Over the course of the nineteenth century, the debate over reform in the Ottoman Empire widened to encompass fundamental social issues, including the place of women in Ottoman society. Qasim Amin (1863–1908), author of The Liberation of Women (1898) and The New Woman (1900), was a French-educated Egyptian lawyer. In Amin’s view, social reform was the key to ending European domination, and the expansion of women’s rights was at the heart of social reform. Thus, if Egyptians wanted to free themselves from European control, they would first have to free their women from the chains of outmoded social and legal conventions. As you read this excerpt from The New Woman, focus on the connection Amin made between “modern civilization” and women’s rights. Why did he believe that Egypt’s progress depended on the transformation of Egyptian women?

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate:

The new woman is one of the fruits of modern civilization. Her appearance in the West was a consequence of the scientific discoveries that freed the human mind from the powers of delusion, suspicion, and superstition, providing all individuals with control over their lives and charting for them a path to follow. Such changes occurred because science explored all issues, examined every idea, and rejected any proposition not proved to be in the public interest. This search resulted in abolishing the power of the clergy, eliminating the privileges of nobility, establishing a constitution for monarchies and rulers, and freeing black people from the bondage of slavery. It finally challenged most of the privileges that men had defined as theirs, which in effect had implied that women were not equal to men in any sphere.

Europeans used to have the same opinion of women that we have today: that women are inferior due to their mental deficiencies, their low status in religion, and their primary role as temptresses and agents for the Devil. They used to say that woman, “long of hair, short of mind,” was created for no other reason than to serve man. European scholars, philosophers, poets, and religious leaders considered it foolish to educate women. Moreover, they scoffed at the woman who abandoned her household for intellectual pursuits. They accused such women of intruding on what they called “men’s domain.”

When the veil of ignorance was finally lifted from European men, they admitted that they themselves were instrumental in the inferior position of women, and that they had not allowed them to change and develop. They also realized that a woman was a human being like them, that she had a right to enjoy her freedom and to use her capabilities, and that depriving women of beneficial experiences was unacceptable.

These changes initiated a new phase for the Western woman. She started cultivating her mind, refining her manners, and gradually gaining her rights. She participated with men in human affairs and was a partner in their search for knowledge, a listener in church, a contributor to literary debates, a participant in scientific meetings, and a traveler to various countries. In a short time, that female who had been animal-like — decorated with ornaments, garbed in fashion, and immersed in amusement — was replaced by a new woman who was a sister to man, a companion to her husband, a tutor to her children — a refined individual.

This transformation is all we intend. We hope the Egyptian woman achieves this high status through the appropriate avenues open to her and that she will acquire her share of intellectual and moral development, happiness, and authority in her household. We are convinced that if this goal were achieved, it would prove to be the most significant development in Egypt’s history.

Holding such a belief, would it be acceptable for us to refrain from the pursuit of our goal because the general public is unaware of it, or because writers have demonstrated discontent with it, differing in opinion, being skeptical, or giving it a low priority?

Our reasons for writing are not motivated by a desire to gain the applause of the ignorant and general public. These people do understand the clearly stated word of God when it is presented to them. In fact the only way they understand it is when its original intentions are distorted to them through the opinion of a sheikh. Such religious leaders are quite ignorant of the meaning of their religion; they are unpatriotic, and are unable to consider their country except through an ugly image of outmoded manner and ridiculous traditions. We are, however, writing to the educated individuals, especially to the young who are our future hope. They will indeed be the generation to have benefited from the exposure to a proper education, enabling them to bring the question of women to the place of concern and consideration it deserves. . . .

During the past few years, Egyptians have begun to be aware of their poor social condition, their faces show the pain of it, and they have recognized the urgent need for improvement. They have heard about how Westerners live, they have mixed and lived with many of them, and have learned of the extent of their progress. When they saw that Westerners enjoy a good life, broad independence, self-determination, and other prerogatives that they themselves are not permitted and without which life has no value, there awoke in them a yearning to catch up and a desire to earn some of that happiness. Leaders have appeared among us, supporting ideas that they believe will guide our country toward the path of success. One calls for work and activity, another for harmony, unity, and the elimination of all sources of disagreement, a third for patriotism and self-sacrifice, while a fourth calls for adherence to religious teachings, and so on.

But these leaders have neglected a very important point, namely that without women’s involvement it will be impossible to bring about any change in society. If women gain an understanding of the meaning of these causes, and if they identify with them or are committed to them, they will be able to bring up their children in the best way possible, in the mold of human perfection.

No social condition can be changed unless education and upbringing are directed toward that change. In bringing about any kind of reform, it is not enough to identify the need for change, to order its implementation through governmental decrees, to lecture about it, to invite people to address it, or to write about it in journals and books. None of these efforts can change a country, warn it of its predicament, or transform its life; any change in a country is a result of the totality of its virtues, characteristics, moral qualities, and customs, which are not inherent in people, but are acquired through upbringing, that is to say, through women.

If Egyptians wish to improve their condition, they must start at its source. They must realize that unless their household and families provide a sounds environment for preparing men with the necessary qualities for success, there will be no hope of acquiring any worthwhile status among the advanced countries of the world or in the realm of human civilization. Households and families, however, cannot provide a sound environment unless their women are educated, and unless they have shared the ideas, hopes, disappointments, and activities of men.

Source: Qasim Amin, The New Woman: A Document on the Early Debate on Egyptian Feminism (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2000), pp. 1–4; 87–93. Copyright © The American University in Cairo Press. Used by permission of the publisher.

Questions to Consider