First, it highlights how these two very different elements
were utilized and deployed in the discourse of a colonial feminist experience. For Nasif,
while the European serves as a useful site of inspiration, competition, comparison, and,
when necessary, rejection, of the colonial casts a far more powerful (and thus potentially
dangerous) shadow on feminist reforms. Second, it demonstrates that the central problem
facing feminist reformers was never really Westernization or an unqualified acceptance of
modernity per se, but rather the imposition of power by the patriarchal otherwhether
indigenous or colonial (Badran 1988, 24). Lastly, by extension, this differentiation
between the European and the colonial helps to explain what are perceived as
contradictions in the feminist ideology of someone like Nasif and why certain elements of
her feminist agenda faded into the background, while others came to the fore. As we shall
see, for Nasif, local issues of education, family law, and political/social dominationas
linked to various patriarchal authoritiesheld more urgency than those that she deemed
European cultural imports and thus subject to acceptance or rejection by an indigenous
culture.

In the struggle for social change, the uneven political power inherent in the colonial
experience could not be ignored and indeed became a new type of threat to this
indigenous feminism.
http://mason.gmu.edu/~jfarley1/efeminism.html
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/523/sc3.htm
http://al-hakawati.net/english/Arabpers/bahithat-al-badiya.asp
http://www.peacewomen.org/assets/file/Resources/Academic/wps_malakhifninasifnegoti
ationsofafeministagenda_winter2011.pdf

Reflection:
From the earliest preserved records in the Old Kingdom on the formal legal status of
women whether unmarried, married divorced or widowed. The differences in social status
between individuals are evident in all aspects of the ancient culture. Men were
distinguished by the job they held which brought the to their status and have their
incomes. Most women did not hold jobs outside the house, they do household chores and
usually holds the title of mistress of the house which sometimes degrade their social
status that conflicted their educational attainments and they eagerness to work outside the
house for them to be fair compared to men. Women work hard for them to get the social
status that should be given to them and vested among women regardless of social
ranking. I recognise that masculinities and femininities are constantly in crisis, meaning
that they are contested, polarised and struggled over. Egyptian feminists are challenged to
intervene in debates and policymaking to address the increase in poverty, the inadequate
redistribution of wealth and resources
 Women had a chance to study and got their degree to uphold their social status as
well as the reputation that their parents will have. There comes the time that womens
right were disregarded and they wanted to have the same rights as the men.
This problem arise during old times and until 21 st century these problem still exist.
Womens activism promotes their confidence in pursuing to be protected by the rights
that would uphold their social status in the society. During the feminist activism, women
gave extra effort for them to be protected by their rights as a women. Its not women that
have been created lesser than men but that the men have replaced the womens job with
machineries that opportunities should be distributed properly regardless of gender and
social ranking in the society.