THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY L’EGYPTIENNE: WRITING THE LIVES OF THE NEW EGYPTIAN WOMAN STEPHANIE SPRINGER SPRING 2018 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in History and Political Science with honors in History Reviewed and approved* by the following: Janina Safran Associate Professor of History Thesis Supervisor Kathryn Salzer Associate Professor of History Honors Adviser * Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College. i ABSTRACT This paper is an analysis of the journal of the Egyptian Feminist Union, L’Egyptienne, which was published from 1925-1940. I argue that the women of the EFU used the magazine as a form of autobiography of their current lives and future possibilities, creating templates for women’s roles outside of the domestic sphere and building a community of like-minded women. Huda Sharawi compiled her own memoirs after the end of the magazine’s publication run—these memoirs begin with her awareness of gender inequalities in childhood and continue until her time as a public figure in the nationalist and feminist movements. Margot Badran described Sharawi’s dictation of her memoirs as her “final unveiling” and her “final feminist act” in the preface of the English translation of the memoirs, Harem Years. I contend that these memoirs were an outgrowth of her earlier efforts to write women’s lives and possibilities, with her final contribution to this effort being her own story as an exemplary figure. Huda Sharawi is remembered and celebrated as the pioneer of Egypt’s woman’s movement and her efforts, partly through the publication of L’Egyptienne, shaped the ideal of the New Egyptian Woman. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... v Introduction The Historical Context of L’Egyptienne and Its Founding Goals ......... 1 Chapter 1 Honoring Women and their Accomplishments ........................................... 16 Chapter 2 Participating in the International Feminist Discourse ................................. 33 Chapter 3 Advertising the Modern Egyptian Girl........................................................ 49 Conclusion ................................................................................................................... 69 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 72 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 .................................................................................................................................... 8 Figure 2 .................................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 3 .................................................................................................................................... 17 Figure 4 .................................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 5 .................................................................................................................................... 22 Figure 6 .................................................................................................................................... 24 Figure 7 .................................................................................................................................... 29 Figure 8 .................................................................................................................................... 31 Figure 9 .................................................................................................................................... 37 Figure 10 .................................................................................................................................. 51 Figure 11 .................................................................................................................................. 53 Figure 12 .................................................................................................................................. 54 Figure 13 .................................................................................................................................. 56 Figure 14 .................................................................................................................................. 57 Figure 15 .................................................................................................................................. 59 Figure 16 .................................................................................................................................. 60 Figure 17 .................................................................................................................................. 61 Figure 18 .................................................................................................................................. 63 Figure 19 .................................................................................................................................. 64 Figure 20 .................................................................................................................................. 65 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to Dr. Nina Safran for your insightful comments and ideas and for giving me your time and energy. You have given this paper direction and helped me to see many ways to deepen and enrich my argument. Thank you to Dr. Kathryn Salzer for taking the time to read my draft. I appreciate the input of Dr. Cathleen Cahill, who helped me to contemplate the idea of autobiography and women’s movements and consider why women may have wanted to write themselves into the male narrative of history. Thank you also to Dr. Lior Sternfeld for suggestions of sources and directions to take with this project in its early stages and for assigning Marilyn Booth’s “The Egyptian Lives of Jean d’Arc” in History 473. It was an essential source for this paper. Lastly, I would like to thank my family and friends for their support of me while working on this thesis. 1 Introduction The Historical Context of L’Egyptienne and Its Founding Goals This paper is an analysis of the journal of the Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU), L’Egyptienne, a French language publication produced from 1925 to 1940. The journal was written and read by upper-class Egyptian women and also targeted women’s readership abroad. The issues of L’Egyptienne serve as the main source for this paper; however, the works of scholars like Margot Badran, Marilyn Booth, and Beth Baron were also helpful in providing historical context and supplemental analysis. The memoirs of Huda Sharawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union, provide further insight into the motivations of the EFU in producing its publication and articulating its goals in areas like family law, prevention of child marriage, and girls’ access to education. The pages of L’Egyptienne give readers an understanding of early Egyptian feminism, articulating women’s goals and hopes for the future. This paper argues that the women of the EFU used the magazine as a form of autobiography of their current lives and future possibilities, creating templates for women’s roles outside of the domestic sphere and building a community of like-minded women. Huda Sharawi compiled her own memoirs after the end of the magazine’s publication run—these memoirs begin with her awareness of gender inequalities in childhood and continue until her time as a public figure in the nationalist and feminist movements. Margot Badran described Sharawi’s dictation of her memoirs as her “final unveiling” and her “final feminist act” in the preface of the English translation of the memoirs, Harem Years. I contend that these memoirs were an outgrowth of her earlier efforts to write women’s lives and possibilities, with her final contribution to this effort being her own story as 2 an exemplary figure. Huda Sharawi is remembered and celebrated as the pioneer of Egypt’s woman’s movement and her efforts, partly through the publication of L’Egyptienne, shaped the ideal of the New Egyptian Woman. I will begin this paper with a discussion of the historical context in which the journal was created and a brief biography of the EFU’s founder, Huda Sharawi. Sharawi’s life experiences profoundly shaped the EFU’s work and its publication. Historical Background At the start of the 20th century, the decline of Ottoman suzerainty in the Middle East and North Africa left a window of opportunity for hungry European powers to seize territories in this region and claim them as protectorates. In 1914, at the start of the First World War, the British declared Egypt a protectorate to maintain their control over the Suez Canal, deposing Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, and placed the territory under martial law. They further restricted Egyptian rights by enforcing censorship of the press. The British used Egypt as a base for battles in Palestine and Gallipoli and relied on Egyptian labor for the production of supplies for these campaigns. Moreover, male laborers were forced to go to Iraq, the Dardanelles, Salonika, France, and Italy to support the war efforts, while women worked as laborers in the fields.1 Egyptians expected their