Amin believed deeply that God's unchanging law was the continuous change in traditions and customs. Hence, he called for the liberation of women from all sorts of entanglement imposed on them by traditions and norms. From this standpoint, while impressed by the status of women in the West and employing an Islamic scholarly analogy, Amin courageously advocated for the education of women at a time when nobody else dared to touch such a sensitive issue for fear of being accused of heresy. It is not astonishing that more than thirty books were produced to rebut The Liberation of Women by writers contemporary with Amin (Sha'rawi, p.15).
During Amin's lifetime, it was generally held that there was no point of educating anyone other than "those who will be employed", or in other words, men (qtd. in Amin, p. 11). As such, Amin called for the need to provide women with decent education, even if they would not have the chance to be employed. At this stage, the reader might think -while maintaining that Amin promoted the education of women- that Amin held the same prevalent notion of the late 19th century Egypt, ie that women should not work. However, Amin clarified his position later when he argued that women, being half of the population, should not be a burden on the other half, by being deprived of their right to earn their living. In addition, Amin related male dominance over females’ financial rights to the exemption of the latter party from the possession of an independent source of income, and its total dependence on the former party.
Tracing the roots of the decline in women's conditions in Egypt, Amin named some key factors. He cited the long centuries of secluding women from outer society and the provision of men with generous opportunities to acquire the highest levels of education as the two main causes of male scientific and intellectual supremacy at that time. Furthermore, the combined effect of male supremacy and female ignorance deprived women of their basic "freedom" due to the fact that they "lost the basis for sound, forceful judgment", leading to their incapacity to- for example- deal with their own financial documents or to comprehend their significance without the help of a male guardian (whose good intentions could not always be taken for granted -qtd. in Amin, p. 16). As a result, wives became experienced in the skill of treachery while dealing with their husbands, mirroring the way a prisoner would act with his prison guard. Amin added that one of the reasons for the conservative views regarding education of women was, ironically, the fear that they would exploit education to enhance their trickery skills (Amin, p.31).
Proper education and upbringing and of women, as Amin put it, led to the solution of all sorts of family problems. Amin explained this statement by addressing some of the main features of an ‘ignorant wife’. In his opinion, during the upbringing of this type of woman, intensive indoctrination took place. The woman's perception of a good husband was strictly tied to his ability to entertain, feed and shelter. From this particular perception stemmed the inability of an ignorant wife to be a partner and a good listener to her educated husband as soon as mutual sensual desire diminished between them. Lack of comprehension between the spouses inevitably created hatred. Amin contrasted this tragedy with another scenario, featuring an educated wife, whose appropriate knowledge and education enabled her to move the temporary stage of sensual desire into a permanent stage of "spiritual attraction" (qtd. in Amin, p. 19).
Amin strongly rejected any hope for the future development of children brought up by ignorant mothers. He equated the immature behavior of children who lied to get what they desired to the behavior of an ignorant mother who was dishonest in her dealings with her husband. Accordingly, Amin associated the adequate upbringing of children to the adequate upbringing of their mothers. He specified the proper upbringing of a mother as one that included “both the intellectual and behavioral facets”. Therefore, not only did he assert that an educated mother would be able to formulate her children's characters based upon inherited features- as any ignorant mother would have done- but he also confirmed that she would be capable of nurturing their minds with acquired knowledge and science, and not on mythology and "fear of jinn and evil spirits" (qtd. in Amin, p. 27).
Interestingly, Amin assigned special attention to the concept of "honor" when he stated that, "Good upbringing is the best method by which a nation can ensure for itself women who will value honor and who know how to preserve honor" (qtd. in Amin, p. 34) The word "nation" in this quote is perfectly analogous to the repetition of the word "Egyptian woman" rather than "Muslim woman" throughout the pages of the book. It proves the nationalist tendencies of Amin, who was influenced by the British occupation of Egypt back then.
In summary, Amin proved to be very convincing and effective when he associated the defects that Egyptian society was suffering from in his time to the low social status of women then. Ultimately, he suggested that women's conditions would never be properly enhanced unless the Egyptian society left behind all traces of cultural backwardness. He was also successful in delivering the women's crisis to the average Egyptian reader, and in making him/her understand that while women constituted half of the population, they were also responsible for bringing up the other half.
Works Cited:
Amin, Qasim. The Liberation of Women: Two Documents in the History of Egyptian feminism. Tr. Samiha Sidhom Peterson. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2000.
Sha'rawi, Huda. Harem Years: The Mémoirs of an Egyptian Feminist. Tr. Margot Badran. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1998.
Wikipedia, Free Encyclopaedia. Amin, Qasim.
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