Politics by Other Means

• Published in: NKA (Brooklyn, N.Y.) no. 25; pp. 8 - 29
• Main Author: Okeke-Agulu, Chika
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca NKA 01.12.2009
• Subjects: 19th century; 20th century; Artists; Consciousness; Contemporary art; Culture; Feminism; Gender; Nationalism; Patriarchy; Political activism; Politics; Rhetoric; Womens literature; New York; Cairo Egypt; Tel Aviv Israel; Europe; Egypt
• ISSN: 1075-7163; 2152-7792

Despite this, as in Europe, the rhetoric of the New Woman in Egypt had negative and positive impact on the feminist movement-advertise- ments, asMona L. Russell has argued, gave women access to the public sphere and were also used to curb their freedom-the Egyptian New Woman's concerns differed fromthose of herWestern counterpart. 8 For instance, the haremculture, polygamy, and divorce by repudiation were among the most urgent issues facing Egyptian women activists, particularly after the founding of the Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU) by Huda Sha'rawi in 1923, following her break from the supposedly less radical NewWoman Society.9 Sha'rawi and Nabawiyah Musa's brand of secular, activist feminism, in contrast to the conservative feminists' cult of domesticity, was critical of marriage and the veil, which supposedly was themost visible symbol of women's oppression, although unveiling was never officially included in the feminist agenda.10 Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, QassemAmin, who first issued a "nationalist call for the emancipation of women," also advocated the discarding of the veil "as something unhygienic and un-Islamic." [...]in the uninvited presence of a viewer, or is it a troublesome husband/father, which the tense pose and inscrutable facial expression suggest, the women assert their mutual solidarity and strength made all the more palpable by the older woman's powerful hands, solid neck, and strong facial features. On one of the faces are drops of tears, while the black face to the bottom left has dabs of red paint on her head, suggesting that she might have been a victimof punitive violence. [...]Sirry's picture of incarcerated women of diverse racesmay allude to the multicultural nature of contemporary Egyptian society, but it also arguably speaks to the fact that the opposition to Nasser's government consisted of women and men of different ideological, religious, and political convictions. 6 The public sphere is primarily a discursive space controlled and peopled by the political and cultural elite who in all societies constitute the demographic minority. [...]discussions here about Egyptian women's access to this space refer primarily to women who belong to this elite society. 7 Maud Lavin, Cut With The Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Höch (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993), p. 153.