University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

The place of women in the new Egypt

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The place of women in the new Egypt

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Content THE PLACE OP WOmH IN THE HEW EGYPT
With Special Reference to Factors which have Contributed
to Change from Former Status
A Thesis
Presented to
The Faculty of the School of Religion
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
"by
Margaret A. Work
February 1944
UMI Number: EP65138
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This thesis, written by
........... MMaAMT.A#...MRK.............
under the direction of Faculty Committee,
and a pp ro ved by a ll its members, has been
presented to and accepted by the Council on
Graduate Study and Research in partial fu lfill
ment of the requirem ents fo r the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
De^an
Secretary
Febnmryyl9#4
Faculty Committee
M..:
Tr.W
Chairman
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Introduction..................................... 1
Purpose of this study and method of procedure , 4
Justification of the problem .......... 8
A Statement of Sources of Data................ 8
II Background of the Nev Egypt..................... 10
Mohammed All and His Successors.................. 10
Early Missionary Contributions ................. 16
Missions Cooperating ......................... 16
Schools for Girls........................... 19
Training Egyptian Leadership .................. 21
Syrian Teachers ............................. 24
Home-making................................. 27
A New Understanding of God................... 32
The Evangelical Church ....................... 39
Government Schools for Girls ................... 44
III Growth of Egyptian Nationalism .................. 52
Early Proponents of Womenfe Freedom.............. 52
Steps Toward National Freedom ................... 55
Egypt’s Independence ........................... 64
Egypt’s People Assume Responsibility for National
Advancement................................. 65
IV Fellahat--Egypt’s Peasant Women .................. 68
Some Descriptions........................... 68
Some Character Traits ....................... 7^
iii
CHAPTER PAGE
Some Trends Today......................... 81
V Education of Egypt’s Daughters Since World War I . , 88
Government Schools ............................... 88
Government Teacher Training and Study Abroad . . 92
Government Secondary Sc|jools for Girls.... 95
Egypt’s State University ..................... 96
Post-War-I Mission Schools ....................... 98
Co-Education and Hareem Restrictions .............. 104
A1 Azhar ...................................... I08
Other Educative Factors...................... 109
VI Egyptian Women and Religion.................. Ill
Coptic Women.................................. 112
Islam and the Changing Status of Egypt’s Women . . . II7
Islamic History ............................... 118
Changes in Social Patterns ................... 120
A New Moral Standard ........... 122
Significant Self-Criticism Within Islam.... 122
Muslim and Prayer.......................... I3I
Is this Islam?............................ I32
Superstitions ................................. I34
Women and Girls in the Evangelical Church Program I36
Daily Vacation Bible Schools................‘ . 140
Inter-Church Fellowship ....................... 141
Weekly Bible Schools of the Evangelical Church . 142
Youth Groups.............................. 143
iv
CHAPTER PAGE
”¥otnen’s glde" and Church Music............... 144
The New Bible-Woman for the New Egypt.......... 14?
The N e e d ................................ 14?
Early Workers................................. 148
Mournings..............*...................... 149
Regular Lessons for Study ..................... I50
The Bible Training School ..................... I5I
The Message................................... I52
Conference of Early Bible Women and Today .... I56
The New Bible-Woman’s New Opportunities........ I57
Wider Contacts in the Homes................ I57
Girls Clubs................................ I58
Community Service Projects ................. I59
VII Egyptian Women and Recent Social Developments . . . I6I
Homelife......................... ............... 162
Health-care for Egypt’s Women .................. 1^4
Government Health Projects ................. I74
American Mission Health Projects ............ I77
Other Health-Promoting Agencies............ I80
A Pew Egyptian Women Lead In Reform Measures . . I83
Legislation............................... I83
Child-Welfare and Industrial Schools .......... 187
The Veil...................................... I90
Egyptian Women Lead the Fight Against Narcotics . I94
The Syllabus of Narcotic Education for Primary
and Secondary Schools too
....................... -^yy
V
CHAPTER PAGE
A Notable Leader ............................. 200
Woman’s Sphere Extends Beyond the Home .......... 201
School Teaching Opened the Door to a Varied
Government Employment ........................ 201
Professions...................................204
Writing . ............... 206
Business.......................................208
Music..........................................210
VIII Conclusions........................................ 216
BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................... 228
INDEX.................................................. 240
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Egypt has been called a land of paradox., * ^0f no other
country in the world can it be so truly said that tradition
and progress represent an afinity rather than an antithesis.
In the cities the old and the new, the East and the West,
jostle one another at every turn. The more secluded the village
the less the change. Therefore we can reasonably conclude that
Western contacts have produced most of the changes.
What have been these contacts?
Are the changes mere surface veneer of Western inventions
and methods of procedure, or have they made real and basic dif
ferences in the lives of Egyptfe women?
First, early in point of time and almost continuous in
influence since its beginning, has been the Christian missionary
contact. This has affected every phase of national life and
thought.2
Second, Government relations have brought a foreign con
tact. Although Mohammed All’s modernizations (1798-1849) were
somewhat revoked by his successors, nevertheless he planted new
ideas from the West which prepared the thinking of.a few lea
ders for the opportunity of development under British Protec
tion. Khedive Ismail’s spendthrift Westernizing plunged the
1 London Daily Telegraph and Morning Post,^ ’ Egyptian
Supplementy December 12,19^B.
2 Of. post, p. 16.
nation into such international financial obligations that
Britain finally sought to save her own monetary investments there
by forcibly interferring in Egyptian affairs. Without the
financial rehabilitation which took place under this British
guidance the modern progress of Egypt would have been impossi
ble. Britain did not fail to see in Egypt future profit to her
Empire plans.5 Another Western nations. Prance, was poignantly
aware of this fact. To curb British aggression Prance not only
fostered Egyptian Nationalism but also encouraged French cul
tural patterns--language, dress, legal and school systems.
Third, the Government school System sponsored by Lord
Cromer, British Financial advisor (1882-1907), gave rise to an
^ ’ effendi class”, that is, native Egyptians of the middle eco
nomic group, educated to think out their own personal and eco
nomic problems.
Fourth, the growth of international commerce and the aug
mented tourist trade in Egypt broadened the thinking of groups
not personally affected by these other contacts. Foreign
business and tourists also brought the cinema to Egypt to pro
voke the emulation of millions never touched directly by
missionaries, diplomats, or men of commerce.
Fifth, awakened individual self-consciousness and the
growing nationalism neighbor countries, notably Turkey, en
couraged in Egyptian leaders a latent desire for national inde
pendence .
3 Sidney Low, Egypt in Transition (New York: The Mac
millan Company, I9 1 4), p. 2 5 5.,givessome detail of British
reasoning.
Sixth, Political relationships multiplied. World War I,
with its added international contacts both at home and abroad,
crystallized Egyptian thinking and stored up power for a na
tional demand, which, when refused, resulted in the revolt
against foreign rule in I9 1 9. This compelled the granting of
Egyptian Independence in 1922 and of the Constitution in I9 2 3.
The Italian occupation of Ethiopia unintentionally united
contending parties in Egypt and made possible the necessary
compromises for the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of I936, for Egyptian
membership in the League of Nations in 1937 and for the present
friendly relations between Britain and Egypt.^
Seventh, Western inventions have brought new living con
ditions for every Egyptian, from the Introduction of the first
railway in 1 8 5 6 5 and cotton with its ginning and manufacture
under Mohammed All to movies, printing press, buses and radio.^
4 The ( London) Times, Great Britain and Egypt--Steps
to the New Alliance”, p. vi.,.January 2 6, 1937. _August 26,
1 9 3 6 is celebrated as National Independence Day.
5 Mahmoud Shaker Pasha, General Manager State Railways,
Telegraphs and Telephones, ^Expanding Network of Railways”,
(London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post. December 12, I9 3 8,
p. X.
^ Egyptian State Broadcasting was inaugurated May 3I,
1934.
These many contacts and the adoption of these Inven
tions both necessitated and indicated new thinking on the part
of Egypt’s people. Their new attitudes became more obvious to
strangers in the changing dress of men and women. This was
not done by royal edict as in Turkey, but by the individual
choice of those directly concerned. Educated men and women of
Egypt today meet with ease any from the West, on a par in dress
and speech and social graces and in intellectual attainments.
Conversation soon reveals an interest in affairs national and
international which is a far-deeper-than-surface response to
the West.
Purpose of this study and method of procedure. Pro
bably the most remarkable of all the changes in modern Egypt
is that of the place which womanhood occupies in home and
national life with its Êir-reaching implications for Egypt’s
international relations. This study attempts to discover under
lying factors which have contributed to this change, and to
observe something of present attainment.
The transformation began more than a hundred years ago.
At first it was slow and obscure. It gained momentum with each
decade. So rapid did these changes become that Devonian, a
true Easterner, wrote in I928: ”There have been more changes
in Moslem lands in thirteen years than in past history of
thirteen centuries.”7 Miss Woodsmall in I936 wrote:
7 Loutfri Devonian, Moslem Mentality (London: George
Allenand Unwin, Limited, I9 2 8), p. 214.
Today a new book each month could scarcely keep
up with the changing status of Moslem women; whereas
formerly one every century would have given a fair
picture, for there was no change. 8
¥. Wilson Cash in I9 2 6 indicated the revulsion from thought-
patterns which had held Egypt enslaved since the seventh cen
tury:
The remarkable thing. . .is the changed attitude of
the people toward life itself. . . .Moslem minds are
opening to new ideas and impressions. Moslems are
reading more widely and are studying the sciences of the
West. Many are no longer content with the old Koranic
laws in regard to women, and insist on education for
both boys and girls.9
and again,
Until recently, the emancipation of woman was looked
upon as a crime against God and Society, and yet, as we
have seen, so rapid are the changes, that the restrictions
upon women laid down by Islamic law are ^ no longer
tolerated. The equality of the sexes is advocated by
Moslems through every type of printed literature, and men
of the East now look with admiration, favor, even en
couragement, upon the efforts of their womenfolk to take
an active part in political and social movements. This
all spells a new attitude to life, an attitude born of a
desire for the best the world has to offer. It is the
awakening of a dormant soul after an age-long sleep.
The soul of a great people is aroused.10
Study of the changing place of women in Egypt becomes
not merely a study of Eastern feminism but ”an index of the
8 Ruth Frances Woodsmall, Moslem Women Enter a New World
(New York: Round Table Press, 1938), p. UTI
9 w. Wilson Cash, The Moslem World in Revolution (London:
Edinburgh Housre Press, I9 2 6), p. ÿ.
10 Ibid., p. 1 5 0.
change in the whole Islamic social system”.H Fully ninety
p6r cent of the women of Egypt are Muslim. 1^ Many of them have
through these recent international contacts learned of the free
dom of women in other lands, freedoms which they are forhidden--
and they wonder why.
World attention upon Egypt is justified not only by her
geographic importance in military, commercial and political
strategy but, as her people are given the tools of Western
progress, Egypt seems preparing to return to something of her
ancient place of leadership in world affairs. Her people are
dsGlosing gifts long hidden or neglected, particularly those
of her women, whose condition had been dragging the masses
into ever-deepening tragedies of body, mind and spirit. Ancient
Egyptian tradition is giving place to things modern.
The background of the New Egypt is reviewed with special
reference to beginnings of modernization under Mohammed Ali and
his successors and the influence of foreign powers on Egypt’s
internal affairs, especially as th^affected women and girls;
12 ’ ’ Muslim” and "Moslem” are used interchangeably. The
writer prefers the former as it is distianctly Egyptian pro
nunciation. Many writers, even Egyptians, have used the other
spelling which doubtless came into English because other parts
of the Islamic world use that voweling of the Arabic Consonants
William Thomson of Harvard University uses "Muslim” throughout
his article, "Islam the Religion of Muhammed”, The,Moslem World
Vol. XXXIII, No. 2, April I9 4 3. , 1
7
contributions of Christian missionary bodies and their pioneer
work in education of girls and in the later training of women
for leadership in an ever-broadening community life; the estab
lishment of the Evangelical Church, and of various training
schools for Egyptian leaders; later development of Government
schools especially their program of education for girls; growth
of Egyptian Nationalism with special reference to women’s part
in and gain by it; have each been considered. The life of
village women is discussed with emphasis on latent possibilities
for nation-building. Progress of education for girls since
World War I is shown in various ways. The chapter entitled
"Egyptian Women and Religion” includes a section on Coptic women;
Islamic history and the astonishing changes of recent years with
their intimate effect not only on the over-ninety per cent of
Muslim women but all other Egyptian women as well; the super
stitions which bind the masses from both groups; and women in
tie Evangelical Church, a remarkable number of whom exercise a
quiet leadership which affects circles far wider than their
own numbers. The contributions of Protestant Christian theology
as presented by Western missionaries, its practical applications
to daily individual life and therefore to present social and
religious thinking in Egypt have been pointed out. The chapter
"Recent Social Developments” Includes a new standard for Egypt
ians home-life for many of her people, health care for a growing
number through Mission and Government hospitals and clinics,
and a widened activity for women outside the home.
8
Justification of the problem. The world at war has
centered on Egypt as a key to the Near Eastern situation, and
to the Far East as well. Her position of leadership among Near
Eastern peoples makes the part Egypt’s women play in life of
strategic importance to all who are interested not only in
tiat nation but in her neighbor nations and in world affairs.
Miss Woodsmall’s two studies of women in several Islamic
countries have touched lightly on Egyptian women. Miss Black
man’s anthropological study has given much of historical value
regarding conditions and customs which remain true today. It
seems that no writer has combined the record of history with
study of its social and religious implications for Egyptian
wDmen and through them the effect on Egyptian society. This
study has endeavored to discover underlying causes for the
changes in the status of women which these and writers of poli
tical and educational history of Egypt have noted.
A Statement of Sources of Data. With this end in view
the following sources have been consulted:
1. General studies of Islam and Islamic countries.
2. Histories of Modern Egypt.
3 . Writings by Egyptian, Armenian, British and American
authors.
4. Studies of Egypt’s social, educational, political
and religious history.
5. Muslim as well as Christian writers.
6 . Histories, reports and printed materials of the United
Presbyterian Church regarding the mission work under
its care, known as The American Mission in Egypt.
7 . Available material from other Missions.
8 . Thirteen years’ experience with the American Mission
in Egypt.
9. Personal correspondence from friends and co-laborers
there. Profound thanks is due ms,ny co-workers and friends,
Egyptian, Syrian, British, and American who through the years
have lent direction to thought, and who out of the riches of
their experience have given so generously of suggestions and
encouragement, many of them during the immediate period of
this study.
CHAPTER II
BACKGROUND OF THE NEW EGYPT
Mohammed All and his Successors. From the ninth to the
nineteenth centuries Egypt had remained largely oblivious to
the Western world. Her religious contacts, pilgrimages to
Mecca and students from Muslim lands to A1 Azhar--and a few
occasional travelers alone broke the completeness of that
isolation.1
In the course of the centuries of servitutde to
which Egypt was exposed as a result of her strategic
position, tremendous wealth and fertile soil, she lost
more than her political independence. She lost the
race experience that should have been accumulating since
the days of Menes; experience of wealth, art, science,
government, industry, culture and social organization.
Her spirit was quenched. Her enthusiasm faded so that
nothing remained to mark the splendor of her ancieht
dominion but crumbling temples and fragmentary records of
her builders.2
But now once again the people themselves are feeling their way,
trying to reconstruct their society.
At the end of the eighteenth century the little man of
Corsica crushed the power of the Mamelukes in Egypt. But it
^ Sir Valentine Chirol, The Egyptian Problem (London:
Macmillan and Company, Limited," " " Y Ç 2 1), pp. 1-20, also Lothrop
Stoddard, The New World of Islam (New York: 0 Scribners’Sons
1 9 2 1), early pages give more details on this period. Some
students give a slightly longer period of prosperity, cf.post,
and Stoddard, op. cit., pp. 1 3, 2 2.
2 Amir Boktor, School and Society in the Valley of the
Nile (Cairo: Elias’ Modern Press, Ï9 3 6), pp.14, 15 and quoting
P. G. Elgood, The Transition of Egypt, p. 1.
11
was rjot Napoleon who gave an ordered government in Egypt. An
Albanian adventurer, Mohammed Ali, likewise born in I7 6 9,
seized the opportunity of the confusion resulting from Napo
leon’s invasion to assume military leadership in Egypt. The
British befriended him. Later European Alliances, however,
reversed the relationship and no small part of his place of
honor in Egyptian hearts rests on the fact that twice he sound
ly defeated British armies.3 The Ulemas of A1 Azhar proclaimed
him Pasha of Egypt.
Born a Mohammedan, he always remained one, although only
under the severest political stress did he appeal to the re
ligious fanaticism of Islam. To strengthen his own power he
defended the Turkish Sultanate against the Greeks and made
aggressive thrusts against the Wahhabis of Arabia. Then, when
the Turkish populace acclaimed him a greater defender of the
faith than their own Sultan, the latter had personal fears of
his growing European powers.
Meanwhile, the financing and manning of hiscampaigns
had already roused resentment in Egypt where he treated the
populace as serfs and where he never bothered to learn the
language of the :land he ruled, Egypt had merely changed masters
from the Mamelukes to Mohammed Ali— albeit to a more enlightened
ruler.
3 Boktor, op. cit., early pages.
12
When he "would have tumbled the Turk out of Asia Minor,
and restored the Eastern Caliphate, but for the interferrence
of Western Powers"^ the French supported him--to counteract
English interests in Egypt. He was eventually recognized as
a practically independent ruler. His tenure lasted from I7 9 8
to 1849. Because he "amputated their country from the decay
ing body of the Ottoman Empire, thus giving it a separate ad
ministrative existence"5 and because he introduced, though by
Oriental methods of government. Western culture, education and
industry, thus giving new impetus to progress, he is often
referred to as the father of modern Egypt. 8
It is reported that in 1 4 7I A.D, Cairo itself had I55
schools, but Mohammed Ali (1798) found in all Egypt only fif
teen schools directed by A1 Azhar, and a few Hut tabs (that is,
Koranic schools).7 But this type of school did not satisfy
4 Sidney Low, Egypt in Transition (New York: The Mac
millan Company, I9 1 4), p. 17F.
5 Earl of Cromer, Modern Egypt (New York: The Macmillan
Company, I9I6), p. I5.
8 T. H. P. Sailer, The Moslem Faces the Future, (New
York: Missionary EducatiohT Movement of the tfhited S.tates and
Canada, I9 2 6), p. 5 6. And, Andrew Watson,- The American Mission
in Egypt (Philadelphia: The Board of Foreign Missions of the
united States Presbyterian Church, 1904), pp. 3 5, 3 6.
7 An Egyptian’s word-picture of a kuttab
"Picture a group of children sitting on the floor, their
legs folded under them, long reed pens in their hands and plates
of tin on their knees; their days spent bending over these
13
the young Albanian, Although illiterate himself--or was it
because he felt so:.keenly what he had missed?— he not only
opened schools in the towns and larger villages, but he also
founded the Schools of Medicine (to train doctors for the army)
and Engineering and other similar institutions.8
Mohammed Ali built his school system somewhat on the
European plan, imported Europeans, chiefly Frenchmen, specialists
in their fields, to direct it. Yet in its operation it followed
much of the Azhar method, and the chief attendants were Mamelukes
and foreigners.9 Cromer says he dallied with European civiliza
tion, but intelligently, not hurtfully as some of his successors,
10
yet that his methods of government were in reality wholly Oriental.
This program failed to gain the confidence of the people.
Enrollment was by coercion, hot by choice. They confused enroll
ment for school and enlistment for the array, therefore, mothers
even resorted to blinding their sons to prevent their being
taken to be educated.Schools for girls were unknown.
7(continued) plates filling them with religious matter,
reading, memorizing and finally erasing; their teacher usually
a conspicuous man in his circle--a blind sheikh who professes
to be a specialist in religion, law, medicine, and in all social
and economic fields of his time. With a brutal stick in his hand
he guarantees the education of the most backward and mentally
defective as well as of the most gifted and talented children.
In fact the father proudly entrusts his boy into the hands of a
blind sheikh, saying: ’to you the flesh of my son and to me the
bones only.’ (Quoted from Boktor, op. cit., p. II3, where he
gives footnote to Lord Milner, England in Egypt, p. 2 9 7, and to
V.Edouard Dor (Bey),L’Ins truetion Publique en Egypt,p.81,1 7 9ff.)
8 Sir Humphrey, Middle-Eas t• Wind ow, ( London: Longmans
Green and Company, 1942), p. 46, also Gromer, Modern Egypt, p. 16.
9 Boktor, op. cit., pp. 1 1 4, 1 1 5.
10 Cromer, Modern Egypt, (New York: The Macmillan Company
1 9 1 6), p. 1 7, also cf. ante. p. 1 0)
11 Boktor, op. cit., cites V-, Edouard, Dor, Bey, op.cit.,
p. 2 6 1.
14
When that idea was first proposed in Parliament Yacoub Artin
Pasha was "the only Egyptian who took the least Interest”—
and he was born an Armenian, though he spent his whole life
in Egypt and most of it in the Ministry of Education.1^
Some of his reforms remained despite the efforts of
successors to erase them. More significant than these was the
effect on the thinking of a few leaders of the land: they had
tasted something different— they wanted more. The birth of
modern Egypt has been more a revolution of ideas, an implana
tation of ideals, than of material improvements.
Through the centuries Egyptians had learndd to look to
others to direct them, to do their thinking for them, as in
dividuals and as a people. Now they are learning to think
for themselves and to discover thrilling possibilities ahead.
But in the half-century which followed Mohammed Ali, little
progress was made in government schools. In fact, Abbas I
and Said Pasha abolished the Department of Education and fought
all public interest in education. Yet, despite popular fear
of education in his day, Mohammed Ali must have succeeded
somewhat in implanting public favor toward enlightenment, for.
^2 Bowman, op. cit., pp. 47, 6 9.
13 Cf. post
The London Times, January 26, 1937, p. xxiv. "Tradition
in Eclipse, Ad vane e of New Ideas."
14 Amin Youssef, Independent Egypt (London: Murray,I9 4 0)
pp. 3 6, 3 7, 4 1, Cf.ante, p. lO, Boktor citing Elgood., and Cromer,
Modern Egypt,Vol. 2, p. 194. Of.post,p. Bowman references,
and VI, p. 10., Stoddard references.
15
when Ismail Pasha (I8 6 3-I8 7 9) lu barely ten years’ time opened
elementary, secondary, professional and other higher schools,
youth of the land were ready to attend. Ismail made all educa
tion free in government schools and encouraged private and for
eign schools. 15 The new Ministry of Education sent students to
Europe; European experts were invited to Egypt; Edouard Dor
(later Bey), Swiss pedagogue, was engaged to establish a normal
school, Dar el Ulum. It is to the present time a standard govern
ment training school, though its "exact sciences and scientific
methods were attacked then by A1 Azhar as heretical and diaboli-
oal."l6
George Young says that Ismail’s educational law of 1868
"would have done credit to any European State." Schools which
numbered 1 85 in 1862 multiplied to 5 ,8 2 0 in 18 78 with more than
100,000 pupils enrolled. Boys banded together to send one of
their number to school that he might teach the rest of them at
night. It was then that rote memorizing, such a bane of edu
cators in Egypt today, got its start (what is not traceable to
the Euttabs). But education was given a fair share in the
budget, and Ismail personally endowed schools and founded a
national library with valuable manuscripts and books of his own.^7
15 Boktor, op. cit., pp. 7, II5.
18 Ibid.
17 For this paragraph cf. Boktor, op. cit., pp. 1 1 5, 1 1 6,
and George Young, Egypt (New York: Scribners, I9 2 7), p. 7 8.
16
In short, it was through Napoleon who wakened Egypt to
awareness of the West, through Mohammed Ali with his European
background and imported experts, and through Yacoub Artin Pasha
the Armenian in Egypt’s Parliament, that the conscious and de
liberate Westernization of Egypt began. Yet, all this time,
the girls seem to have been forgotten by government leaders.
EARLY MISSIONARY CONTRIBUTIONS
Missions Cooperating. Other foreign contacts before the
middle of the ninteenth century included the coming of Chris
tian missionaries from the West.
Prom 1819 to 1849, the Church Missionary Society of the
Church of England, headquarters in London, carried on an inter
mittent work in Egypt. They sent out as many as five new
missionaries in 1825. Many copies and portions of scripture were
distributed in Arabic and a beginning was made in educating
Egyptian youth in the Christian Bible. Records indicate that a
few individuals accepted the teaching and shared the faith of
these Westerners. Others were led to doubt current superstitions
and traditions. But on the whole results were discouraging and
after several years of "only a lingering existence" that work
was abandoned.^8
18 The Moravians worked in Egypt from I7 52 to the end of
that century. Results were not evident to their successors.
Mr. Leider of Church Missionary Society remained on alone after
17
The American Mission began work in 1854. The Church
Missionary Society returned in 1882 (date of the British Occu
pation of Egypt). The Egypt General Mission, headquarters
also in London with an international and interdenominational
staff, and working principles much like China Inland Mission,
began its work about 1897* The Canadian Holiness Mission was
opened perhaps a little later. These three have in years pre-
ceeding World War II about equalled in foreign staff that of the
American Mission which is under the United Presbyterian Church
of North America. There have been and still are several smaller
Christian Protestant Missions. Of essential importance to all
is the Nile Mission Press whose facilities for publication and
purchase of Christian literature have been extended not only
to mission workers but to the public.
Little information is available regarding the Catholic
Missions, largely Italian and French, which have established
schools in many places. It is reported that on declaration of
war Italian schools quickly became "French", though under the
same personnel.^9
^ 8 (continued) their work was officially abandoned. He
welcomed heartily the coming of the American Mission, and him
self exercised a wholesome influence on the community anda upon
Coptic Patriarch and bishops until his death from cholera in 1865.
For these and other details of this period cf. Andrew
Watson, The American Mission in Egypt, pp. 3I-3 4, also Charles R.
Watson, rfr'"the Valley of the N^e (New York: Fleming H. Revell
Company,"RT908'), quoted"‘ ^rase "is from The Gleaner published by
Church Missionary Society, and quoted by"Charles R. Watson,p.I3 0.
19 This came in personal letter from Fayoum as being popu
lar knowledge regarding the Italian school there. It was reported
to be similarly true in other parts of the country.
18
Through the years there has been close coopération be
tween the Church Missionary Society, The Egypt General Mission,
The Canadian Holiness Mission and The American Mission. Each
has its own agreed territory. The' first two have worked largely
in Cairo and in the Delta, the third in Upper Egypt. The Ameri
can Mission has had certain Delta areas and extended south to
the border of Egypt, with resident missionaries in a dozen cities
We unite in presenting Christ [Jesus as Savior] and
man’s need for Him and in emphasizing the Bible as the Word
of God, and let no Western differences in doctrine or Church
government be apparent to the Egyptians.20
Because there were others who shared in the spirit which Dr.
Zwemer has lauded in W. Temple Pairder, long-time exponent of
Church Missionary Society work in Egypt, inter-Mission coopera
tion in Egypt became what it is today.
Most of all, this man of ten talents was a friend.
He had the genius and passion for making and holding
friendships regardless of racial, social, or linguistic
differences; he had a passion for Christian unity and
felt personally humiliated when missionary groups or
individuals failed to understand each other .2 1
Evidences of that close spirit of unity have been multiple
In times of shortage of funds or workers Egypt General Mission
and American Mission have rendered mutual assistance. After
20 Rev. W. P. Gilmore, American Mission, in Personal
conference, June I5, 194-3.
21 Samuel M. Zwemer, Into All the World (Grand Rapids:
Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, I9 4 3), p. 208.
19
forty years in Zagazig, The American Mission gradually turned
over to The Egypt General Mission work which it had conducted
in that city and district.
' The School of Oriental Studies, now part of The American
University at Cairo and widely used by foreign government and
commercial groups in Egypt, was established originally as a
training school for missionaries and in its present form is
direct fruit of inter-Mission colaboration.
Also, The Egypt Inter-Mission Council, which had its
beginnings in 1^18 to 1 9 2 1, enrolled in 1942 twenty cooperating
Mission bodies.22 The purpose of this group is consultation on
methods of approach to the Egyptian people, and presentation of
mutual interests to the Egyptian Government. A very close rela
tionship is maintained between this body and the Evangelical
Church, members of the latter body often sharing in program and
discussions.23
Schools for Girls. Christian Missionaries from the
West early realized the necessity for enlightenment of Egypt * s
22 Prom the writer's personal notes of American Mission
Association meeting, January 1938, kn talk by Dr. H. E. Phillips,
"Relationships with other Missions and Younger Churches", and
1 9 4 2, Twenty-first General Conference of the Egypt Inter-Mission
CounciX, held in All Saints ' ' Cathedral, Cairo, Êay 1s t ' , ' 19W.
2 3 Regarding the Evangelical Church, cf. post,p. 3 9.
The report just cited records such sharing.
20
women. This, they felt, could be most effectively accomplished
through training the girls, meanwhile teaching as much as possi
ble among the women in their homes.
In their lack of loiowledge of the language, the mission
aries searched for someone who would be able to teach these
women and girls. They could not find a woman in all Cairo who
could read and write. Finally, on June 20, i860, a school for
girls was opened with four pupils. There were soon fourteen.24
"From that beginning in I8 5 6 up to I9 0 3 Mission schools led in
education for girls in Egypt."25
They met with real difficulties. The people said, "
"Schools for girls! Why, girls are just like thé donkeys.
Girls cannot l e a r n . "26 /But the missionaries were their friends.
They lovingly calmed parental fears and helped the girls to learn.
24 This paragraph is based on an article by Miss Lydia
MeCague who gleaned from letters of her mother who with her
father. Dr. Thomas MeCague and Rev. James Barnett were the
pioneer missionaries of The American Mission, Missionary Society.
Women’s Missionary Magazine, Vol. xlviii. No. 9 , May I9 5 5,
pp._ 4 5 1, 4 5 3, (Pittsburgh; Women’s General).
2 5 Miss Caroline M. Buchanan, Litt. D., educationlist
with The American Mission, "Movements in the Life of Women in
the Islamic World," John R.,Mott (editor) The Moslem World To-
day (New York: George H. Doran Company, I9 2 5), Reprinted,
London: Hazell, Watson and Vivey, Ltd., June 1§26), p. 21§.
2 8 Quoted from Mrs. William H. Harvey who with her husband
were early Missionaries with the American Mission. She dies
about 1 9 2 6. She loved to tell of these protests of the village
people in Sennores, Fayoum, when the missionaries first proposed
a school for girls, then of how the girls enjoyed and profited
by it when it was finally opened.
21
Interest in the education of girls spread, 27
Training Egyptian Leadership. At first the missionaries
themselves did much of the teaching. There were no others to
do it. They have continued to enjoy this personal contact
through the years. But they soon realized that they were neces
sarily too few among so many and that they would always be
foreigners. They realized that Egyptians must be trained to
lead their own people. So, as their master had done before
tiera, these early missionaries began guiding more advanced
pupils to teach others. The new ideals led Egyptians into
practical service. Prom being helpers of the teachers in the
schools many entered the profession themselves. Others went
from school to make homes of their own.
27 "The first girls’ school in the East was opened by
a missionary from the West. . . .A prominent gentleman came
to the missionary, . .earnestly and indignantly, "Don’t you
know that you do us harm by opening such a school?" "How?"
replied the astonished missionary. "Beware," said,the man,
"No young man will consent to marry the girl,who reads and
writes." In spite of opposition. . . .the missionaires con
tinued their work till the people themselves began to realize
that no real progress is possible as long as women are not
educated. Today no ambitions young man plans to marry any
but an educated girl. .At first the obstacles' in the way of
educating our girls were like mountains, too high to surmount,
but by patience and perseverence the missionaries have at
last won for' us a great victory. The bitter opponents of this
movement are now its most ardent promoters. Those who live
fifty years from today will see what miracles the education
of girls has wrought. Quoted from Mitry S. Dewairy, "The Con
tribution of the Western Church," pp. 79-101, in Milton Stauffer
(Editor), Voices From the Near East (New York: Missionary
Education Movement of ÜnXted States and Canada, I9 2 7).
22
But when the missionaries suggested graining Egyptian
girls as teachers they encountered another and serious obstacle
Not only had Egyptian women been denied all educational oppor
tunity but such was the fear of the government school system
that parents were terrified at thought of their daughters’
becoming teachers. It has been a very slow process to over
come this fear. In some smaller sections of the country and
in many families such an occupation is even yet utterly un-
tiinkable.2 8 It was counted a disgrace to the family, a reflec
tion on the parents’ ability to look after their girls, and an
indication of low character on the part of the girls for them
to want to teach.
Little by little, in each community as the missionaries
won the confidence of Egyptians, some of the more daring fami
lies permitted their daughters to teach in the school in which
they had learned, often labeling the permission^as a personal
favor" to the missionary. To go among strangers to any higher
school for further preparation was as yet too much a breach of
custom. The missionary had to be the training school.
The missionaries were not satisfied with the informal
training of teachers by association with themselves as they
worked, or even by directed and supervised teaching. Normal
Training schools were a necessity.
2 8 Boktor, op. cit., pp. I3 3-I3 4, p. 75. Also, cf.post,
"Governmant Schools^ p.
23
Therefore, in I9 0 7 educationally qualified teachers were
brought to Pressly Memorial Institute in Assiut to give addi
tional preparation for teachers. Elementary courses in child
psychology and in teaching methods had been given early in the
course, which was also enriched by music and like things of
cultural value. Following their graduation from this school of
more than high school grade a full year of special Teacher-
Training was offered. Similar training courses were given
about the: same time and for many years in The American Mission
School for Girls in Ezbekieh, Cairo-. Many of the girls in
each of these schools were daughters of pastors or became pas
tor’s wives.
Every year there has been more demand for these prepared
teachers than could be supplied. They have gone to all parts
of Egypt, preferring to be in Christian schools (Mission, Evan
gelical Church or Coptic) where they might have freedom to teach
the same central truths which have enriched their own lives,
A three-year Seminary beyond the preparation of Assuit
College had its beginnings as Egyptian men worked side-by-side
with missionaries on and from "The Ibis". The Bible Training
School began in a missionary’s home and as she worked with
Egyptian women from "The Delta Car."29 As the missionaries led
29 "The Ibis", a Mission house-boat in service from i860
to 1 9 4 0. "The Delta Car", a railway car equipped like a trailer
house, attached at will to trains of the narrow-gauge railway
which threads the Delta, in use since early in the twentieth
century.
24
Egyptians on to new ventures in Christ these from the West were
also learning to better understand their Eastern brothers and
sisters, and their common Savior who first gave his message in
the East. Always and everywhere there has been emphasis on
"the togetherness" of the project. East and West united in Christ
Syrian Teachers. As confidence in the early Mission
schools grew, more pupils came and the need for teachers became
urgent. The missionaries were glad to find women from Syria
(Lebanon, chiefly) who had been trained as teachers in Christian
Mission schools which had their beginning there in 1821. It
was indeed a great help to find these girls with Christian back
ground and from Christian homes ready and willing to teach in
their neighbor-country, Egypt.
Their native tongue was Ara.bic. Though there are dif
ferences in the speech of Cairo and Beirut there are also differ
ences between Cairo, Luxor, Beni Suef, Fayoum and Eagazig. Each
village has its own peculiarities, grown up through long cen
turies of illiteracy?^ Yet the written language of the two
countries is one, and that of course is the language of schools.
Also, these Syrians were Easterners. Not only could they
understand Egyptian thinking more readily than could the Wester
ners but the Egyptians themselves felt that these were like
themselves, children of the East. Therefore, fortunate indeed
30 Increase ofHteracy, the radio, and easier means of
travel from village to city have begun to somewhat modify local
speech differences in the younger generation.
25
was the.imissionary who could find a capable, trained Syrian of
like missionary zeal and dedication of life to be her co
laborer and tb assist by piloting to wiser channels wiien there
might have been fear or misunderstanding in school or community
contacts. Times uncounted these Eastern women, who at home had
enjoyed Western contacts, proved themselves interpreters of
East to West and vice versa.
Also, as time went on, Egyptian girls turned with confi
dence to these Syrian women who had been their own teachers,
when they succeeded in gaining parental consent to learn more
by teaching. Particularly in those early years, until the pre
judices of Egyptians against schools and against teaching could
be overcome, the service of these Syrian women was invaluable.
A number still continue their rich contribution.
The special need which these Syrian teachers supplied
is further explained by Amine Bey Youssef, son-in-law to
Zaghloul Pasha. He emphasizes that two thousand years of for
eign domination in Egypt has resulted not in servility as the
attitude of the Egyptians but in a certain "sensitiveness," a
"rediness to take offense even when none was intended. "3 2
It must never be forgotten that Egyptians are at all
times profoundly suspicious of foreigners. . . .therefore
never frank with a foreigner. Their long subjection, their
31 Here and elsewhere statements regarding Mission work
refer particularly to The American Mission. Much the same is
true of other gr oups but the writer can speak with more cer
tainty of her own group.
32 Amine Youssef, Independent Egypt (London: Murray,I9 4 0)
p . 3 8 . : :
26
experience of the sufferings consequent on giving
utterance to their real feelings, have robbed them of
the courage to give utterance to their convictions.
This suspicion produces a certain restraint, not in
superficial behavior, but in the feeling that there is
something behind, something held back, an absence of
frank truthfulness [p. 39]• It is not surprising
that the great majority of Egyptians. . .suspect ulterior
motives.33
Often, even today, Egyptian companions of foreigners in village
work are asked in whipsers with suspicious glances, "what did
she come for anyway?" It is interesting to watch the change
of facial expression as they are assured by those of their own
people who know and love these strange foreigners as friends.
This assurance is basic, for only when that foundation of trust
is established can there be cooperation, be it for educating
daughters or for any other work. Egyptians have a reserve with
foreigners, but they do not feel that Syrians are true foreigners
They talk their language --not alone the words, but the psychology
of the Near East is one.
Another reason for their welcome by the Egyptians is
that the Syrians like the Egyptians have known oppression through
the centuries and the fellowship of suffering is very real.
Early patrons of Mission schools in Egypt were from the Coptic
minority. It was not long before fellowship in Christ over
leaped the barriers of centuries. (Of course that history
33 Ibid., pp. 3 8- 3 9.
27
was largely unknown to the Individual pupils.) Both Egyptian
and Syrian Christiand came from a minority group in the pre
sence of a Muslim majority. Each had known the oppression of
Turkish rule. As a common enemy can soon bind differing brothers
together so it happened here. Members of once-rival Eastern
churches became co-laborers with others from distant lands in
presenting the Christ whom all loved and whom all sought the
better to serve.
Home-making. From the first the missionaries felt that
the primary need for girls had different applications than those
for boys. Women’s place in Egypt has long been one of seclusion
her job that of wife and mother. The missionaries had no desire
to change that job, but rather to help fit each girl tè be a
better wife and mother. They felt that much of the idea was
just as wrong for men as for women.
Shdkh Mitry Dewairy has pointed out that there was no
real home life before these teachers came:
Before the advent of the Western missionary, woman
in general was regarded without respect. She was despised
as an inferior being. She suffered severe injustice in
every period of her life, from childhood to old age.
Social life as a result was maimed, unnatural and handi
capped in every sense. The elevation of woman to the high
position she enjoys now has been made possible chiefly
by the teaching and service of the Western missionary.
The mother, wife or sister was not permitted formerly to
sit at the same table with the males of her family. She
had no right or training to take charge of her own
affairs. Now, having been educated in the mission and
government schools, she becomes a new sister, wife and
28
mother. In her emancipation we have experienced a
revolution in all life. She has created the home, which
was unknown in the East. Here is the secret of every
reformation and advance.34
That this testimony is no idle flattery, not even alone
the expression of sincere gratitude to friends, is evidenced by
the fact that the rich Arabic language has no word for "home"
with all its precious connotations. They had not the fact, so
why a word? The word in common use is "bait", a place to sleep;
the more formal word is "manzil", a getting-down place, probably
referring originally to the site of the Arab’s dismounting at
the end of a day’s ride across the desert.
Because the missionary sensed this lack, home-making
lessons were of the earliest in every American Mission school
for girls. Girls were taught to keep themselves and their
clothes clean. They learned to mend their clothes and to make
new ones. They learned tidiness about their school-room,
whether it was the missionary’s home or a separate place for
lessons. They learned to choose and to prepare wholesome food
from things easily available. The Luxor Girls Boarding School,
the example, used as its laboratory for home economics a typical
village house of mud brick set right out in the school garden,
as the village houses are clustered under the trees by the
34 Mitry S. Dewairy, "The Contribution of the Western
Church" pp. 79-101, Milton Stauffer (editor). Voices from the
Wear East, (Missionary Education Movement of Uhrted States and
Canada/ I9 27)> p. 89.
29
canal at the edge of the fields.
Girls learned to make baby clothes. (Many an Egyptian
baby in the poorer homes arrives without the slightest prepara
tion for its garments.) They learned how to bathe and feed the
little ones. In a land where mother must carry the family water
supply from the canal in an earthen water-jar on her head,
common practice had allowed the children to take their own
baths when they were able--in this same canal. Many a Mission
mother has bathed her own baby before a class of girls or mothers
In Assuit the girls of Pressly Memorial Institute (day and
boarding school lovingly known all over Egypt as "The P.M.I.")
were taken by classes to The American Mission Hospital to watch
nurses care for the infants. From this grew the three-year
hospital training course for nurses with entrance requirements
much as in the best American hospitals.35 The PÎM.I.’s
Saturday morning mending hour in the dormitory-home, Zagazig
and Fayoum homes where under missionary supervision girls who
would otherwise have been denied school privileges learned to
do their own simple housework and go to school, and uncounted
Mission homes where Egyptian girls learned to share in the work
and privileges of the home, have all made their practical
contributions to a new concept in Egypt— the meaning of "home."
35 Of. post. , Chapter VII, p. lyo/
30
Later, courses were carefully graduated according to
age-growth from Kindergarten to College classes, but from the
beginning these fundamentals of home-making were an integral
part of each day’s program. The mme of the course came to be
"tadbeer il manzil", arrangement or management of the abiding-
place. Then, as there came to be more "tadbeer" in each
"Manzil", men-folk began to like to stay at home instead of
to while away off-work hours shipping coffee (or less worthy
things) and "swapping yarns" in the cafes.
Real homes came into being when women were recognized as
individuals with whom their husbands could enjoy companionship.
One barrier to such fellowship was removed when girls were
taught wise management of family budgets, home-sewing, cooking
and household arts. But most important of all was the care of
little children, for Egypt has many babies. As discerning men
saw that Mission wives were helpful companions and better mothers,
wealth and family inheritance became no longer their only basis
for choosing a bride. Men of pioneering thought came to Mission
girls’ schools asking "whom do you have who would make a good
wife for my son?" Then the parents of the child were approached
on the subject. New ideals brought progressive young men to
seek well-equipped partners for home-building and for community
service. Life is a unit, and forward-looking Egyptians today
recognize that with economic and political progress must come
31
the equalizing of women’s preparation for life with that of
men. 38 Later, especially after 1919, youths met girls in Chris
tian Endeavor Societies,^^ and the young people were invited to
gether in groups to the home of the missionary or to that of a
Christian mother trained in a Mission school. Sometimes teachers
of boys’ and of girls* schools met in conferences of Mission
workers. Thus, where their parents or grandparents may never
have met before their wedding, many Egyptian girls today have
known and loved the men whom they married. Others have refused
parental choices for them, or delayed their marriage date until
they had enjoyed more school and teaching experience.
Mission Welfare Clinics carried new ideas of cleanliness
and hygiene to mothers outside the schools. Visitors to the
homes took them similar messages. But especially in the board
ing schools did girls learn the secret of happy family life in
the oft-mentioned presence of the Heavenly Father, in the
consicous Christ-centeredness of teaching, in the daily turning
38 Many years ago a youth was engaged to a girl of seven.
As he was in Assiut College he asked that she be sent to school.
Her father saw no need for that. So he asked to marry her then,
that he might send her to school. The father consented and she
was in "The P.M.I." until he finished Assuit College. Their
seven daughters and one son have been a blessing to Egypt (teach
ers and leaders) because the Chiîstian ideals of that home became
a part of their lives.
The number of such homes cannot be estimated, nor their
wholesome effect on the life of the nation.
37 Dr. Francis Clark, founder of Christian Endeavor, early
visited Egypt and established this udon of Christian youth which
has been carried on in varied forms through sponsorship of the
Mission schools.
32
to the Bible as the Word of God, the one authoritative rule
of faith and practice. Rules? Yes, schools have them, that
all may have a common understanding, but "the dont’s" are sub
merged and soon forgotten as desire is implanted to help each
other grow in Him. Girls from all over Egypt look to Christian
mission schools as the source to them of ideals for their own
kappy homes.
Thus foundations were laid for saving the women of Egypt
from the fate of their predessors, that they be no longer
chattels and drudges, playthings of men’s passions, to be cast
aside when an irate husband wearried of her or of himself, but
that each be a wife in all the finest meanings of that word, a
mother whose children would rejoice in her and whose neighbors
would be glad she lived.
A New Understanding of God. The missionaries from the
West brought what to the Oriental was a radically new concep
tion of God, and it necessitated a new evaluation of the indi
vidual --man, woman and child. It was this which prompted their
bringing schools, teachers for girls as well as for boys, health
care for babies, and companionship for the whole family in real
homes. They taught the nurturing love of a heavenly Father, a
God all-wise and all-powerful yet impartial, just and holy.
This knowledge of God's care gave rise to clinics, hospitals,
welfare centers, to emphasis on the importance of each man, each
woman, in society, of whatever rank or economic condition.3^
38 Mitry S. Dewairy, in Stauffer, Voices from the Near
East, pp. 9 2- 9 3.
33
The missionaries taught the revelation of God inChrist
Jesus, the redeeming and atoning Savior, intercessor, mediator,
living Lord and loving personal Friend. As friends they voiced
God's invitation that all become cooperators with Him to make
the best possible society.
The Muslim lives in unbroken consciousness of the presence
of Allah, This is evidenced in his salutations, in his express
ing of expectations or plans, often by a gesture if not in word.
Yet there is always the attitude of a mental, of a subject, of a
sihave obeying orders— in fear. Reverent awe is the devout Mus
lim's attitude, but "confidence and assurance" NEVER.'39 The
very word "Islam" and "Muslim" (from the one Arabic root)
means surrender, submission.
James Freeman Clark says the Allah of Islam is "pure will-
will divorced from reason and l o v e . "40 Palgrave, the Ara^bian
traveler "who certainly was not biased against the religion of
Arabia and who lived with the Arabs for long months" described
their attitude, "Every word" of this "tallies with statements
which one can hear daily from pious Moslems.We summarize.
39 For his own account of a Muslim child's search for
peace, oh Davida Fanney, Tommrrow's Egypt (Pittsburgh: Women's
General Missionary Sodety of the United Presbyterian Church of
North America, 1939), about p. I3 5ff.
^9 Samuel M. Zwemer, The Moslem Doc trine of God, (Copy
right American Tract Society, I9 0 5), p."76.
41 Loc. cit.
34
In part:
All Is "as He wills". . .He receives nothing
from his creatures. It is his singular satisfaction
to let his creatures continually ^feel that they are
his slaves, his tools, and contemptable tools also, that
thus they may the better acknowledge his superiority.
He himself is sterile in his inaccessible height neither
loving nor enjoying aught save his own self-measured
degree. That this seemingly blasphemous notion of the
Deity is that of the Koran no cursory reading especially in
translation can reveal, but attentive perusal and thought
over the Arabic text can arrive at no other conclusion.
"And that such was in reality Mohamet's (Mohammed's] mind
and idea is fully confirmed by the witness-tongue of
contemporary tradition."42
"The principle of 'nasikh' and 'mansukh', abrogating
and abrogated verses [of the Koran] by means of which God re
vokes and alters the announcements of His will"^3 are known
not only to the professional theologians of Islam. Every
Muslim is a theologian much more really than the casual Wester
ner can well imagine. It is a part of his daily experience--
this unknowableness of Allah's will. With such a god who may
change his will with or without notice, it is small wonder that
"that the will of Allah hangs like a great pall of smoke heavily
over the daily life" of every Muslim mother,
42 Ibid., pp. 64-69, quoting W. S. Palgrave, also Zwemer,
Arabia: The Cradle of Islam, (New York: Chicago, London, Edln-
burgh; Fleming E. Revel1 Company, I9 0 0), same quotation.
4 3 Philip Khour Hitti, History of the Arabs, (London:
Macmillan and Company, Limited, I9 4 0), p. 9 8. Palmer's Introdue -
to A1 Qur'an [The Koran] also gives examples of this as Mohammed b
political power grew.
Cf. Zwemer, The Moslem Doctrine of God, pp. 64ff.
citing W. S. Palgrave, Narrative of a Year"'% Journey through
Central and Eastern Arabia, Vol. T/ ppl 3^5’ “ 3^7•
35
If the hahy dies through ignorance or superstition the
heart-lonely mother can hut hopelessly shrug her shoulders:
"it is the will of Allah. What can I do?" then- continue her
tears and walls with those who have come to mourn with her,45,
An understanding of the Muslim conception of Allah imay
be gained by watching faces as the Gospel message of love and
purity is unfolded to them, or by telling it for the first
time to those who have never heard. The incomprehensibleness
of what seems to Christians so foundational taxes all the ability
to simplify by word and deed. The only way in which they can
understand is to have it lived and loved into their hearts--
and that may take weeks, months, and years. But when the light
finally penetrates into their darkened hearts and Christ Jesus
is accepted as Savior and as Lord there is such a transformation
as seems impossible in human clay.
4 5 After many years of living in Muslim India and of study
ing Islam practically and historically in that and in other land^
and appreciating all that is fine in many Muslim friends, Murray
T. Titus has written; The Young Moslem Looks at Life (New York:
Friendship Press, 1937), pp. l5$-I6 0:
"But there is something deeply tragic about the Moslem
World that lays hold of the person who takes his Christianity
seriously. He cannot shake off that sense of tragedy; it persis
tently haunts him. He sees much in Islam to be approved and
even admired, but he is conscious of a great emptiness at the
heart of it. The Moslem knows* God as King, whose will is law ;
he does not know God as Father, and the transforming power of
his love. The Moslem declares the holy Koran is God's supreme
revelation of his will to men, but rejects the revelation of God
in Jesus Christ [p. I6 0] and dismisses the supreme sacrifice"as
an idle tale. The Moslem regards sin as something of amall con
sequence which can easily be righted by good works; he does not
see that sin is not so much the outward act as a disease of the
inner nature and requires a cure that comes from a power that
is beyond one's self. In short, Islam's conception of God is
36
There is not in Islam the thought of being co-worker
with God, or participating, in however small yet personal a
way, in His infinite plans and accomplishments. Therefore,
the Muslim has through the centuries been held under the para-
lizing spell of fatalism, a necessary corollary of his concep
tion of Allah. Protest against difficulties seemed hopeless.
The pious attitude regarding life's ills has been "'ala Allah"
(It's on God), that is, God is responsible, not I, man, a mere
nothing before His omnipotence"--not to speak of that inferior
being which is the Muslim woman.
The masses in Egypt are still thus bound. Ninety of
each one hundred persons in Egypt are Muslim; in the Delta it
is ninety-eight to each one hundred. Christians as well as
Muslims in the villages are all too generally untaught. Fre
quently the Bible-teacher-in-the-homes introduces a new village
by saying, "The Christians in this village are just like the
Muslims." A small percentage have begun to grasp the concep
tion of man's part in life as a cooperation, not as a blind
submission to a magnified Oriental despot, resplendent with
might and glory. (The poorest fellah may pause in his fear to
4 5 (continued)
not big enough to satisfy the deepest needs of man, and neither
is its conception of revelation; while its conception of sin
is far from going to the root of the matter. It is this basic
weakness in the religious ideas of Islam which is responsible
for the trail of tragedy which follows in its wake.
Cf. Post, Chapter III p. 6 2.
Arabic newspaper item originating from A1 Azhar.
37
delight in the pomp and ceremony of his arrogant despot's pro
cession, but Egypt's people have a love, not fear, for their
youthful king with his democratic ideals) Thus, this new un
veiling of the God whose will may be known and Who does not
change makes possible in them a love and .trust, not fear for
Him. The thought of cooperation brings with it a new sense of
responsibility. When men and women gradually learn that God
has left to each of them a part in making life its best, then
love becomes practical. For example, apathetic submission to
a power which they cannot battle becomes unnecessary when His
laws of health and hygiene are known and applied. In the
Mission hospital or clinic they find people who can do some
thing about some of life's ills--and Egyptians come to learn
how. Thus is the philosophy of fatalism being shattered,^7
For the "fatalism of Islam" is a very real thing.
It dictates moral laissez-faire-ness. It impedes
the progress of scientific thinking and living in the
Orient, as it does wherever it exists. It is used as a
rationalization for laziness. Why bother about some
thing that might be changed for the better when Allah
knows his job so well?48
But it is a philosophy imbibed with the mother's milk through
the centuries; unless and until a new philosophy comes from
mothers' hearts, until the hearts of fathers have been made
4 7 Mitry S. DewaXry, in Stauffer, Voices from the Near
East, p. 9 2.
Erdman Harris. New Learning in Old Egypt (New York:
Association Press, 1952;, p. 4$.
38
new, the head may give assent but the old must rule the life.
Herein lies the importance of schools for girls, and for boys,
that in the new atmosphere which it produces they may learn
the workability of this new philosophy.
When this new knowledge of God does motivate the life,
not mere head-knowledge but personal acceptance of this new
relationship with God, this inevitably begets service for
others, spontaneously bubbling up from within the heart which
knows God's love, in love for others. It is where this God
is known that "the home of loving and giving" is found. Be-
causeoof this spiritual law of cause and effect we find with the
implanting of this new ideal the springing up of welfare
clinics, orphanages, and like services, under Egyptian leader
ship. '^9
49 Cf. Ante, p.39, and post p.iS^ff. Incidents like
the following reveal the new service-spirit.
Shafeeka had for eight years been helper to Sitt Bista
as she visited in the homes. Then her family dedided that the
girl was "too big" to lead a blind woman about the streets,
and insisted that she "sit at home".(The expression implies
"waiting for a husband." Too often the period becomes one of
thwarting of new ideals in the midst of home-habits which
girls are powerless to change. In this case the necessary
finances were not available, even had the young man been in
the offing, so it really was a futile thing, her Just sitting.)
She knew that home and had been doing her full share to make it
all it could be. She assented only reluctantly, and helped to
initiate her successor.
After about a month of the new school year had gone, she
arrived at the Mission:
"Please would you find something for me to do? "When one
has learned to serve 6he cannot sit."
"And what would you like to do?"
"To be a maid in a Mission hospital." (Untrained Egyptian
39
The Evangelical Church. Sheikh Mitry Dewairy, long
leader in Sunday School work throughout Egypt and the Sudan,
states that before the coming of the missionaries it was almost
impossible to find a copy of the Bible outside Coptic cloisters.
But as soon as the missionaries came to the Near East they be
gan distributing this Book.
Priests of the ancient Christian Churches in our
land were uneducated, and ignorant of the Bible. The
people followed and obeyed them blindly until Chris
tianity itself became corrupt and unreal. Moslems lost
respect for it as they saw so-called Christians con
ducting themselves carelessly, lying, cheating, and
above all practicing usury and using strong drink--
things not permitted by the Moslem religion. It was when
the Bible was published in Arabic that the people discovered
what true Christianity was. They saw then that Christianity
was not form or ritual or sacred celebrations, but life
and spirit, and thus they began to conform their lives to
the teachings of Christ. We cannot forget what an in
fluence the Bible has over the lives of men, morally,
socially, and spiritually. Even the Moslems regard this
new sect of Christians with respect and confidence.59
To present the Gospel of Salvation through God's Book,
by teaching and by life, was the purpose of the missionaries
who arrived in Egypt in 1854. They had no thought of starting
a rival Christian church. But the Coptic Church leaders were
49 (continued)
girls are hired to do routine detail about wards and rooms.)
Such a place was found.
Some months later this girl was placed in charge of the
children's ward, and doctors ajid nurses as well as patients
and their mothers were delighted. Her happiness was in serving
others.
§9 Mitry S. Dewairy, in Stauffer, Voices from the Near
East, p. 80.
40
suspicious of these whom they counted heretics because they
said that Christ Jesus was man as well as God. The Copts,
monophysites, not knowing the scriptures, felt that the doc
trine of "God and man in two distinct natures and one person
forever" was blasphemous.5^ But as the years rolled on they
learned that, with all their short-comings, these from the West
were not blasphemers and that their presentation of wholeness
of life through Christ Jesus was logical and consistent, also
that it was bringing blessing to Egypt. Whereas in the begin
ning those who allied themselves with the missionaries were out
cast from the Coptic Church, today there is a close bond of
friendship with many of the Coptic leaders.
It was that early Coptic antagonism which gave birth
to what became The Evangelical Church of Egypt. Cast out by
their own church, men of a new-found faith insisted that they
be received into communion with the missionaries who had
taught them. The missionaries still had no desire to establish
a rival sect, but because of the orphaned condition of these
whom they had taught, the request was finally granted. In Sep
tember 18 59 four men (one Syrian, one Armenian and two Copts)
were received into full communion with the missionaries.
In May i860 six more men and the first woman were received,
in Alexandria. The first Egyptian congregation was organized
in Nakheila, Upper Egypt, April 22, I8 7I. Its Egyptian pastor
Westminster Catechism phrs.sing.
41
and elder were ordained on October 3I, I8 7I. At this same
meeting the missionaries, thus far the only members of this
church court, "discarded the use of English" as the official
language of Presbytery and "adopted Arabic, the language of
the country." The new pastor and his elder were received
"as equals in every respect." Prom that time the ideal of the
American Mission in Egypt, has been that the Mission decrease,
except in such ways as she can encourage and strengthen this
Egyptian church or in other ways contribute to the building
of the kingdom of God in Egypt.52
Today in this Evangelical Church there are 141 trained
and ordained Egyptian pastors, 71 other trained men serving in
a more-or-less pastoral capacity, I54 organized congregations,
and I5I other groups of believers worship regularly together.53
CaiDO alone has 18 fully organized congregations.54 Five Pres
byterian comprise the Sunod of the Nile with a communicant
membership of 22,689,55 about half of whom are women.5^ The
52 j. R. Alexander, Sketch of the History of the Evan
gelical Church of Egypt, (Alexandria, Egypt: Whitenead Morris,
Limited, I9 3O), pp. 1-, 2 3. This is an address prepared by Dr.
Alexander, one of the early members of the American Mission,
for its seventy-fifth anniversary celebration, delivered Janu
ary 5, 1 9 3 0.
53 Eighty-Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Foreign
Missions, presented "to the Geheral Aasemblyof the United Pres
byterian Church of North America, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania,
May 2 6, 1 9 4 3, Statistical Summary, January 1 to December 3I,
1 9 4 2, pp. 2 0- 2 1.
54 Venna R. Patterson, general letter, March 10, 1943.
55 General Assembly Report, above, 1943. Loc. cit.
42
church is independent in every respect, including its own
Seminary.57 Missionaries share as voting members in Synod
and Presbytery"'meetings and at they are assigned to committee
work, but the Egyptians are now far in the majority. Inciden
tally, true to the custom of the Western church which sponsors
the American Mission, it is only the men who have vote in these
courts of the church. As stated elsewhere, the Missionary
Societies are the women of the church at work.58
It is even more evident in the Arabic than in the English
name which this church adopted that the basis of its very life
is the Good News of God Incarnate come to draw men unto Himself;
and as this is applied to life it gives a place to womanhood
which had never been hers before.
"Being Friends." In speaking of the attitude of British
Government officials in Egypt, Sir Humphry Bowman emphasized
the necessity of being friends. He emphasized especially the
necessity of avoiding all condescension, which he characterized
as "bad policy quite apart from bad manners." Sir Ronald Storrs,
57 The Seminary, begun by the American Mission in the
early years of its work (Cf. ante p. 23 ), was turned over to
the Evangelical Church in I9 2 7. The Synod of the Nile had pre
pared a new building equipped with classrooms, chapel and dormi
tory. At urgent request of the Evangelical Church the Mission
continues representatives on the faculty.
58 Cf. post. p. 1 3 6.
4 - 3
after thirty years' experience in the Near East, adds that
unless intimate association with the Eastern people on a par
with them as friends is a real pleasure to any executive offi
cer, he "had host remain at home."59
Perhaps this need to avoid condescension is especially
true of Egyptian women who for so long have been denied social
and educational privilege. They yearn for something, they know
not what. They are groping for a better way of life. Their
chief medium of learning is through human intercourse. Here
is the missionary's opportunity--to just be friends.
A welcome into the foreigners' home wins confidence
as nothing else can do. A sharing of personal things, news
from home, photographs, helps them to know that the friendship
is real. l S'haring of personal problems or difficulties some
times helps because it shows trust placed in them. Bowman
discovered that an Egyptian would sometimes rather be refused
a request in person than be* granted it by official letter.80
Like other people, they appreciate appreciation, and they are
most gracious in forgiving mistakes of language if only those
from the West will meet them in their own language and enjoy
it with them. To eat their favorite foods with Egyptians they
59 Sir Humphry Bowman. Middle-East Window (London: Long
mans Green and Company, 1942}, pp. 40,41, 3 1 5, and Sir Ronald
Storrs in Introduction to same book.
60
Loc. cit.
44
count true cordradeshlp. They welcome true friends. So the
missionaries visited in the homes of Egyptians as friends who
loved them. Through personal contacts, as they taught in the
homes, in meetings and in schools, they made known the God who
showed His love through the Incarnation, through the atonement
and through the new life given by faith in Christ Jesus as
Savior and as Lord. Their friendly understanding multiplied
the usefulness of the Syrian teachers in the early days of
Mission schools in Egypt. ''Herein this has been attained by
the Westerner there has been success, otherwise relative fail
ure .
Government Schools for Girls. Much of the credit for
providing girls’ schools is due to early American and European
initiative. It is only in relatively recent times that the
Ministry of education of the Egyptian Government has given
the matter of female education serious consideration.^^ At
f&rst, suggestion of a school for girls was considered immoral
and Egyptians would have nothing to do with it. Lord Cromer
recalls that then most of the upper class were not only in
different but absolutely opposed to women’s education.
61 Amir Boktor, School and Society in the Valley of the
Nile (Cairo: Elias’ Mode'rn"Tress, 1936)7 P* 235".
62 Boktor, op. cit., p. 1 3 3, cites Yacoub Artin Pasha,
L’instruction publique en Egypte, p. I3 2, also Bowman, op. cit.,
pp. 6 8- 6 9, Cf. post, p. 1 7 4,section on Public Health.
45
In I8 7 5 Tcheshme-Afet, third wife of the Khedive Ismail
Pasha presented as a private religious endowment (Wadi) to
the Ministry of Education, a school for girls, the Government’s
first. Today, it is a leading training school for teachers
and hears its original nsmie. The Saneya School.^5 Ismail Pasha
himself, grandson of Mohammed Ali, saw the importance of
women’s education and got private tutors for his children.
He also encouraged girls to attend that Government schools by
halving the Government pay all expenses. Even then parents
sent daughters reluctantly and took them away early. Pupils
came mainly from the lower classes, a fact which is only-
gradual ly changing. 64
Only the very privileged girls had educational oppor
tunities at all; Christian girls sogght education in
European or Missionary schools. Even long after the
establishment of government schools for girls, native
Christians )Copts) preferred to send their daughters to
foreign girls’ schools and, as a second choice, to the
schools fomided in later years by charitable native
societies.6 5
Yet, even when they were educated, women were kept in seclusion,
and were far from being considered partners with their husbands.66
6 3 Boktor, hoc. cit., and Caroline M. Buchanan, -^Movements
in the Life of Women in the Islamic World" in Mott, The Moslem
World Today, (New York: George H. Doran Company, I9 2 5, first
printing. Reprinted London: Haze11, Watson and Vivey, Limited,
June 1 9 2 6), p. 2 1 7.
Bowman, loc. cit.
6 5 Boktor, loc. cit.
66 Madame Azer Goubran, personal correspondence, March
2, 1 9 4 3. Herself an early graduate of Pressly Memorial Institute,
Assiut, she has been one of Egypt’s ablest women leaders in home
and national life.
46
It was at the beginning of the twentieth century that
Kasim Amin insisted on a new type of education for women, that
she be prepared to be helper side by side with man in building
the social life of the Egyptian people. Because of his agita
tion, for which he was censured severely, people began to
realize the importance place women might have in national life.^?
More schools were established for girls and more people were
willing for their girls to receive an education.
The present Government educational plan dates back
over a hundred years and was built on the French plan. Its
organization, curriculum and methods had undergone but slight
alteration under Western influence up to I9 3 6. The aim from
the beginning has been to prepare young men for the various
Government offices, "to educate the governing rather than
governed classes." "Up to I87O, only the sons of the Royal
princes and their Turkish relatives had the privilege of attend
ing schools in Egypt or abroad." Eater that privilege was ex
tended to other wealthy individuals.68
Desire for schools grew, and an educated or semi-educated
group soon formed what has been termed "the effendi class,"
a middle economic group, which became increasingly able to
assume the clerical and official responsibilities formerly
Cf^. pQSt. p. 54.
66 Boktor, op_. cit. , p. 238, for paragraph and quotations.
47
usurped by the Turkish and British ruling classes.^9 An in
creasing number of these women enjoyed school privileges and
came to realize their rights and responsibilities as citizens. 70
These men wore trousers and coat; their wives and sisters pro
gressed gradually from the "habara"71 to the Western coat and
hat--new garments indicative of a new spirit of independence.
Yet little was actually done by the Egyptian Government
for girls’ education before the British came in 1882. Sir
Eldon Gorst says that Lord Cromer was handicapped by Egypt’s
financial situation. Whereas the educational budget of the
nation in 1 8 77 stnd 1878 (the worst years financially for the
country) was LE 28,000 annually, it was increased to LE 81,000
in 1 8 9 0 .7 2
There seems to be no doubt that ^Cromer sincerely
desired to see a thorough reform of education. He
evidently attached great importance to it, and it was
owing to his influence that the educational budgets were
greatly increased. It is also clear that he was far from
satisfied with what had been accomplished.75
69 "Effendi", oroginally a Turkish title like "Mister",
given to an educated man, has come to be truly Egyptian.
70 Madame Azer Goubran, loc. cit.
71 Black turban extending in arm-length drapes over the
shoulders, worn with black skirt and veil, first of black,
then white, then none’
72 sir- Humphry Bowman, Middle--East W ind ow (Londmans
Green and Company, 1942), p. 471 aTso quoteFHromer, Modern
Sgypt, Vol. II, pp. 5 2 7-5 2 8. The Egyptian pound is in”nôrî5al
times worth almost five dollars.
75 Ibid., p. 4 9.
48
Nevertheless, Boktor (while appreciating the benefits which
the British brought to Egypt in public security, public works,
irrigation, communications, railways, telegraphs) maintains
that education under the British remained rigid and conserva
tive, even neglected. Boktor says that Mr. Dunlop, Advisor
to the Ministry of Education 1907-1919, "though meaning well
was very old fashioned", and Bowman states that "in his deter
mination to foster the development of female education, Dunlop
never forgot the Moslem susceptibilities."74 Dunlop recognized
that the Muslims were the majority therefore brought from
England school-mistresses for the girls and hareem regulations
were strictly observed. Bowman likewise felt that this regard
for tradition was essential.75
74 Boktor, op. cit., p. IO5 and Bowman, op. cit., p;.49.
75 In one matter indeed we were handicapped but could
do nothing to alter. We were morally bound to abide strictly
by the laws of the harim. [Harira and hareem are varied spellings
of the Arabic word for women’s seclusion, for their section of
the house, and latterly for women’s compartment in train or
street-C8.r. ] That Moslem parents had complete confidence in our
education of their girls is proof that we succeeded. Neverthe
less changes not of our making were beginning to appear. The
older women accepted with resignation the customs of their Bore-
bearers. They may not have enjoyed them, but were inured to
them by age-old tradition. Some of the younger generation were
apt to rebel, and a few definitely hoped for early release. A
sprinkling of Moslem women, well educated and married to the
intelligenzia, had already begun [p. 2 6] to discard the veil on
occasion, and the lunched or dined in English houses with their
husbands. They may have been frowned upon by their elders, but
their comparative freedom in social intercourse was worth to
them a few black looks. . .The education of Moslem girls, if
unaccompanied by some degree of emancipation is largely stifled.
But emancipation if it is to come must evolve from within: no
outside influence can be brought to bear. National traditions
die hard. (Quotation is from Bowman, op. cit., pp. 260-261.
49
Cromer did establish a training college to prepare
Egyptian women to teach their own people and selected Egyptian
girls were sent to England for similar training. But, even so,
Sir Valentine Chlrol admits that the charge of too great con
servatism is deserved:
By whatever standard we judge the educational system
devised for the youth of Egypt under British control,
it tended not at all to the salvation of the State.
It is imquestionably the worst of our failures.T6
Bowman, though admitting Britain’s fault, yet feels the blame
is equally due to"Egyptian apathy and lack of initiative."
He says the Egyptians, though memorizing lessons in schools,
were yet not thinking things out for themselves, that though
there were noble Egyptian leaders "the rank and file were too
unabraitious and too easily contented. . .to carve out an inde
pendent career", and he asks Egyptian friends who may think
this criticism too severe to compare their country at the open
ing of the century with what it is today.77
Bowman also feels that Egypt’s immense strides of late
are due in part to British influence and help, not alone to
the newly acquired independence of Egypt. Certainly relations
between Britain and Egypt have been more friendly since the
7 6 Sir Valentine Chirol, The Egyptian Problem (London:
Macmillan and Company, Limited, I9 2I), p. 221.
77 Bowman, op. cit., pp. 7I-7 2.
50
Treaty of I9 5 6 and "the difficulties and misunderstandings
of the past have been:largely swept away." It is also probable
that had Britain’s educational policy in Egypt not been en
tangled with things political there might have been even greater
progress. Lord Cromer regretted twenty-nine changes of Minister
of Education in twenty-nine years, each)0f which, of course,
involved a change of p o l i c y . 78 gut independent Egypt did not
avoid the same pitfall, for in the establishment of her national
1st program it was the schools (for boys and for girls) who
festered it and took violent action, and the frequent change
of Ministers of Education has continued.
Whatever be the failures of Britain in Egypt, the British
did contribute some valuable character traits to the Egyptian
schools, moulders of the nation’s citizenry. It is interesting
to note things by an Egyptian writer considered distinctly not
Egyptian:
A great deal of the thoroughness, accuracy, and
established tradition of honesty, and a sense of justice
in the huge machinery of public examinations and in the
other administrative matters has been inherited from the
Scottish traits of Dunlop and his assistants. The several
Englishmen [principals in the secondary schools] left
personality and character traits that still continue the
pride of those schools.79
78 Bowman, op. cit., pp. 47-49, Bowman’s service with
the Egyptian Government ended in I9 3 6.
79 Boktor, op. cit., p. I4l.
51
Lord Cromer finds the continuous and remarkable progress
of education for Egyptian girls in recent years indicative of
the change of customs and of thinking which was taking place
throughout the country.80 xn I9II Lord Kitchener, then Agent
General and in Egypt reported:
There is probably nothing more remarkable in the
social history of Egypt during the past dozen years
than the growth of opinion among all classes of Egyp
tians in favour of the education of their daughters. 8l
In that same year Provincial Councils were authorized to levy
a three per cent tax above that of the Central Government
"to be used for free schools, elementary, primary, agricultural
and industrial, to be established in the province. "8 2
In 1 9 5 8 Ahmed Lutfi el Bayed Pasha, Rector of Fuad The
First University, wrote of the advancement in Egyptian society
resultant on the raised educational standard:
The progress in education with its strong bearing
on social progress, on the prospects of a much more
advanced family unit is perhaps the most significant
single feature of the modern educational movement, but
though its significance is little short of revolutionary,
it has nevertheless been brought about very quietly and
gradually and without arousing any serious criticism.
Thus markedly has the position of women changed in the land of
Egypt within a single generation.
6 0 Bowman, op. cit., pp. 6 8- 6 9.
81 Bowman, p. 6 9, gives footnote to Cromer’s report to
the British Government: Cd.6149, Egypt No.1,(1912), pp. 25-26.
82 Amin Sarny Pasha, Education in Egypt, Appendix,
as cited by Boktor, op. cit., p. Ilf.
8 5 Ahmed Lutfi el Sayed Pasha, (London) Daily Telegraph
and Morning Post, Egyptian Supplement, Decemberl2, I9 5 8, p.xvi
CT7 Ante, p, 2y HomemakTng.
CHA.PTEE III
GROWTH OP EGYPTIAN NATIONALISM
Growing nationalism in Egypt contributed greatly town.rd
the changing status of women in the land. It likewise revealed
the great progress already made in the new attitude of men and
women.
Early proponents of Women’s freedom. As we have seen,
Mohammed All's successors vigorously opposed and sought to erase
the Western reforms which he had instituted throughout the land.
These were followed by Khedive Ismail (1863-1879), grandson of
Mohammed Ali, who used every means to crush the growing Egyptian
Nationalism.^ His lavish expenditure of state funds in build
ings and banque tings imi tating Western luxury earned the resent
ment of thinking Egyptians a.gainst his "mortgaging Egypt’s in
dependence by huge loans and sucking its life-blood by merciless
taxation.
This resentment came to a head in the rebellion led by
Arabi Pasha in 1882, the first Egyptian to lead modern Egyptians?
The British speedily crushed the uprising in the Battle of Tel-
il-Kibir, and Lord Cromer was placed in Egypt as Financial
^ Theodore Lothrop Stoddard, The New World of Islam
(New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1921), p. I3 9.
2 Ibid., p. 1 7 5.
3 Ibid., p. 1 7 6.
55
Advisor"--British Occupation, to liquidate the debts which
Egypt had incurred to Foreign Powers.
Historians say little or nothing about the place of
women through this period; we must read between the lines.
From the beginning of nationalist activities in Egypt, women
had a prominent part--that is, a very few women, privileged
women. As early as 1880, before the Arabi Rebellion, women
"took a lively interest in national development."4
Djamal ad-Din al-Afghani is spoken of as father of all
kinds of Egyptian nationalism, "from the violent type of Arabi
Pasha to the more conservative Mohammed Abdu, who recognized
Egypt’s weakness and was content to labor patiently for distant
goals."5 Djamal a1-Din was also an early agitator for reforms
in the national life relating to the status of women. He so
zealously advocated their emancipation and other changes in
the Muslim religious law that he himself was texiled.6
Kasim Amine Bey’s volume. The Emancipation of Women,
appeared in I8 9 6 and for this he was criticized, ostracizen,
considered almost mad.7 In I9OO his The New Woman was dedicated
4 Boktor, School and Society in the Valley of the Ni^e
(Elias’ Modern Press, 195~6T, p. 7'21 " ' ,
5 Stoddard, op. cit. , p. I7 6.
6 Buchanan, "Movements in the Life of Women in the Islamic
World," in Mott, The Moslem World Today (New York; George H.
Doran Company, 1925 and LohdoliT Haze 11, Watson and Vivey, Ltd.,
June 1 9 2 8), p. 216.
7 Boktor, op. cit., p. 72. Buchanan, Loc. cit., says I8 9 8.
54
to Saad Zaghloul, ardent supporter of the women’s movement.
He rewrote it in I9II. It "took the whole country by storm and
its influence traveled; far beyond the boundaries of Egypt.
"This book has done mure than any other single agency in bring
ing about the strong movement which is pushing everything
before it today."9
Another writer. Mansour Pahmy, also incurred the dis
favor of the conservatives by denouncing the prophet for his
opposition to women’s advancement.^^
The poetess Aishat Timour published her first book
in 1 8 9 6 which stirred the people. Another women poet, wife
of a Mohammedan notable in Fayoura Province chose to publish
her books and articles under the name "Bahithat al Badia"
(Thinker of the Desert). At her death in the late I9 2O’s
she left "a wealth of literature and a leaven of ardent
feminism among a small group of Egyptians.
8 Boktor, op. cit., p. 72.
9 Buchanan, loc. cit.
10 Arthur Jeffry, "New Trends in Moslem Apologetic,"
in Mott, The Moslem World Today, p. 3I5 says: "Bayed Ameer
All’s essay on"’ the^' '"LegaT S'tatus of women in Islam" is a
masterpiece in the setting forth of half truths in order to
convey a false impression, and is sad reading when compared
with a frank, sincere investigation ■such as Mansur Fahmy’s
excellent monograph, Condition de la Femma dans I’Islamisme
11 Boktor, op. cit., p. 64.
55
Steps toward National Freedom The part played by
the schools, and especially girls’ schools, in changing the
thinking of Egyptian leaders has already'been mentioned.
From 1 9 0 3, when the Natlonalis t party began to show
its strength, government schools had fostered its p r o g r a m .^2
In 1 9 0 7, just before he left Egypt, Lord Cromer appointed
Saad Zaghloul Minister of Education. Zaghloul "saw in the
youth of the country a useful weapon to stir up the masses.
It waa to a large extent the schools which brought on the
furor of 1 9 1 9."^^ Certain women were also engaged in political
education and propaganda among the people.
Lord Cromer had rescued Egypt from financial bankruptcy.^4
As they sensed this new freedom, Egyptian Nationalists were
encouraged to demand political independence also. Sir Eldon
Gorst, successor to Lord Cromer, in I9 0 7, tried conciliation.
Formerly France had encouraged Egyptian Nationalism against
Britain. Now France and Britain were increasingly friendly.
This fact, and the Young Turk Revolution in I9O8 encouraged
Egyptians to depend more on their own initiative. Conciliatory
measures between Egypt and Britain proved ineffective,therefore.
^2 Bowman, £p. cit., p. 41.
Ibid., p. 2 4 5.
Boktor, op. cit., p. 1 0 5, surveys modern Egypt's
financial his tory : “^875" 'Rac e against bankruptcy
I8 8 9-I90 4 Financial stabilization
1 9 0 4-I92 2 Prosperity under British control
1922 - present Financial independence
56
Lord Kitchener arrived In IÇ11 to restore order. By imprison
ment internment and exile he succeeded in quieting surface
agitation. But the quiet was only on the surface. England
was growingly disliked, suspocted, hated.
From the time of the Occupation (1882), Britain had
used every opportunity to give the impression to Egyptians
and to the French Government that her tenure in Egypt was
merely temporary--to clear up Egypt’s financial obligations.
But when, in 1914, Britain declared a Protectorate over Egypt,
this was fresh fuel for Nationalist fires. With the financial
situation now secure they saw no need for tightening of Britain’s
hold there. Even the fellaheen were fired to white heat in
the general national demand for "independence." Therefore,
the calm which existed in Egypt during the World War I, was
that of biding her time," a quiet of repression, not of
passivity."^5
Representatives of both the conservative and the ex
tremist groups went to the Versailles Conference. Official
correspondence of this delegation published in Paris in I9 1 9
(The Egyptian White Book) contained their protest and their
warning--unless the professed principle of self-determination
for smaller nations be applied to Egypt. But Versailles and
6 Stoddard, op. cit., pp. 177-184,209. See also Amine
Youssef, Independent"" " Egypt, pp. 57ff. , where he states that the
first cause of the hostility which broke out in I9I9 and I9 2O
was resentment against Britain’s declaration of the Protectorate
over Egypt.
57
Saint Germaine treaties recognized British Protectorate in
. Egypt’s people were not consulted; her delegation felt
rebuffed.
Meantime the demand for complete self-government was
laid before the British representatives in Egypt. Egyptian
leaders asked leave to present Egypt’s claims in London. This
was embarrassing to British authorities in Egypt. The request
was refused. The cabinet resigned and another could not be
formed. When Nationalist leaders interpreted returns from an
illegal plebecite to mean popular approval of the Nationalists’
demands, Britain seized Nationalist leaders and deported them
to Malta. Egypt answered by the uprising of March and April
1919.16
Britain attempted to win favor by sending the Milner
Commission to investigate Egyptian affairs; eight months
passed before their arrival. This gave the Egyptians time to
boycott the Commission thoroughly--and without information
from Egyptians the Commission was helpless.^7
^6 Stoddard, op. cit., pp. 208-211 and Boktor, op. cit.,
p. 95, quoting Ahmed"~&iafik Pasha, Howliat, e tc . , pp. T52,p4Tff.,
Introduction to Vol. I.
17 Bowman, Middle-East Window, p. 243 Sir Valentine
Chirol, The Egyptian probTem (London: Macmillan and Company
Limited, l92lj, p. 2 6 3.
58
Women were prominent In all the noisy demonstrations
against the Milner Mission, [arrived in Cairo December 7,
1 9 1 9], one of their favorite devices being to take
possession of the tram cars at some terminus and drive
through the city without paying any fares, yelling "Down
with Milner!" and other patriotic amenities.18
But with all, the riot and tumult made by women and school-boys
and much that was perplexing in the methods of agitation
tolerated and encouraged by Nationalist leaders "there was
a background of earnestness and a faith in the righteousness
of their cause which had to be seriously beckoned with."^9
The fellaheen who had for centuries been apathetic
regarding conduct of political affairs, now wholeheartedly
shared in what came to be a mob rule of the land. A few years
before, the strength of the British position had rested in the
passive attitude of the fellaheen.20 sir William Willcocks,
noted British engineer and long-time friend, benefactor and
resident in Egypt, said in public statement:
The keystone of the British occupation of Egypt
was the fact that the fellaheen were for it. The Sheikhs,
Omdehs, governing classes, and high religious heads
might or might not be hostile, but nothing counted much
while the millions of fellaheen were solid for the
occupation. The British have undoubtedly today lost the
friendship and confidence of the fellahccm.2l
18 Chirol, op. cit., p. I6 7, quoted by Boktor, op. cit.,
p. 7 5.
19 Chirol, op. cit. , p. 2 5I.
20 Stoddard, op. cit., p. 212.
21 Stoddard, op. cit., p. 22, quoting Sir William Willcocks
59
Sir Valentine Chirol wrote from Egypt to the London Times
that although the Egyptian fellaheen owe more to the British
than do any other class of Egyptians yet "few people at home,
even in responsible quarters have, I believe, the slightest
conception of the very dangerous degree of tension which has
now been reached out here."22
Other factors also promoted Egyptian nationalistic re
actions. British officials in Egypt and their wives held
themselves aloof socially. Sir Humphry Bowman, as Britian’s
educational advisor to Egypt, tried to change, that practice,
for he realized that Egyptians resented the aloofness and sus
pected political treachery. Their suspicion was supported by
the thwarting of Arab hopes which had been built on British
promises in the Near East. It was further aggravated by their
own Versailles experience in I9I9 . Also, there had been an
agreement not to recruit array troops from Egypt, but during
the War one and one-quarter million men, from boys of four
teen and fifteen to men of seventy, had been demanded as
"Egyptian Labour Corps". Sir William Willcocks described this
as worse than the Corvee under Ismail Pasha, and states that
"at the close of the war the peaceful fellah had enough in
centive to make him rise against his oppressors."25
22 Ibid., quoting Sir Valentine Chirol.
2 5 Cf. Ibid., and Chirol, op. cit., pp. 75-74.
60
Add to all this, the British secret service in Egypt which
had created a reign of terror, and one has some explanation
of why all Egyptians from fellaheen to school-girls, from
8.rtisnas to .Cabinet Ministers, were united in a demand for
Egyptian Independence. The Nation, Egypt, was demanding to
be fre e.
These things, as will be readily seen, were touching
intimately the lives of Egyptian women of all classes. But
it was chiefly city women whose patriotic Indignation became
a frenzy.
In the story days of March and April 1919 they
descended in large bodies in the steeets. In every
demonstration women were well in the front. They
marched in procession, some on foot, some in carriages,
shouting ’Independence’’ and Down with the Ei^ish’.
[in Arabic, English and French] and waving their
national banners. They flocked to the houses of
the Extremist leaders and addressed impassioned orations.
They followed in large crowds the coffins of the
rioters who were killed in the street affrays and
their shrill lamentations were an eloquent appeal
for gvengeance. They took a hand in the building
of barracades, and though they generally dispersed
when fighting actually began some returned to gloat
over brutal deeds of violence perpetrated by the men.24
Such participations as these soon submerged class and
religious differences. The banner carried in all their
demonstrations was a red flag with Cross and Crescent in white
the first time in history that the symbols of Christianity
24 Chirol, op. cit., p. 167 and quoted by Boktor,
op. cit., p. 75'
61
and Islam had been combined for a united purpose.25
Mosques and churches alike were used for political
speeches. Moslem Nationalists declared that ’the Koran
and the Bible are one, that Jesus and Mohammed are one.
The Cross and the Crescent on one flag is proof of our
national unity.’26
A French woman who had spent her life in Egypt wrote of
seeing surprising things in a country whose party and religious
struggles had long been destructive of national unity:
Coptic priests preaching in mosques; ulemas preaching
in Christian churches; Syrian, Maronite, or Mohammedan
students; women, whether of Turkish or Egyptian blood united
in the same fervor, the same ardent desire to see break
over their ancient land the radiant dawn of independence.
For those who like myself, have known the Egypt of Tewfik, -
the attitude[p.214] of the women these past few years is
the most surprising transformation that has happened in
the valley of the Nile. One should have seen the nonchalant
life, the almost complete indifference to anything savoring
of politics, to appreciate the enormous steps taken in the
last few months. For example; last summer a procession of
women demonstrators was surrounded by British soldiers
with fixed bayonets. One of the women, threatened by
a soldier, turned on him, baring her breast, and cried:
’Kill me, then, so that there may be another Miss Cavell.’27
When British troops finally managed to restore order
in a land where telephone, telegraph and railway communications
had all been cut and life itself rendered precarious indeed
2 5 Stoddard, op. cit., p. 2I3, citing an Italian pub
licist, summer of I9T5* .
26 w. Wilson Cash, The Moslem World in Revolution
(London: Edinburgh House Pres^~ 1926), p.
2 7 Stoddard, op. cit., pp. 215-214, and quoting Médame
Jehan d'lvray, "En Egypte", Revue de Paris, September 1 5,1 9 2 0.
62
for all who looked like foreigners, the trouble was not all
over. The discipline of schools suffered terribly, not only
during these disturbances of 19 19 for several years afterward.
In 1 9 2 9 Premier Mohammed Mahmoud Pa.sha inflic ted. severe
penalties for student interference in political affairs.
Violent street demonstrations occurred on the slightest pro
vocation. Schools were at the mercy of students roused to
overaction by unscrupulous leaders. Multiplying of instruc
tion had too often neglected the training of character. For
example, a daughter of an Egyptian Minister led a delegation
of gchool girls to her father's office where they threatened
his life unless his government instantly yield to their demands.
School and other authorities often accepted thèir decisions
unhesitatingly. The press lauded the students as "the hope
of the country."28 School strikes in 1959 and utter dis
regard on the part of many youth for the authority of home,
school and state were crying evidence of the dangers of the
machinery of democracy without its prerequisite to success--
social, intellectual and spiritual enlightenment.29
2 8 Boktor, op. cit., p. I0 6, quoting Elgood, op. cit.,
[Percival George Elgood, Egypt, (London: Arrowsmith,“T9557T,
also Bowman, op. cit., ppl 311-312.
29 Egypt cannot truly be termed democratic in government
for, although there is popular ballot (for men), the masses are
so illiterate and untaught in such matters that they are largely
tools of their leaders. Cf. Boktor, op. cit., p. 2 3 8.
63
This epidemic of patriotic fever is of special interest
to this study because the "girls were more violent than boys,"
and because women's activity indicated the "wide spread of
bitterness that underlies this feminist upheaval."50 Although
"participation in turbulent street démonstration may not have
been the healthiest form of emancipation" nevertheless this
sudden and violent transition had left its indelible mark on
Egyptian womanhood.5^ Karima el Said, woman inspector under
the Ministry of Education, evaluated that chaotic period and
its import to the nation under the heading "women’s New Role
in National Life, Notable years of Emancipation."
If it is possible to fix the beginning of a big
movement by choosing an approximate date for it, the
year 1 9 19 would be a most suitable landmark in the
history of the emancipation of Egyptian women. The
movements that broke out in Egypt in that year were
not merely political; they were national in the broad
and greater sense of the word. 52
The tumult of I9I9 to I9 2 0 doubtless seemed to many
in the midst of it "an all time low" for law and order, but
already a new place for womanhood had been made, and with
all the bloodshed not a woman was harmed.35 It proved
50 Boktor, op. cit., p. 7 4, refers to Chirol, opl-cit.,
p. 168 . *
1t)id ., Loc . cit.
52 Karima el Said, (London) Daily Telqgraph and Morning
Post, Egyptian Supplement, December12, 1 9 3d), p, xvi.
55 Amine Youssef, Independent Egypt (London: John Murray
First Edition, 1940), p. jTl
64
to be the dark hour before the dawn of an education-conscious
leadership in Egypt, an education in which womanhood shares.
Egypt's Independence granted. It was in I922 that the
continued efforts of men and women of Egypt were rewarded by
Great Britain's recognizing Egypt's Independence. "Egypt no
less than Ireland had-gained her independence by revolt. As
British officials we may have pretended otherwise, but tacitly
we knew it was s o ."54 King Fuad I granted the new Constitution
on April I9, 1923. Britain's first recognition of Egyptian
Independence had specified many reservations which were very
galling to Egyptian leaders. Many of these were removed by
the Anglo-British Treaty of August 26, 1936. Then on May 26,
1 9 3 7 Egypt was received as member in the League of Nations.
Saad Zaghloul was more responsible than any other
single man for the measure of independence attained up to I9 2 7.
At his death "Hahas Pasha inherited the leadership of the party
[Al ¥afd]. . .and. . .held it u n c h a l l e n g e d ."55 At her husband's
death also, Madame Zaghloul became center of the most radical
Nationalist party politics. Frequently she braved personal
danger. The Zaghloul palace, popularly known as "Bait il Umma"
54 Bowman, op. cit., p. 3I2.
55 The (London) Times, January 26, 1957.
65
(House of the Nation) was often under guard when another party
was in power. In I9 3I a group of these women "mostly wives
and relatives of pensioned Cabinet members" drove through the
principal streets of Cairo in their limousines .frantically
shouting for the down-fall of the anit-Natlonalist ministry.
But times had changed since I9 1 9. These were arrested,tried
and fined; the Government demanded a more orderly demonstration
of patriotic fervor.56
Egypt * 8 people assume respons ibllity for National Advance -
ment. After the I9I9 uprisings and the subsequent Declaration
of Independence on February 28, 1922, leading British officials
were replaced by Egyptians. Some people who had doubted Egyptfe
ability have been surprised at the success of Egyptian manage
ment of their own affairs since that time. Communications have
been improved; highways irrigation canals and other public
works have been in progress. Law courts are as efficient as
before and education has made real advance.57 Though there had
been material and economic changes through the nineteenth
century the daily life of the average Egyptian (beyond a small
38
upper class) was affected very little indeed until I9I9 to I9 2 2.
56 Boktor, op. cit., p. 72.
57 Ibid., p. 1 0 5.
58 "The existence of the individual Egyptian has been
more completely revolutionized between I9 2O and the present day
than is was during the whole preceeding century," said the
(London) Times under the caption," Tradition in Eclipse, Advance
of New Ideas", January 26, 1937, p. xxiv.
66
Since that time a silent revolution of thought and ideas has
been permeating every phase of Egyptian life. How muchoof this
nation-wide change can be attributed to nationalism and how
much to an intricate inter-weaving of other elements no one
can say. The undeniable fact is its reality.
The cotton boom of World War I added wealth which sent
Egyptian sons abroad for study--some daughters also! Thus,
incidentally, interest was stimulated in international affairs
as well as national. Modern inventions, such as the-, motor car,
the cinema and the radio, made their contribution. "New
movements, political, social and economic, started directly
or indirectly by the Great War" did their part.59
Well-informed Egyptians realized that the desirability
of complete independence for a people even yet ninety per cent
illiterate must be demonstrated by better social and economic
conditions To this end they inaugurated vigorous programs
of education, health and sanitation. Instruction through
clinics and welfare centers, also business and economic
programs are being prosecuted by both Government and private
The London Times, Loc. cit.
40 Ahmed Loutfi el Sayed Rector of Fuad I University
"Significant Social and Cultural Changes," (London Daily)
Telegraph and Morning Post, December 12, 1938.
^The desire IHatlEgyptIans should have control of their
own affairs was accompanied by an equally keen desire that they
should become worthy of their aspirations. Hence to them patrio
tism meant more than merely githting for independence; it also
means qualifying themselves for it by trying to educate the mass
of the people, to raise the standard of living, to develop the
economic resources of the country, and last but not least, to
give women the long-hoped-for chance, through education, to make
67
Egyptian enterprise. The newly-awakened consciousness of need
for an educated populace began to rule national policies. The
new Government school program and its extending to women their
"long-hoped-for chance to make themselves useful citizens,"
has made no small contribution to national growth.41
The battle for Egypt's national independence has in no
small way been woman's battle. She has done her part to win
it, and now is doing her full share to prove Egyptfs worthi
ness for such international recognition.42
40 (continued)
themselves useful citizens". So said Kareema el Said in Women's
New Role in National Life, Notable Years of Emancipation,"
(London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Pont, Egyptian Supplement,
December 12'',"’1938, P. 3cvi-.
41 Kareema, el Said, loc. cit.
42 cf. Chapter VII.
CHAPTER IV
FELIAmT--EGYPT'S PEASANT WOMEN^
Some descriptions. In no eastern country except India
is there found such contrast between the highest andllowest
social strata, one "living in luxury and leisure truly Oriental,
and the other "carrying on a bare hand-to-mouth struggle for
exis tence. " 2
The village of Egypt as seen from the railway
carriage. . .present a most picturesque appearance.
They are generally surrounddd with palm groves, often
very extensive, while palm trees also grow actually
among the houses, affording a welcome shelter from the
heat. These palm-girt villages are dotted about all
over the cultivation, the brilliant green of which
presents a startling contrast to the immediately adja
cent, and seemingly endless desert. . .a most romantic
background.3
But a Levantine-American student, after study of a typical
Egyptian village wrote:
I really never thought that a beautiful country
such as Egypt would have farmers who would live like
animals. . .It seems to me. . .those farmers represent
the dirtiest kind of life that ever existed. . . .
He felt that the villagers did the thing they heard by way of
improvement) merely to please the speaker butaas soon as he
•If
1 Fellah is masculine singular, fellaheen the plural;
fellaha is feminine singular and fallahat the plural.
2 Ruth Frances Woodsmall, Moslem Women Enter a New World,
(New York: Round Table Press, Inc . I9 3 6, '"'PubTicatibns of 'tHe
American University of Beirut, Social Science Series, No. 14),
p. 337.
3 Winifred Blackman, The Fellashin of Upper Egypt (Edin
burgh: Neill and Company, Ltd., First Published,~%ondon: George
G. Harrap and Company, Ltd., 1927), p. 26.
69
would go they went hack to their old ways. Therefore, he con
cluded, Egypt must long have a foreign power to control her
affairs.^ His wealthy Palestinian classmate ^‘ never imagined
how poor they were until I visited the village", hut also
observed that ^if you explain to them something is danger
they try to avoid the causes and ask the means for avoiding
it." For example, every village has its own hirka, that is:
a pond in which the inhabitants wash their clothes,
their heaàts and themselves and from which, unless
they are near the Nile [for a canal], they also draw
their supply of <^rinking water. To induce the people
to refrain from emptying their refuse into this
recepticle is one of the tasks of sanitary inspectors.
It is not an easy one: The fellah has been living for
a few thousand years without paying any particular
regard to sanitation, and does not see the necessity
of it. Yet there is progress. I have beard thatiin
some villages threatened by plague, the headmen, or
oradehs, without any official pressure, have themselves
in's is ted on the water being foiled before being used
for drinking purposes. But the fellah does not take to
new ideas easily.5
The fellah lives on in much thesame squalor and
penury that he has endured for thousands of years, and
is apparently as unconscious of it as he is of the
movements which are rapidly revolutioiizing his existence.
One notices little tendency among the agricultural
population to raise themselves from their present
level. Even among the relatively enlightened work
people of the towns the demand for better conditions
is-mainly individual. 6
^ Erdman Harris, New Learning in Old Egypt (New York;
Association Press, I9 3 2), p.~m Dr.^Harris, new in Egypt, with
the cooperation of an Egyptian doctor, directed a class project
in the Ameriaan University at Cairo when boys of different races
and religions investigated village life at first hand. They
visited in the homes and school, then, after class discussion,
presented educational and reform programs to the villagers,
through a period of several months. Class reactions to the study
are recorded.
5 Sidney Low, Egypt in Transition (New York: The Macmi11m
Company, 1914), p. 186'.
6 The (London) Times, Special Egypt Number, Jan. 26,1937>
p. xxiv.
70
Yet it is in the villages of the Delta and of the narrow Nile
valley that one sees the true Egypt.7 The green of the fertile
fields is dotted by mud villages marked with palm trees whose
shades of color change silently with each changing light of day.
The water-wheel, the shadoof and the ploughman with his ox yoked
to heavy plough seem to speak of days recorded on walls of the
ancient Egyptian tombs. An occasional water-buffalo is seen
buried to its shoulder-tips in the water. Then six to ten
women in their long black dresses pass in single file along
the pathway which divides the fields--long black headshawls
trailing in the dust to erase their footprints lest someone
seeing these might curse the foot which has made them. They
carry huge water-jars laid ddewise upon their heads, and wind
down the path to the water’s brink. ^The gesture, superb and
supple as [each] bends to the river and places the filled jar-
upright on her head cannot be equalled for grace," and they re
trace their steps, sometimes chatting merrily, "with the stately
grace that seems only given to those who carry burdens on their
heads. " 8
7 Egypt’s Delta is roughly one hundred fifty miles on a
side. The seven-hundred-mile valley from Alexandria to Aswan
is at its widest part only twelve miles from blue-grey desert
hills on the east to desert mountains and plateau on the west.
In places these mountains rise to nine hundred feet above the
river. Cf. Boktor, School and Society in the Valley of the
Nile (Cairo: Elias*' Modern P r e s s p . and CTmanac ,
I ' 9 3 ' B " (Cairo: Government Press,) pp. 40,41.
B Winifred Blackman, op. cit., p. 21.
71
The women and girls carry home on their heads the daily
wages in kind. Baskets of vegetables or poultry are carried on
their heads to the weekly market-center (another of the blessings
bestowed by an orderly goveriimeiil to aid In a fair exchange for
all). It is usually the women who beat out the durra (kafir
corn) or maize with heavy sticks. They often do the winnowing
by wind and always that by seive. Then they wash the grain,
dry it in the sun and grind it in the stone hand-miMs--unless
they are fortunate enough to live in a community which has water
power mill of similar but larger construction. Women sift the
flour and bake the bread in the huge-mud-brick ovens. Wheat
bread is almost unknown among the poorer people. Maize and
durra are much more common, though when they can afford it
they make their own whole wheat flour.
The fellaha is true helper to her husband, and an extra
wife is to him another laborer in house and field— for at,
cotton-hoeing and picking time and at other busy seasons the
women and children work in the fields with the men in a free
comradeship, unveiled. (The village is inter-related, often
two or three generations living in one house). But should a
strange man approach, the women suddenly disappear or draw
some covering over their faces.
Women often spin the wool which is woven into cloth for
the men’s heavy cloaks or into rugs. Of recent years machine-
72
made cloth is available for other garments at prices not too
expensive, and often a progressive family will have a Singer-
Sewing Machine whose wheel is turned by hand as the women squat
on the earthen floor to sew their simple garments.
Washing of clothes women do at the canal bank in cold
water, often with stones only, as soap. So it is not to be
wondered at that the garments take on much the hue of the soil
and of the houses, which are of sun-dried brick made as in the
days when Moses' mother and her neighbors sought straw in the
fields of Pharaoh.
The humble village home consists of only two rooms. The
floor is mud, dampened to keep down the dust, and the walls are
mud, washed over occasionally with more mud. The roof may be
merely a thatch of palm fronds. Better houses may have a
stairway which leads to the roof. Here rafters of palm trunks
have been covered with a layer of palm fronds, then with a mud
surface beaten hard. On the roof in the sunshine or in the open
space before the door much of the household work is performed.
9 Were it not for Egypt’s gift of sunshine and the
masses of her people living thus out-of-doors, ten months of the
year in the sunshine and desert-pruified breezes^ it is probable
that her people would have been exterminated long ago by disease
From its warmth and light and cleansing power the missionary
and native Christian draw welcome lessons of the triune God
and His loving care.
73
On the roof also, is stored the pile of cotton stalks, fuel
for the oven. This is a real fire-hazard, as many villagers
have experienced. Sometimes on part of the roof has been
built a sitting-room to which guests are ushered from the dark
enclosure below. Benches of rough boards are covered with
rugs or hard cotton cushions. Perhaps also piles of cylindrical
tile stacked as logs serve as hives for bees which work on
fields of beans and (like alfalfa) or sweet-clover). The honey
is an important food and source of income.
In better village homes a wall of earthen bricks may
enclose an open court shaded by palm trees or a spreading syca
more tree, or a grape-vine over a trellis.
The kitchen consists of a bare dark room with a few
baskets or jars along the side to contain the grain, a
coupele of stones on which is built the fire to heat the
food. . . .in the iron cooking-pot.
Often now it is a copper vessel tinned inside. Bread
is truly the staff of life to the Egyptian, with a pickled
turnip or bit of white cheese made from the whole milk of the
water-buffalo, black olives or perhaps a raddish or onion.
Meat is rare indeed in the diet of the fellaheen. Their food
and manner of eating are much today as recorded on the ancient
tombs.
There are no tables, no chairs, no beds; the earth
serves for all three. At night a mat is spread upon the
beaten ground, and the entire family curl upon it,
wrapped in their clothes of the day. 10
10 Quotations from Elizabeth Cooper, Women of Egypt
(London: Hurst and Blackett, Limited, 1914), p. 143^.
74
In the cold of winter the mat is laid atop the large
mud-brick oven, especially if it had been bake day, or if they
can afford a few cotton or corn stalks to burn ih it. Heat from
this supplements the combined body-heat of family and beasts
brought inside for protection against marauders. There is no
intrusion of night air which is thought to be poisonous.H
Some character traits. Barely 13,000 square miles of
arable land, a space the size of Belgium or Maryland, is living
space for sixteen million people--more than seven hundred per
sons per square mile !1^ Because of this close living together
the Egyptian woman knows nothing of the cleansing of soul in
wide open spaces alone with God. She is always with people.
And she has learned to prefer it so, for she lives in constant
fear.
The vast solitudes of the deserts are terrifying to
the country folk, most of whom, up to the present day,
cannot be induced to traverse even the lower fringes of
those wastes after sunset. Pear of hyenas, and still
more of ’afarit' [afareet, evil spirits] forbids any man
to venture beyond the cultivation of night. The ordinary
peasant, unless he is obliged to watch over this sheep
and goats, returns to his village before sunset, reraa-ining
there until just before dawn of the following day. 13
School-girls from this class are afraid to sleep alone
and Invariably cover their heads with'the lahaf (cotton-filled
coaffort) in nightly terror of the afareet (evil spirits).
^2 jn the desert areas which are the remaining part of
political Egypt, twenty-nine thirtieths of the land, there are
perhaps eight persons to a square mile. Of.Boktor, op. cit., p.21
and Almanac, I9 3 8, (Cairo: Government Press), pp. 4o741.
13 Winifred Blackman, op. cit., p. 21.
75
It Is because of these fears— of spirits, of animals, of
robbers--that the fellaheen live in villages, not in separated
farm-houses, and at night bring their animals under shelter
of the family roof.
Might it be that the hospitality which seems characteristb
of the East also has its root in these haunting fears? Once
assured that strangers are friends, the fellahat’s cordial
greeting welcomes them into their circle under the tree for a
friendly chat, or into the homes away from the piercing wind
of winter months. To meet strangers and hear of the world
outside, and most of all, to hear what these of other experi
ences have learned of God thrills tie hearts of Egyptian women
as well as men. They are all deeply religious, constantly aware
of the presence of Allah and his omnipotence. Welcome indeed
to their burdened hearts is the love revealed which releases
from bondage to fear and bestows the spirit of adoption which
says "Father," re receive the answering witness, "We are
children of God. . .His heirs. . .joint-he1rs with Christ.
Love speaks a language these can understand.
The fellaha with her sisters makes up fully ninety
percent of the women of Egypt, either living in the villages
Romans, 8 :14-1 7.
76
to till the soil or in city sections so little removed from
their way of life and thought that there is little distinction^^
Often a city-dweller of humble home will apologize for her
ignorance by saying "I'm only a fellaha." On being assured
of the visitors' love for country places and their people her
tone takes on its true pride of race and origin. And she is
justly proud, for the fellaheen of Egypt are a noble people.
The great mass of the people are, as in Pharaoh’s day,
of Nilotic stock. "A slow, self-contained peasant folk", they
have submitted more or less passively through the centuries
to Arab, Kurd, Circassian, Albanian, and Turkish over-lords
whose descendents are many of today's landowners. These over
lords were Muslim, and since British Occupation (1882) it is
they who have largely monopolized government offices and poli
tical control. When these Muslim rulers first came in 640 A.D.,
Egypt was Christian, at least in name, though her people were
in great intellectual and spiritual neglect. Throu^ inter
marriage a.nd because of economic and political pressure so
manyhhave Islamized that today ninety per cent of all Egypt,
ninety-eight per cent of the Delta, claim the Muslim faith.
Yet, despite all their neglectedness and oppression, when
opportunity for growth and training is granted, these peasant
folk can and many do become outstanding leaders.
^5 Amine Youssef, Independent Egypt (London: John A.
Murray, 1940), pp. 3 6, 40.
77
The unswerving industry of these fellaheen is the founda
tion of Egypt’s economic prosperity. Lord Cromer indicated
that without this and their "remarkable recuperative power"
after oppression, his project of financial rehabilitation
would have been doomed to f a i l u r e . This industry has been
greatly encouraged since the British Occupation which soon
freed the Mlaheen from the galling yoke of taxation, forced
labor and military service which had been worse than the serf
dom under the Mamelukes. Serfdom has given place to drudgery.^7
Since I8 9 6 the number of small landowners has increased
and many are proud of thëir own little plot for vegetables and
cotton.IB This gives women as well as men a certain self-
respect which is very wholesome. Seeing that they can do
something to better their own financial condition helps to
widen their understanding of God and increases their readiness
to learn more of His loving provision for them.
It is possible so to denude the soul of aspiration
that it takes on the quietude of death. A few people
continue to strive, to seek, to find, but the mass of
people surrender to the forces of inertia.^9
16 Boktor, op. cit., p. 26 and Amine Youssef, op.cit.,p.41
17 Sidney Low. Egypt in Transition (New York: The Mac
millan Company, I914), pp. 293-294 i
IB Sir Valentine Chirol, The Egyptian Problem (London;
Macmillan and Company, I9 2I) p. I6Ô and Boktor, op. cit. , pp.2 2,
24, 5 4.
19 Roy A. Burkhart, Under3tanding Youth (New York: The
Abingdon Press, I9 3 8), p. 93*
78
That is what their oppressed condition and their doctrine
of fatalism had done for Egypt, especially for her women. The
will of Allah is omnipotent, man is given no part in determining
the future, woman even less. With the landlord crushing at one
side and the wolf of hunger at the other, ignorance ruling her
mind and superstition chilling her heart in fear--fear of the
evil eye, fear of divorce, fear of another ^ife, fear in this
life and fear for the next--her hands never idle, but roughened
by hard toil aided by the minimum of comfort or convenience, a
new baby every year (many of whom die in infancy), and disease
always everywhere--it is small wonder tha.t the fellaha has long
grown old before her time. Yet even so the free life in the
fields and open-air has saved many of these poor women from
mental stagnation and slavish dependence on the will of their
menfolk." Some have developed a strengthof character, inde
pendence and resourcefulness which has made them "the dominating
factor in their h o m e s . " 2 0
Women In the villages and on the farms are still old-
fashioned in life and thought. They come into little if
any contact with European women. They have nothing much
of education, and less to suggest change in their environ
ment. Yet in spite of all this or because of it, they have
stronger characters and purer hearts than those who have
Europeanized themselves by superficially imitating Westeners
in outward appearance, losing thereby their natural reserve
20 W. Wilson Cash, The Moslem World in Revolution (London;
Edinburgh House Press, 1926"), pi IÔ2".
79
and dignity and lowering themselves perceptibly in the
eyes of their Egyptian sisters.21
The women themselves are the most conservative element
of the society, clinging tenaciously to their old customs and
traditions. Men, because of the psychology of the veil, have
had the broader contacts. Men travel freely by the trains and
buses which now thread the land. The women are more often kept
busy at home, or commanded to stay there, and they obey in fear.
It is the village men, the men of the servant class and of the
artisans who have bought the material for the women’s clothes
and brought it home to them. For village women there has been
no change in fashions. In fact, there is often no change of
the long-sleeved Mother Hubbard gray-print dress until the one
she has literally falls in tatters or unless a new one can be
provided for the feast.
And how the Easterner loves a feast-time perhaps no
mere Westerner can ever know. The little girls bedeck them
selves in gaudy red and yellow or bright blue dresses, all be
spangled with lace and beads. Bracelets, bangles and ear-rings
often appear then for the first time. Spending sis far beyond
their means for weddings, at the birth of a son, for circumcision
21 Kamil Mansour, n Milton Stauffer, Voices from the
Near East (New York: Missionary Education Movementof the 'United
States and Canada, copyright, John A. Murray,Jr., 1927),^p. 5 3.
80
ceremonies, and other- merry-makings. Sometimes a fellaha wears
a necklace of carnelian which, despite its begrimed condition,
could be quite the envy of a Western woman. In at least one
village women wear gold ear-rings large enough to be used as
bracelets, and a marriage necklace or many bracelets of gold
sometimes amaze one in the midst of the purposeful or habitual
camouflage of abject poverty.22 Remembrance of the merciless
tax-collector explains this "protective coloring" which Chris
tians have assumed in their struggle to survive.23
Yet, she of the villages is often much better off than
her fellaha sisters living in the cities. Louis Bertrand de
scribed the slumbs of the Orient as surpassing those of the
West. He gives "positively nauseating pictures of the poorer
quarters of the great Levantine towns like Cairo, Constantinople,
and Jerusalem." Stoddard omits Bertrand’s "More poignant de
tails" but retains this, the details of which are common today:
In Cairo, as elsewhere in Egypt, the wretchedness
and grossness of the poorer-class dwellings are perhaps
even more shocking than in the other Eastern lands. To
or three dark airless rooms usually open on a hallway
not less obscure. The plaster, peeling off from the
ceilings and the wo.rm-eaten laths of the walls, falls
constantly to the filthy floors. The straw mats and
bedding are infested by innumerable vermin.24
22 Her gold thus secured on her person is often all a
woman can claim as her own, and true peasant women have very
little of that.
2 3 Mrs. Butcher’s two-volume History of the Coptic Church
of Egypt, (London: Smith Elder and Company, IH9 7), 2 Vols'. ,4’ 97'pp)
makes this point clear, a real revelation to one who had noted
that often the dirtiest, most dejected homes are those nominally
Christian, be they in city or village places.
81
bedding are Infested by innumerable vermin.24
These have not the benefit of country air and sunshine in their
congested city streets which are often too narrow to permit
a carriage to pass through them. Even the roofs are crowded
beyond imagination with crates of scrawny chickens, the family
wash-tub of water that is thick with dirt, and garments spread
to dry which have never known soap or iron. Their very hearts
seem crowded. Yet city fellahat are now always within reach
of clinics and school opportunities--if they know to take ad
vantage of them.
The fellahat wherever found have an "irresistible fas
cination" where "the charm of their simple courtesies", their
"unaffected hospitality," and "a certain native grace. . .
shines through all the ways of a life so primitive, " 2 5
Some trends today. Li(Ving "crowded in clay huts. . .in
the midst of dirt and. . .no sanitary accomodations, no water-
supply but the muddy canal where the germs of parasitic diseases
breed and multiply", one often wonders how much self-respecting
and well-dressed youths can emerge, and how quickly village
24 Theodore Lothrop Stoddard, The New World of Islam
(New York; C. Scribners’ Sons, 1921), 0 0tnote on p. 3IB,
quoting Louis Bertrand, ^ Mirage oriental, pp. 111-112.
25 S. H. Leeder, Modern Sons of the Pharaohs, p. 81, as
quoted by Boktor, op. ciT77 p. 57.
82
girls coming from these "dingy collections of mud houses"
can blossom into cultured, capable women. Today "a larger
sprinkling of two-storied houses built of sun-dired bricks"
is ssen and some village young people are getting an educa
tion and holding worthy positions in schools and offices.2 8
Outwardly the life of village-dwellers has changed
very little, yet there are fundamental changes which do not
appear on the surface. With the advent of the automobile,
travel became easier than by donkey-back. Rattley buses (a
few good ones) travel frequently between the muderia (provin
cial capital) towns and outlying vills.ges. Men come from long
distances to these centers on varied errands, and take home
with them new ideas of life in a changing world. They also
take trinkets for wife and daughters from the variety shops
which are slightly comparable to America’s ten-cent stores.
Throngs of fellaheen from other villages visit the same city
and the same stores.27
26 Phrases quoted are from Boktor, op. cit., pp. 2 3 2- 5 4,
--an Egyptian speaking of his own country.
2 7 Dr. A. A. Thompson, long-time friend of village people,
particula.rly as American Mission councillor and inspector for
the one-hundred-fifty schools of the Evangelical Church, most
of which are in village places, wrote in letter of December 4,
1942:
When we left Assiut in I9 3 8 there were scores of villages
within a radius of twenty miles of Assiut and beyond which
seemed to be living as they had done for ages past. But even
though there are few signs in those same villages of progress,
there are probably more than appear on the surface. There is
a certain amount of interchange between village and village, and
85
Then there are the traveling clinics, and the permanent
ones where the Government and other private or group agencies
teach new lessons in health and in sanitation.28
It may seem strange as one visits a fellaheen village
on the Nile that thE .Igyptian mother dues not brush the
flies from the baby’s face, which is sometimes all but
completely covered. One wonders whether it is because the
flies are so thick that it would be hopeless, but that is
not the answer. If the baby’s eyes were free from flies
and its face clean, the evil eye might be immediately
attracted to it. Neglect of the baby, of course, means
terribly diseased eyes, but keeps [p.2 7 8] it safe from
attracting an evil spirit. Hence, millions of babies born
every year in Egypt see the world through bleared vision.29
In one child-welfare clinic where a physician and an occulist
gave their services thrice weekly it was found that ninety-two
per cent of the eye cases were trachoma.30 Conditions in these
2 7(continued)
also between village and town. The Mudiria towns [provincial
capitals] of course were to a certain extent leaders of the
village life, because men and women came from all those villages
to the Mudiria town for something or other. In thus coming
they [saw] something of the changes which were taking place.
Just a simple example: A large store
American five-and-ten-cent store was
years before we came to America. . .
that store where they could buy for
tides which they could use at home,
did a lot to bring people to town.
about and in getting about they were learning something new
even about their own country.
after the type of the
opened three or four
.Crowds of people went to
a very little various ar-
[Also] bus lines. . . .
It became easier to get
28 Of. Post, Chapter VII, "Thousands of Babies born
every year" would probably be more accurate. Their condition
and numbers is truly distressful.
29 Woodsmall, Moslem Women enter a New World, pp. 277-278
84
villages of many flies and many children with diseased eyes
the Government has begun to combat by cleaning up the villages
and educating the people to healthful living. Moving pictures
and lectures may now be had for the asking. In more recent
years the Government Health Department'has been systematically
providing approved water supply for city people and in some
of the villages. They have been filling up birkas, those
breeders of mosquitoes and disease.Popular education of
fellaheen through pictures and demonstrations and other pub
licity are being carried on by city women’s organizations and
others, also by various of the Government agencies,32
About 1920 a graduate of Assiut College33 studying in
America was quite incensed on hearing a missionary describe
village conditions in Egypt. These had been quite outside his
experience. He did not know they existed, and could not believe
them true when he heard. On return to Egypt he investigated
things for himself and has been doing his part to see that later
generations of students know the needs of their land and help
to meet them.
3 1 Of. ante, p. 6 9..
32 Madame Azer Goubran, National President of the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union, personal correspondence, March 2,
1 9 4 3.
33 American Mission, Assiut, Egypt,
85
A number, small in relation to Egypt’s millions yet
influential, have gone from Mission boarding schools with
practical demonstrations of home-life and healthful living.34
These they share through their own homes and in vacation Bible
Schools.35
A growing number of Egyptian people are awake to the
appalling needs of village life. Effective steps are being
taken by individuals, by organizations and by the Government
to better living conditions for those who by generations of
poverty, disease and ignorance of anything else have been
rendered so largely helpless to help themselves.
Perhaps most of all, village life is being changed by
the entrance of schools. Not nea.rly all villages have them.
34 One example comes to mind of a woman, who when a girl
in the home of her father who was minister in one of the Upper
Country churches, went to P.M.I.[Cf ante,Chap. II, p.29] That
girl learned many things which she never forgot, and among them
the habit and love for cleanliness in the home. This girl
married one of our earnest pastors who was càlled to a church
located in one of the most backward villages to be found.in
that region. The streets were literally piled high with
manure from--what shall I say? from cow stables--You know in
many places still they keep their cows in the house. Well,
even in such a filthy village in general, this P.M.I. graduate —
now the wife of the pastor of the church--set an example of
cleanliness that could scarcely be excelled a,nywhere. To do
that required a lot of hard work and a lot of cleaning. But
the point is, this woman had such a love for cleanliness, such
as is taught in Christian living, that she was determined to
have this in her home. Such a home. . .was an actual demonstra
tion to the village of what could be done to keep away diseases
also. -- Prom personal letter. Dr. A. A. Thompson, afore-quoted
Loc. cit.
3 5 Gf. post. Chapter VI, p. I3 6.
86
but they are increasing in number.3^ Although compulsory
education for all children from seven to twelve is provided
for in the Constitution of I9 2 3 it is as yet available to
only a small fraction of the village population. Unfortunately
schools have not seized their opportunity to send many pupils
back into the villages trained with better farming methods and
home-betterment programs. Government schools have so far been
fitting men rather for "white-collar jobs", particularly in the
many offices of railway, telephone, telegraph, and irrigation
services. Assiut College Dairy and Edmu village on the soil
education-center for boys and girls are not new but are as
yet lone pioneering projects toward a village population
trained for more effective rural living.37 a few far-seeing
Egyptians, through the Agricultural Exposition and other pub
licity projects arennow agitating for Government Agricultural
schools.
Though Egyptians have not learned to make the school
the rich center for community life which was the district in
school in America a generation ago, yet they do stimulate
3 6 Sir Humphrey Bowman, England’s Educational Advisor in
Egypt, regretted that, as in India, the problem of rural education
had been neglected, although considerable attention was given to
secondary schools and universitieies. Cf. Bowman, op. cit., p.268,
3 7 Both are under American Mission direction, training
Egyptians.
87
interest in a world beyond the village, and it is not unusual
for a remote village home to rejoice that a son is now in
law school or even a daughter gone to live with a relative
in Cairo or some other city that she may attend s c h o o l .38
Awakened Egypt had a terrific task before her with
ninety-six per cent of her women illiterate. Amazing progress
has been made, in the face of great obstacles. Little by little
some few of Egypt’s peasant women are being lifted from despair
to hope. Changes in thinking have truly come to even the
fellahat. With their faithful daily toil, their freedoms
in God’s out-of-doors, and their growing awareness of a changing
world, they too are having a part in building the New Egypt.
38 These homes perhaps above all others, welcome the
messenger of God’s love and His salvation in Christ Jesus,
Cf. Post, Chapter VI, p. l^^ible-teachers-in-the-homes .
CHAPTER V
EDUCATION OF EGYPT’S DAUGHTERS SINCE WORLD WAR I
Government Schools. During World War I Egyptian troops
went abroad. Troops from Australia, India, New Zealand and Bri
tain were in Egypt. The eyes of Egypt’s people were turned to
lands of Western culture for a five-year period. This indis
putably broadenedf Egyptian thinking. They compared themselves
with other peoples and found themselves lacking, not least in
education for women.^
There had been a more or less hidden fear on the part
of the wealthy classes in Egypt that if the common people were
educated they would demand higher wages, and taxes would
be increased on their own large holdings--which they naturally
opposed. But World War I stirred jealousies for national pro
gress, and a Committee for investigation frankly admitted:
^ This was not peculiar to Egypt. W. Wilson Cash, long
time missionary with the Church Missionary Society in Egypt
writes: (The Moslem World in Revolution, London;Edinburgh House
Press, 1 9 2b, pp. 3 5- 3 6): Tn Moslem-governed lands before the
War, education of children was entirely in the hands of the
missionaries, and the people on the [p.3 6] whole saw little value
in schools. For ten years before the War, things had slightly
improved and many schools had been opened, but after the War
it was found that the attitude of Moslems toward education had
altered, and a wide demand for learning spread through all Mos
lem lands.
Ruth Frances Woodsmall, in Moslem Women Enter a New World,
(New York: Round Ts.ble Press, 1936), P. I3 3, writes : No change
in the Eastern world, in this twentieth centjry of change, has
more far-reaching or more fundamental significance, not only
for Eastern women, but for Eastern society, than the growth of
girls' education.
89
"Economie progress cannot be sought. . .[with] illiteracy
of the masses and the backwardness of women what they are. " 2
Women’s part in the demand for national independence
in 1 9 1 9 showed to thinking Egyptian men something of the
latent power for nation-building which had thus Ar been
largely neglected or disregarded. Awakened to this realization
the Egyptian Government, during the..inter-War period, has been
assuming more and more of the responsibility for educating her
own people. They began to appropriate money for girls’ schools
and to open special schools in accord with women’s peculiar
gifts. It is only a beginning, but it is a beginning, and
women have had a share in the planning and in the privileges.
There has been an honest effort to make education available
to all, but to educate sixteen million people is indeed a
gigantic task.
Before World War I, in a population of eleven million
only 3 3 ,0 0 0 girls were in school, but by I9 2 7 there were nearly
one hundred thousand.3 In 1922 only fifteen Egyptians in a
thousand could read, though this was double the pre-War figure.
2 Report,on Elementary Education, I9I9 (Cairo; Government
Press), p. 7, quoted by Amir Boktor, School and Society in the
Valley of the Nile (Cairo: Elias’ Modern Press, 1$3 6), p. Tig,
3 George Young, Egypt (New York: Scribners, I9 2 7), p.281,
with Caroline M. Buchanan, Movements in the life of Women in the
Islamic World," in Mott, The Moslem World Today (New York:
George W. Doran and Company, 192f), p . 2I5.
90
Ignorance vas still the rule in I927 although nineteen and
seven-tenth per cent of the men and four per cent of the women
could read.4 "In all Egypt only 10 per cent of the men and
one-half per cent of the women could read and write." It was
"5 . 3 per cent of the Moslems, 12.4 per cent of the Christians,
43.8 per cent of the Jews."5
To accomplish this task the Government established two
types of schools for beginners, known as elementary and primary
schools, respectively. The former is an attempt to reduce the
general illiteracy by teaching "the three R’s" plus a fourth
the Muslim religion. Elementary schools do not qualify the
pupil for entrance to the secondary or technical or vocational
schools. The primary schools do prepare for these higher
schools, but even here there is great lack of the type of
training which fits for practical daily living outside of
Government employ. Especially is this true for girls, who are
given practically the same courses as the boys who are training
for Government jobs--and only a few of such positions are yet
open to girls.
4 Cf. Bu8hanan. Idem., p. 214 and Boktor, op. cit., pp.
I3 3, 104, who based his'figures on Statistique Scolaire de
I’Egypte, 1 9 3 4, p. 2 3 4 and Annuaire Statistique, pp. I70ff.
5 Kamil Mans our, "The Status of Islam", pp. 36-64, in
Milton Stauffer, Voices From the Near East, .(New York:
Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada,
1927), pp. 42, 43.
91
Lack of teachers and Inadequate facilities have made
it impossible as yet to meet the needs of a million children.
A part of the problem was solved by having classes for boys
in the morning and for girls in the afternoon--a very super
ficial way of removing illiteracy.^ Non-Government schools
for girls were encouraged; in 1934 grants-in-aid totaling
LE 20,000 were given to applying schools.7 Dr. Ahmed Maher,
Minister of Finance, reports that Government expenditures
for education steadily increased from LE 2.3 millions in I9 2 6
to LE 4 millions in 1937*^ The ratio of pupils to population
increased from 1:30 in I9I3 to 1:17 in 1 9 3 6.^ In I9 3I the
number of girls in Government schools was forty per cent of
that of boys, but when elementary schools were omitted the
figure was reduced to thirteen per cent.TO with all the
6 "Million" deducted from A1 Ahram, Cairo, Arabic Daily,
May 1 7, 1 9 3 2, by Boktor and commerrte'd' on by him, op. cit.,
p. 153.
7 Almanac, I9 3 8 (Cairo; Government Press), p. 127.
8 Ahmed Maher, "Hope of More Revenue from Vital Fiscal
Reforms,” (London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, Egyptian
Supplement. December l2 , T9 3 8I
9 Boktor, up. cit., pp. 104, 2 3 9.
^9 Boktor, op. cit., p. 197, from Report of the Bureau of
Registrations and‘ ~Examinations, I9 3T»
92
recent advance in girls’ education, their share of the nation’s
educational budget is small in comparison with that for boys.
In 1 9 3 2 there were under the Ministry of Education only 5,811
girls, as compared with 49,261 boys. H Mission schools had
not then been taken under Ministry s u p e r v i s i o n , ^2 and even
were these included, the total number of Egyptian pupils in
schools is small from sixteen million people, and the percen
tage of girls is even less.
Government Teacher Training and Study Abroad. Some
years passed after Lord Cromer left Egypt (I907), before there
was any serious attempt to train Egyptian teachers for Govern
ment schools. Even as late as 1914 the Ministry of Educaction
itself admitted that the supply of teachers was so inadequate
that a number of the women teachers themselves were unable to
read and write.^3 Finally a teachers’ college was established
which was later to be made a part of The Egyptian University.
It was to prepare Egyptians for teaching at home that
the Egyptian Government sent students abroad. (The first girl
11 Compiled from statistics issued by the Bureau of Re
gistrations and Examinations for 1932, by Boktor, op.cit.,p.I5 .
^2 The American Mission alone reported as of December 3I,
1 9 3 9: 8 high schools with 1 ,7 9 1 pupils; 8 grade schools with
1,920; 18 7 primary schools with 1 5 ,1 7 8 pupils; and one CommerclsL
school enrolled 28 pupils. Cf. The I9 41 Handbook of Foreign
Missions of the United Presbyterian OEurc E^"b"f Nor tîT”Amer ica’ ,
ppl 51,42. and"^ighty-First AnnuaT' Report of the'Board ~ Foreign
Missions, May 22, 1940, pp. 22-23.
^3 Bowman, op. cit., refers to Sir Velentine Chirol, The
Egyptian Problem, p. 2 3I.
93
student was sent abroad In I9 0I). ^4 This was not merely an
advance in educational standards, but a great step in social
progress--to let hareem-sheltered Muslim girls go unwed to a
far country. In order to accomplish this revolutionary con
cession, this breaking the tradition of sheltering girls under
the parental roof until their marriage, traditional thinking
of parents had to undergo radical change. Many fathers could
not bring themselves to allow it, even when their daughters
had acquitted themselves so well in local schools that they
were recommended for foreign study. Yet Sir Humphry Bowman,
who was for a number of years Egyptian Government's supervisor
of Egyptian students abroad, records to the credit of Egyptian
girlhood that despite the great transition from the guardedness
of homes so much more secluded than we of the West can well
imagine, to the temptations of Western life, there wa,s never a
word of scandal regarding these foreign girl students.^3
Egyptian girls have proved themselves worthy of the confidence
placed in them.
In 1 9 1 3 Sir Humphry Bowman had under his supervision
in England and Scotland some sixty Egyptian Government students,
also several hundred who were there at private e x p e n s e . ^8
T4 Eliza.beth Cooper, Women of Egypt, (London: Hurst and
Blackett, Limited, I9 1 4), p. %b5.
^5 Bowman, op. cit., p. 146 and Cooper, op. cit., p. I65.
Bowman, op. cit., p. 146,
94
In 1 9 1 4, 6X4 students left Egypt for study inEurope.^7 In
1 9 2 4, twenty-one young women studied in England alone at Govern
ment expense, while others had gone at their own or parents'
expense. Yet others were studying in Germany and France and
a few in the United States. Art, Domestic Science, Physical
Training and Law were of the subjects studied. In 1934 there
were 2 2 5 Government students (men and women) with others at
their own expense, under Government supervision--a total of
811 students. These were in England, France, Belgium, Switzer
land, Italy, Germany, Austria, and America; and the subjects
covered a much wider field.^9 In 1930, of the forty-two girls
in training in England four were graduates of the American
College for Girls in Cairo. One of them was the first sent
by the Government to prepare for teaching of Music, the others
were preparing in Kindergarten, History, and Science.20
These Government students went, of course, under con
tract to serve the Government on completiong of their own
courses--the men for seven years, the women for three--if a
position were offered them.21 Conservatives had said that
^7 Caroline M. Buchanan, Idem, p. 2I3.
18 Almanac, I9 3 8, (Cairo:Egyptian Government Press),p.129.
19 Ibid., p. 1 2 9.
20 Dr. Helen J. Martin, head of American College foe Girls
in Cairo, Women's Missionary Magazine, (Xenia, Ohio: Women's Gen
eral Missionary Society,), VoTI 4 3,Wo. 8 , March 193^,pp.463,464.
21 Almanac, I9 3 8, p. 129.
95
edudated girls would be worthless as wives and mothers; but
educated girls were soon sought in marriage by educated young
men.22 Women foreign students have been so sought after as
wives that the Government has almost had to bribe them to be
teachers. If they completed their three-year contract, the
Government gave them a bonus as a wedding gift, and the amount
was increased with each additional year of service.^5 The
privilege of foreign study and the high salaries paid by the
Government helped "a marked and encouraging movement among young
women of the higher social classes to take up teaching, as well
as other p r o f e s s i o n s .^4 Although desire for independent living
and utter boredom of "sitting at homemay motivate some, many
have a desire for real self-sacrificing service.25
Government Secondary Schools for Girls. Meanwhile
slow progress was being made in secondary schools which were
opened to girls in I9 2 5 .2 6 Before I9 2 7 there was only one
22 One girl on receiving her teaching certificate is
said to have received no less than seventeen marriage proposals.
Cf. Bowman, op. cit., p. 260.
2 3 Bowman, op‘ . cit., p. 6 0, 260.
24 Maatin, loc. cit. , cf. post. Chapter VII.
2 5 Martin, loc. cit.
2 6 Karima el Said, "Women’s New Role in National Life,"
(London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, Egyptian Lapplement,
December I93B. "
96
Government Secondary School for girls. Within ten years no
fewer than eighteen such were opened, and to encourage enroll
ment the Ministry granted exemption from fees. Sixty per cent
of girl-students received this grant in 1934. It was less in
1 9 3 8, but still much higher than for boys.2Y in I9 3I there
were only 3 9 6 girls in Government secondary schools, as compared
with 1 4 ,8 7 7 boys. When all foreign schools are added the figure
only reach 3 ,3 5 8 girls and 31,222 boys. Comparison of these
figures indicates that even at that late date Mission and other
foreign schools were providing by far the greatest part of
higher education for Egypt's daughters. However, by I93 6 the
Government had two colleges for girls, one in Giza, one in
Alexandria, and more are contemplated.
Egypt'3 State University. The Egyptian University had
its beginnings in I9 0 6 when Khedive Abbas II ordered IE 2000
paid annually for its support.29 In December I9 2 3, it was
2 6 Karima el Said, "Women's New Role in National Life,"
(London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, Egyptian Supplement,
December l2~, T9 3 8I
2 7 Ahmed Lutfi el Sayed Pasha, Rector of The Fuad the
First University, "Significant Social and Cultural Changes,"
(London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post,Egyptian Suppelment,
p. XVi.
2 8 Boktor, op. cit., pp. I3 5, 127, quoting from Bureau
of Registrations and Examinations, 1932, p. 7.
2 9 Ahmed Loutfl, Loc. cit.
97
placed under the direction of the Ministry of Education. By a
law of March 11, I9 2 5, it became a State University, witÿ the
name of Independent Egypt’ s first monarch. King Fuad 1.30
The Government still felt it wise to proceed slowly
with innovations, especially when they had to do with removing
hareem restrictions, therefore, the matter of coeducation was
not considered until very recently. At its founding in I9 0 6
the School of Medicine received women students for Midwifery,51
but that department was of course for women only, ■ The first
lecture was given to women in 1 9 0 9.^^ No other Faculty re
ceived women students until I9 2 6. But when girls had acquitted
themselves well in public examination tiey could not logically
be refused admittance to higher schools and the University:.53
50 Almanac, I9 3 8 (Cairo: Government Press), p. I33 adds
that the schoo1 now Yhcxudes Faculties of Arts, Science,
Medicine, Law, Engineering, Agriculture, Commerce, and Veteri
nary Medicine. The School of Medicine includes not only
Medicine and Surgery but Dentistry and Pharmacy, Nursing and
Midwifery. The Institute of Archaeology confers degrees of
Diploma of Archaeology and Doctorate of Archaeology.
51 Ruth Frances Woodsmall, Moslem Women Enter a New
World, (New York: Round Table Pre s s, ïnc orpor a ted” , 1^3 6%% p.
142 and Statistique Scolaire, 1939-40, as quoted by Dean Wen
dell C le land, A meric ah University aTua^iro, personal corres
pondence, February 12, .1943 .
32 Madame Azer Goubran, graduate of Pressly Memorial
Institute, Asslut, a pioneer in co-education, personal corres
pondence, March 2, 1943.
55 Kareema el Said, loc. cit.
98
They were first admitted in any large numbers into schools of
Law, arts, and Sciences, Medicine, and Commerce in 192%.54
Women students in Medicine do their interne work in Kitchener
Women's Hospital, where an Egyptian woman doctor is in charge.55
By 1937 there were 3 7 7 women r e g i s t e r e d ^ ^ and in 1939-40 there
were 454 women in a total of 8I87 students. The Higher Insti
tute of Education for Girls had 3 5 3, and 53 others were in
other higher schools of the Ministry of Education, making a
total of 8 6 0 girls in higher Government schools in one school
year. Women graduated from the Egyptian University in I9 3 6 -4 0
totaled 6 5 9, of whom 224 were from Education, 274 from Medicine,
departments of Midwives and nurses where their work is of true
University standard.57
Post-War-I Mission Schools. Now old fears of education
are slowly disappearing. This becomes evident in the fact
that parents desire their daughters to secure the Government
certificate, though even yet many prefer that their girls
attend Mission Schools. The turmoil of World War I succeeded
in carrying into the discard many things that had been tradi
tional in Egypt, as well as in other parts of the Near East.
54 Statistique Scolaire, Loc .cit. , and Ka.rima el Said,
Loc. c it.
55 Woodsman, op. cit. , p. 3 41.
56 Ahmed Loutfi, Loc. cit.
57 Oleland, loc. cit., and quoting as above.
99
Muslims now desire education earnestly enough to disregard
the difference in religious background of Christian Mission
schools, and they frankly insist that they want the character
training which they do not get elsewhere.58 Reports that
Mission schools have record enrollments during World War II
would seem to indicate an increase in that attitude.
As Government schools became more and more popular
they offered the Primary Certificate for completion of certain
required courses and examination. It became the popular thing
for a girl to possess this certificate. It helped toward a
good marriage. Many parents whose daughters were in Mission
schools asked that they also be prepared for the Government
examinations.
At first, special classes were held for the girls who
desired this work. Then these girls became the majority--
for it became evident that Mission schools stood high in per
centage of pupils who passed the Government examinations. More
girls came to Mission schools to prepare for Government ex
aminations. But here was a difficulty: Government examination
material is voluminous. The Mission had been trying to teach
girls to think things out for themselves, to get the meaning
58 In the fall of 1 9 5 7 ^ stranger politely addressed
a missionary as they both waited in a shop. "Why don’t you
people enlarge your school--make it a high school? Our girls
need the kind of teaching which you people give. They don’t
gàt it in the Government schools." He proved to be a member
of Parliament who thus gave unsought tribute to a ministry
in his land which he counted worthy.
100
a page and put it into their own words, to do real constructive
thinking. Girls desiring the Government Certificate seemed
forced to use the old method of memorizing quantities of
material. Mission leaders regretted time and energy lost
from direct home-making arts, yet girls had the home-atmosphere
of the school, and much could be taught indirectly. Therefore,
Mission schools cooperated with ambitious parents by sending
more girls (and boys) from their various schools to pass
Government primary Examinations. Then they equipped their
schools with the specified laboratory apparatus for Secondary
School Science classes, and sent pupils into Secondary Ex
aminations who surpassed in English and adaptability.59
Mission schools have continued their work of Leadership
Training. Because members of Mission school staffs could not
all attend special training schools, American Mission’s
special committee for Girls' School Curriculum prepared (and
presented to the schools in I9 2 6) a handbook in English and
Arabic. It contained detailed course plans week by week for
the school year. It suggested methods for presenting the
lessons. Thus not only were Bible and Home-making lessons
made more spedific and practical, but Arithmetic and History,
Geography and General Science took on new interest for those
59 Boktor, op. cit., speaks of these excellencies.
He also gives extended discussion on subject material, method
of conducting Government examinations and evaluation of the
whole system.
101
of narrower horizons. More recently a special reading course
offers special recognition for private study toward improvement
in professional ability. Summer institutes for teachers have
also given valuable help.^ ‘0
Pressly Memorial Institute’s Teacher Training Department
in 1 9 3 9 graduated nine girls.During the Worjd War II emer
gency one Egyptian young woman has been taking a place of
directorship hitherto occupied by a specially trained American,
and all graduâtes have been doing work through the years which
originally no Egyptian was prepared to do.
In 1 9 0 1 a Kindergarten had been opened in Alexandria
with Egyptian teacher cooperation and later a Training school
for Kindergarten teachers which is now located at Tanta. From
its classrooms came a modern primer for Egyptian children which
was adopted by all American Mission schools in 1939-40. A
Kindergarten supervisor keeps in touch with the Egyptian girls
who have been trained in this school, visits them in their work
wherever they go and thereby encourages them to further growth.
The presence in Egypt of various foreign schools for
girls and of the American College for Girls in Cairo established
in 1 9 0 9f the highest school of learning for girls on the conti
nent of Africa) greatly popularized female education. In this
Cairo College have been given extension courses in Home Economics
for out-of-school girls and graduates. Special classes in
40 cf. post, p. 1 5 6.
102
varied Red Cross handworks and First Aid have been World War
II attractions.'^^ To Cairo College have come many pupils for
elementary and advanced work in music: voice, piano, violin, and
organ. Examiners from Trinity College of Music, London, twice
yearly give examinations to piano pupils from near-beginners to
the two diplomas for academic degrees of associate and Licentiab
in Music. Miss Wuir Rizk, in I9 2 8, was the first Egyptian to
obtain the Trinity College Teacher Training Certificate. Since
that time she has been of the music staff of her alma mater,
the American College for Girls. In I9 3 6 the Government sent
three girls, two of them from this school, to London Royal
College of Music, for two years’ training then for a year on
the Continent. One American faculty has thus expressed her own
personal aim in Cairo College:
While I was at The College I would never allow anyone
in my hearing to use the term 'Western music.’ I felt that
it was all wrong psychologically. My great ambition was
to further the true idea that the so-called ’Great Composer^
of the Western world are as much the heritage of the Egyptian,
as of the American or European, and that Arabic music should
be preserved as loved folk music, as in any other country,
but not at the expense of what should be to us all
’international’ not ’Western’ m u s i c . 42
It is these values in what is their own and in what has
formerly belonged only to others which true educators are seek
ing to make available to Egyptian people today. In many of
4 1 In 1 9 2 5, a Training School for Nurses was opened in
Assiut Hospital. Its,growth and service are further mentioned
in Chapter VII, ’Health-care for Egypt’s Women, American Mission
Health Projects.*
42 Grace Sample, personal letter, August 7, 1943. This
might seem to have been somewhat the general attitude of a num
ber of mission music leaders through the years in Egypt. The
103
these fields Mission and foreign schools are still pioneering.
The Government school system has been less flexible, less able
to experiment than the foreign schools, partly because once
really started it soon became larger, partly because it is
bound by religious and social restrictions. Yet it has been
ready to adopt what others have proved valuable. Dean Badeau
of American University at Cairo,^3 said he had listed twenty-
one specific methods and procedures in school life which had
been tried by the American University then adopted by Egyptb
Govennment schools. Were the American Mission to begin such
a list from 1854 the very existence of schools for girls in
the country must head the list. Thus have educational gains
of the West been brought to Egypt--by demonstrating their
workability on Egyptian soil.
But with all this advance, as late as 1936 Dr. Boktor
wrote that "The Egyptian government is yet inexperienced in
female education," he states that it has not yet won the
confidence of the people and cites as evidence the opening of
a secondary school for girls in Assiut in I9 3O-3I when only
42(continued)
late Canon W.H.T.Cairdner (CP,ante. Chapter II), so appreciated
Egyptian music that he collected and published for Western music
lovers a volume of folk tunes, also Ruth Deyo's work of collect
ing such tunes and ’translating them into lovely and impressive
international music. . .deserves to be better known’, writes
Grace Sample (Idem.)
^5 Dr. John S. Badeau, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences,
speaking on University of Southern California Campus, March,1943
104
ten girls appeared. With favor he notes the reputation for
charac ter-build ing which has been that of two flourishing
schools for girls, outgrowth of that opened in 1865 by the
American M i s s i o n . 44 These now enroll yearly between seven
and eight hundred girls. Boktor also names the Italian Francis
can school and "a few others" of foreign and private origin with
whom character-emphasis is above mere learning. Intelligent
Egyptians are realizing that the education which prepares for
life, not just for a certificate, is what counts. People of
all faiths are growing in appreciation of this emphasis. Govern
ment and leadership circles in Egypt are now demanding the best
for their daughters and a large number feel that they have found
that best in Mission and foreign schools.
Co-education and Hareem Res trie tions. The veil has been
termed the barometer of social change.45 Veils are a protec
tion from insults of "lewd fellows of the baser sort"^^ behind
which even Western women could sometimes almost wish for refuge.
Foreign Women’s ignorance of exact meaning of comments as they
necessarily pass cafes is sometimes a blessing. But, perhaps
there has been too much clinging to a veil-psychology in the
44 Pressly Memorial Institute and The Khayatt School,
long supported by an Egyptian family, with Mission supervision.
4 5 Woodsman, Moslem Women Enter a New World, p. 40.
^6 Acts 17:5.
105
schools. It is said that Cairo’s most fashionable Government
school for girls refuses admittance even to the Minister of
Educationi
In 1 9 1 6 the first Muslima was graduated from the American
College for Girls in Cairo. In I9 2 9 the first Muslim woman was
graduated from American University in Beirut. She was an Egyptian
She had attended classes with her husband, and there was no ad
verse criticism to her attending classes unveiled with the men.^7
Veiling of women attending schools with men in Egypt seems not
to have been considered. The first woman student in the American
University of Cairo (established in I9I9) vas received from
The American College for Girls in Cairo (established in I9 0 9),
in 1 9 2 8. She was its first woman graduate in June I9 3I. Since
that time sixty-four women have been graduated there.48
When American University first opened its lecture hall
there was some "debate as to the propriety of mixed audiences."
A committee of Egyptian men called in consultation decided by
a majority of one vote to admit women to the lectures, reserving
the balcony for them. Once and once only did that plan work.
4 7 Woodsmall, op. cit., p. 3 41.
48 Buchanan, loc. cit., and Cleland, loc. cit., who also
adds that 34 of these were with B.A. in SociaX §ciences or
Journalism, I9 with B.A. in Education, 11 with Preparatory Cer
tificates, 5 of which total were Americans. Of these 18 are
teaching, 9 are in work with British or American Array, 2 are
Journalists, 2 Nurses, one Doctor, and one in Government employ.
Others are or expect to be home-makers.
106
The women insisted that they sit on the main floor. A block
of seats was reserved for them. Before long men began to ask
why their wives might not sith with them. Accordingly a section
was reserved where women might sit if with a male escort. There
is still a section where men only are seated --men who might feel
disturbed by women’s close presence.49 This lecture hall con
tacts many of the most progressive thinkers of the land. The
same, perhapé in modified form, is taking place and will through
out the land, in church assemblies, which are admittedly con
servative, in school programs and in all types of public
assembly.
Paradoxically in this veil-psychology is the fact that
some people still think that certain subjects can be taught
well only by men, and they want the best for their daughters--
therefore a women must be present as chaperone in the class.’
In 1 9 2 2 girls of Bane y a Training College^O yent on strike be
cause of being thus chaperoned. Since it was at first im
possible to have men teachers for girls at all, this was indeed
progressive thinking. The chaperoning was gradually stopped.5^
49 This paragraph is based on information contained in
a personal letter from Dean Cleland of Department of Extension
Service, American University at Dairo, dated February 12, 1943
50 Cf, ante, Chapter II, "Government Schools for Girls",
51 Boktor, op. cit., p. I3 4.
107
Mission secondary schools have frequently found it an asset
to have men teachers for upper classes in Arabic Grammar,
Science and Mathematics. These the Missionary visits fre
quently. Men, girls, and parents appreciate it. It lends
confidence to-all concerned.
The American Mission has been a pioneer in various
CO-educational projects.52 Commencement time in Assiut Mission
Schools is definitely co-educational. Thirty-five men from
Assiut College, thirty girls from Pressly Memorial Institute,
and the three graduates from the Nurses Training School of
Assiut Hospital, in May 1942 (similarly in previous years),
were all on the platform together before an audience of some
three thousand people. Their appearance thus in freedom is
the expected thing, accepted as a natural part of the American
Mission school program and of the life of educated Egypt.
52 xn 1 9 3 3 three American participated in an all-day
picnic ofEgyptian young people. It really started as the mem
bers of the Christian Endeavor Society which meets weekly in
the Ezbekieh Mission Building, Cairo. This is largely girls
from the Mission school there, youths from the Boys’ school and
from the Seminary, their brothers, sisters and friends. The
group proved to be of several different racial origina.
They planned the ’eats’ and the journey to Miadi as un
selfconsciously as if Egypt had always had such picnics. The
presence of "the Americans" (who were of the girls’ faculty)
was sufficient caution for the whole affair, if anyone in
modern cosmopolitan Cairo ever thought to question it. Egyp
tian youth, not the Americans, instigated the affair. The de
sire had grown out of years of Christian fellowship under
Mission sponsoring. Egyptians had learned from their foreign
friends of their mixed parties and desired the same good for
themselves. So, singing and small musical instruments and food
and gaities added to good wholesome fellowship in Egypt’s beauti
ful out-of-doors left only happy memories for everyone.
Previous to this, youth parties of another group had been
held in at least one Cairo home where the mother was graduate of
Pressly Memorial Institute, Assiut.
108
Al Azhar. Many people In thinking of Egypt and her schools
think of A1 Azhar as the world’s coldest university. In actual
fact this title has been granted out of courtesy to a Muslim
theological school which until 1 9 5 5 was quite mediaeval in curri
culum and in method. "The Europeanized students of the modern
Egyptian University regard the turbaned and gowned Azharites
rather as fossilized survivals of a past era."55 The reorgani
zation of Al Azhar which occurred in 1955, attributed to King
Fuad I, was precipitated by a student strike which demanded
modernization. 54 At the head of a vast network of Muslim teach
ing Al Azhar has hah from its founding a thousand years ago no
place for the education of women. Those few Muslim women who
have obtained learning are exceptions. The conservative element
of Islam which has opposed all emancipation of women centers in
this ancient school. Azhar leaders have been the most radical
of opponents to the movements in recent years for the freedom
of women.55 Azhar leaders endeavored to control Government
policy, but other pressures have finally out-weighed their
authority in some matters.
55 The (London) Times, "Trend of Moslem Thought, Al
Azhar and the' New 0utlook"7"JsLnuary 26, 1957, p. xxxiii.
54 The (London) Times, loc. cit.
55 Amine Youssef, Independent Egypt, (London; Murray,
1940), p. 4 5.
109
Other Educative Factors. Even though Al Azhar has
opposed it. Westernization for some of Egypt’s women has come,
"for better or for worse." It is interesting to note that in
Egypt as well as elsewhere.
Very often the most conservative fathers who, through
public forum and religion attack the women’s drift into
modernization, are the very ones whose daughters exceed
the limit in their rapid adoption of European ways,56
But this education has not come alone through the schools. Other
elements are recalled by one who has known Egypt’s women intimate
ly for more than a quarter-century:
The radio has worked wonders in homes where women
had never gone to school. Fine musical programs and
lectures were available. Girls (moslem) who knew English
would often listen to sermons (St. Martins-in-the-Field
was especially liked.) Books and magazines have gone
where the radio or the person never got entrance into a
home. The movie has done more in recent years. . . .
The power of advertisement has developed the homelife
of women. What they saw in the shop windows was not
forgotten. The automobile brought people to centers
more than the old-time donkey travel had done. Village
men looked at shop windows and took back with them new
things for the daughters in the homes.57
Mrs. Ache8on also emphasizes the influence of the British with
their gifts of "irrigation and prospertiy, law and order, even
in the remote villages." The Egyptians saw British and American
women taking part in civil and philanthropic enterprises.
56 Boktor, op_. cit. , p. 2 3 7.
57 Mrs. J. Acheson, personal letter, April, 1945.
110
This encouraged them to participate in things political as
well as social. 58 Levonian, Armenian educationalist in Athens
University and the Near East has said that "the most hopeful thing
in the development of the peoples of the Near East is this
earnest desire for education. It has always been one of the
big factors in human progress."59 But herein lies s . danger:
Education alone is light-giving but not life-giving. Devonian
again said:
We are in danger of being misled by a superficial
knowledge of the education of the West. We take education
as the almighty savior of our own social and national life.
We believe if we are well informed in the sciences and arts
we shall be building our life on strong foundations. In
regarding education as the acquisition of learning and as
a means to power we neglect to recognize that character and
the moral good of others are the real ends. 60
It is these values which Mission schools have sought to guard,
and others are now cooperating. Mrs. Acheson has given the
secret back of all the progress made especially in the lives of
Egyptian women:
Back of it all is the teaching of Christ. . .by the
missionaries of every church from the beginning until
now." I am come that ye might have life and that ye
might have it abundantly."
Christ cleans up, and builds up as well.
59 Loutfrl Devonian, in Milton Stauffer, Voices From
the Near East, (New York: Missionary Education Movement of' the
Ünitêïï States and Canada, I9 2 7), p. 5 0.
q ^9 Devonian, loc. cit.
Acheson, loc. cit.
CHAPTER VI
EGYPTIAN WOMEN AND RELIGION
The Census of 1927 gave Egypt s . population of 14,000,000
of whom 9 5 0 ,0 0 0 were Copts; of that number 870,000 adhered
to the native or Monophystic religion, 24,000 were Roman
Catholics or Uniats and 50,000 Protestants.^
The population now is about sixteen millions, roughly one million
of whom are non-Muslim.2
The Copts (from the same root as "Egypt") claim to be
the original Egyptians and their Christian faith dates from the
teaching of John Mark the Gospel writer in Alexandria about 41A.D,
The Muslims entered Egypt in 6 5 9-640 A.D. and have been the
ruling class ever since. The Protestants are the result of
Christian Missions from the West within less than a century.
Roman Catholics in Egypt are largely Italians and French
with sprinkling of Maltese, Belgians and other Europeans. The
Italian clergy are engaged in parochial work, the French in
missionary work through schools and hospitals. Their influence
is shown by the fact that the language of all Catholics in
Egypt is French. They work chiefly among the Coptic people of
1 "a Venerable Sect, The Copts and Their Church," The
(London) Times, Egypt Number, January 26, 1957/ P. xxxii.
2 The Statesman’s Yearbook, 1942, p. 8 5 5, gives Egypt's
population: MusTirnH'^T. 40^ ~
All Christians 8.19^
Jews 0.4^
and others 0. 01^
112
lower* Egypt though they have schools in Middle and- Upper* Egypt,5
Coptic Women. There has been a Christian Church in Egypt
since the first century A.D., and Egyÿt was a leader among the
Christian peoples. Undoubtedly certain external factors played
their part in weakening of this Christian group, but more sig
nificant things allowed to control within the church which con
tributed to spiritual decay. It was this which inevitably
weakened her,ability to mould the nation’s life. Her leaders
got to bickering over theological detail, rather than demonstrat
ing the great love of Cod for man, woman, and child; They lost
their missiohary vision. They neglected to - teach the common
people the truths of the faith. The written record of Christ’s
ministry on earth was allowed to be unread, therefore, soon un
known. Theological doctrines of Constantine and Jus.tlnian were
crystalized into a language-ritual long since' unknown to the
people and even unfamiliar - to many of the priests. The people -
became enslaved to-formalism. One third of the Coptic year is
fast days, most religiously observed by many women and girls,
especially of the humbler folk. Monastic ism began in Egypt, a
depending on the works and devotions of man (and woman) to
attain salvation. But this form of devotion secluded the
5 Rev. Ores te He rame, S*. J., "Roman Catholic Missions in
Egypt," 1 9 42 Twenty-first General Conference of the Egypt Inter-
Mission Gouhcll, (CairoV NiTe~ MIssibn Press), pp7~'4’ '057
115
the leaders in Christian thought and as teaching and spiritual
feeding of the flock was neglected the church fell into lassi
tude and inertia. When Egypt was thus weakened the armies of
Islam came and took possession.
At first the Muslims seem to have kept their promise to
free the Christian Egyptians from the taxation and oppression
of their Christian neighbors who as over-lords had been harassing
them. But Mrs. Butcher’s The Story of the Church of Egypt^
records one long series of persecLutions of these Christians,
who, though they had lost their evangelistic energy, yet re
fused to give up their faith. "The church survived. . .but as a
8ma, 11 remnant on the defensive for its life, and no longer a
s pi r1tua1 power."5
Today they are loyal, jealous Christians, but the vast
majority of them are still untaught.^ When women of the Coptic
church attend the services they are kept carefully behind a
4 Mrs. E. E. Butcher’s two volume work (London: Smith-Elder
and Company, 1897), 497pp, Is out of print-, and the writer has
not had recent access to it. The work is well documented.
n '
5 Edward M. and Rose W. Dodd, Mecca and Beyond, (Brattle-
boro: The Vermont Publishing Company, T9 5 7), p. B 7.
^ If asked the meaning of the cross tattooed on wrist or
fish on forearm- or' of the crosses and- donkeys which they make
from the tender palm shoots on Palm Sunday, the majority have not
the slitest idea. "it means we are Christians." "And what does
it mean to be a Christian?" "Well, er, well, that our parents
were Christians. "But of the significance of the Cross of what
Christ Jesus has done for us, throngs in cities as well as in
villages have no idea.
114
carved wooden screen so the hearts of men-worshippers will not
be disturbed or defiled by thinking of women!7 This is of
course the result of Muslim influence for the early Church’ knew
no such segregation. It matters not to the leaders (men)
that the women can neither see nor hear the ritual lead by the
prfe st.- They are only women, the mothers of childrren. Small
wonder they get bored and begin to talk among themselves and
fail to keep quiet the little children whom they have brought
with them. Even those who attempt to hear cannot. So the
purpose of attending service becomes the merit of being there--
plus, of course,- the pleasure'of visit with friends. There is
no spiritual instruction, no' reminder of'God’s promises, no
assurance of His strength in heart and life. They go out as
hungry of heart and soul as they came. That is the picture
where leadership follows in the, old ways.
But there is a brighter side to the picture of Coptic
women. Years ago some of these who are now Coptic leaders
learned in Protestant Mission schools of Christ Jesus and
what was to them a new way of life. .They wanted to leârn more
of this Christian message, both for themselves and that they
might teach others. There is an increasing number of these
7 Some of these screens are magnificent pieces of artistry
In some churches the women are off in another room, in others
in a balcony high above the heads of the male congregation
and safely screened from peering down upon the men. In the
Burtros Pasha Church in Cairo and perhaps in others in more
progressive city centers no 'such separation is made.
115
who are enlightened. Intelligent, energetic students of the
Bible, striving daily for the glory of God in their own lives
and the fulfillment of His highest purposes in and for others,
people who are learning better to coordinate in daily living
the message of the Epistle to the Hebrews with that of James.
■Where there is Sufficient number of these, the ritual in the
ancient Coptic language’(a language which was old when Abraham
and Sarah sojourned in Egypt) is sometimes, followed by a real ■
Gospel lesson in the language which the people can understand.
An increasing amount of the ritual itself is given in Arabic,
especially of the Scripture.passages. This, then, becomes in
struction and help to.those, who - are taught book-Arabic and can
hear and participate..
There are.today Coptic congregations where the women
are taught, either during the service or separately. But many
Coptic priests have anathemiatized their untaught women for-
attending Protestant services. More than one Coptic priest has
welcomed instruction given by Mission Bible teacher in the homes,
In some cases the copts themselves have -secured women trained in
Mission schools to do this work among their people.
The Copts hot only have their six hundred churches, many
of which are more than a thousand years old, but they have in
cluded in their own system of schools two secondary schools for
girls, both in Cairo, and seventy-five primary schools. 8 Thus,
® Almanac, I9 3 8 and I9 59 (Cairo; Government Press),under
"Copts."
116
they are endeavoring to meet a part of the need of Egypt ’s
womanhood. In some of their own schools they have through
the years given Bible Lessons in a practical way. For this
again they have often turned to Mission schools for trained
teachers. Thus, this spiritually trained element within the
church is growing.
Christian homes are often the dirtiest of all. Through •
the centuries of persecution a sort of protective coloring has
been adopted to hide any evidence of wealth which they might
accumulate in order to protect their physical lives--for persecu
tion has been the rule, seldom‘the exception, from 640A.D., to
modern .times. Often these have had no recourse before the
Muslim law of the land. So there has grown up within them a
psychology of fear and suspicion of their rulers which will
only with difficulty be dispelled.9
Today the vast, majority of these Christian people are
ready, eager, to listen to this practical Christian teaching.
The masses of them cannot read. They go to the services and the
priest reads the service in an ancient tongue. They need to be
taught,^9
9 Mrs. Butcher, op. cit., has brought out this fact very
clearly; living among thUm yHTds abundant evidence of their atti
tude.
^9The rituals at "The Feast of The Birth" (Christmas)and
"The Big Feast" (Feast of the Resurrection) are very picturesque.
The crucifixion scene is dramatized, even to the point of the
women wearing deep mourning from the Friday Crucifixion hour to
.that of the Resurrection on the morning of the first day of the
week. ' During the intervening time they often repeat in mounnful
tones, "God is dead, God is dead.’" But the meaning and practical
application for life, the masses seem to have.missed.
117.
It has taken a great deal of courage on the part of -
some of the Coptic women leaders to oppose the age-old mourn
ing customs, and to celebrate the festive occasions without
the customary .wines, and cognac. Coptic ..leaders are more and
more asking for the lantern lectures to teach their people
against these and other evils.
In short, a. considerable leadership within the ancient
Coptic Church is awake'to new opportunities in Egypt’s new day
and this historic Church is more and more assuming her part in
training womanhood of the land.
Islam and the Changing Status of Egypt’s Women. "Islam
. . . is at once a religious and a polifiôal f a c t o r . "^2
1 9 2 7 Sheikh Kamil Mansour, graduate of Al Azhar, said "The
Advance movement in Islam is more in evidence in Egypt than
elsewhere excepting Turkey."15 Well might we ask if this change i
is inherent, indigenous, automatic, within Islam. But our
immediate query is concerned with special contributions of Islam
to this broader life for women.
Letter from Mrs. Loretta Hoyman, dated January
January 26, I9 5 8, Cf. post. Chapter VII, regarding the wineless
wedding and the lantern work of.Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Amine Youssef, Indenendent Egypt, (London: Murray,I9 4 0)
p. 5 2.
75 Kamil Mansour, "The Status of Islam," pp. 56-64, Milton
Stauffer (compiler) Voices from the Wear East (New York: Missionary
Education Movement of United' States and'Canada, 1927), p. 5 9.
118
Islamic His tory. As we sketch through the centuries of
Muslim history we find that in the beginning the Muslims were
stimulated by their contacts with other peoples. They were
thrilled by what they found of art, science, literature, and
civilization in general. Much of this they adopted and adapted
to their purpose of empire extension. That was the period of
Saracenic culture whose contributions to the world have been
‘lauded. Many of these, if not most, were things which they
found among the people whom they conquered in a military way,
and, true traders that they have always been, they carried
them, refurbished, made more saleable to others. It is a
blessing that they did so.
For example, the astronomy and surveying of the ancient
Egyptians the Muslims gave to the world. But astronomy and
the way to measure from the stars to restore agricultural land -
- \ '
marks erased by inundation of the Wile.did not originate with a
nomadic people in' the deserts of Arabia. Yet the world has ‘
greatly used astronomy and surveying.
- From the ninth to the eleventh centuries the Muslim
armies did less and less conquering.' Lacking new contacts
they gradually fell into’stagnation. Under the Turkish rule
"enlightened progress was impossible."14 Evidence of this is
74 Suggested by early pages in Stoddard, The New World of
03slam, (New York: C Scribners’ Sons, I9 2I), quotatTon "f'rom p. T5 .
119
found In the fact of less schools in Egypt in 1800 than in I4yi.l5
Islam had been in complete and undisputed control in Egypt through
out these years. Why such intellectual inertness, even retro- ' '
gression?
The awakening of Eyrope to intellectual and spiritual
progress left Islam untouched. The Muslim East was only saved
from collapse before the nations of the West "by the mutual
jealousof Western powers.
However, not until the nineteenth century did the
Moslem world as a whole feel the weight of Western attack.
. . .Islam continued to live its old life, neither-knowing
nor caring to know anything about Western ideas nor Western
progress [p. 24] Such was the decrepit Moslem world which
faced nineteenth century Europe, energized, by the Industrial
Revolution, armed as never before by modern science and
invention which had unlocked nature ^s secrets and placed
hitherto undreamed-of weapons in its aggressive hands.^7
Yet, at the very moment when Eyropean nations would have
subjugated the Muslim world in their greed for power there came
about a mighty changé within Islam. Islam became "conscious of
her decrepitude";a vast ferment, obscure yet profound, began
to leaven" the Muslim world.19 The Wahhabi reform, a back-to -
I5 Of. Ante, Chapter II,p.l5 Amir Boktor,-School and So
ciety in the Velley of the Nile, (Cairo; Elias" Modern Press,
pV 113,
Stoddard, op, cit., p. 22.
17 Ibid., p. 22.
18 H.A.R.Gibb, The Arabs, Oxford Pamphlets on World Affairs
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941'), pp. 3,^»
19 Stoddard, op. cit.,,p. 2 9.
12 0
Mohammed movement in Arabia, gave birth to that of Pan-Islamism.
Now Nationalism seems to have taken its place.^0 But Islam is
more than political control in the modern world, even as it was
more than military power in Mohammed's day. - ,Islam is the reli
gious and social control of a people.
It was Mohammed All's aim to make Egypt a part of Europe
His successors deliberately set themselves to erase all his
accomplishments toward westernization. This they did in the
name of their religion Islam, . Schools were closed as impious
and unnecessary, the public hospital was shut and its European
p 1
administrator dismissed. Abbas II posed as a religious reformer
to gain for himself power over leaders at AlAzhar.' He used the
religious fanaticism of the people to attain his political am
bitions .
Changes in Social Patterns. While Islam was wrapping
herself in "the tatters of Saracenic civilization" and her
prople were looking for someone to give orders to be.obeyed as
a military command, Europe was awakening to new progress.
The masses were not thinking beyond their dally physical needs;'
a subjugated people bound in discouragement, fatalism, and
disease, in distress of body,- mind and- spirit, had.no heart to
80 Arthur Jeffry, "New Trends in Moslem Apologetic",
pp. 3 0 5- 3 2 1, John R. Mott (compiler) The Moslem World Today
(New York: George H. Doran Company, I9 2 5, first prîh't'ing. Re
printed, London: Haze11, Watson and Vivey, Ltd., June I9 2 6),
p. 3 6 3. ' ■
21 Cf. Ante, Chapter II, p. lÿ-14.
82 Stoddard, op. cit., pp. I3, 14, 20, 22.
12 1
protest when European Powers came to make conquest in the East--
conquest political economic. Since that time a small percentage
of the people have been touched by new ideas and ideals.
The two thousand years of her foreign domination had be
gotten in Egypt a psychology of inability to think for herself.83
Adoption of this new philosophy meant a questioning- of
the absolute authority of Islam and of its social hold upon them.
This new declaration of independence has come about very gradu
ally, but perhaps for that very reason more surely. It is
evidenced in
• the changed position of women, especially in the cities;
. . .in the postponement of marriage and the greater
freedom of choice on the woman's part, in attendance
of women at lectures, and entertainments, in the forma
tion of women's clubs, in the larger liberty in the
use of the veil, and in the ever-growing [p. 364]
demand for education. The spread of Western industrialism
and the startling development of material aspects of
modern civilization have had a marked,disintegrating
influence. . . .One of the most eminent professors of
A1 Azhar. .•.was asked what gave him greatest hope
for Islam. He replied 'I see no hope; materialism
is. overwhelming us.'24
8 3 This is the word of son-in-law and co-laborator with
Zaghloul, Amine Youssef, Independent Egypt, (London; John Murray'
1940), pp. 3 6-3 7.
". . .they have for so long been prevented [p.37] from con
trolling their-own destinies and from ordering their own society
constructively'that they have in great measure lost the habit of
doing so. The problems of government are largely outside
their consideration. Who is to order and who is to obey in
public affairs, that is all they are inclined to ask."
Amine Bey also refers [on p. xv] to certain Egyptian men
who "inspired the younger generation with a new confidence and
with a spirit of self-reliance previously unknown." and else
where [pp.8,1 0, 6 7,et passim] to "self-reliance" as an essential
part of the new psychology in Egypt.
84 John R. Mott, The Moslem World Today, in compiler's
conclusion, pp. 3 6 3- 3 6 4. . Cfl also Charles R. Watson, What is
122
A New Moral Standard. Not only is the authority of Islam'
being questioned in these outward things (eachhof which is in
dicative of a. real inner change) but thinking people of Egypt
are realising that there la a character value which is brought
to them through these from the West, therefore they come to the
*
Mission schools asking for the character training. They do not
want the Christian religion, but they do want the fruits in
life which it.gives.25
Significant Self-Criticism Within Islam. Dr. Arthur
Jeffry has summarised the changes within Islam under .three heads : 86
8^(continued)
this Moslem World? as he quoted, from a doctorate thesis by Pro
fessor Mansur Fahmy (Cf. ante. Chapter ill) and added: Moslems
have realized the need of reforming their customs and the condi
tions of their social life. And, in this reform, the condition
of woman is in the Front rank of. importance."
- 8 5 Many are like the father who was filling out the appli-^
cation for his daughter to enter a Mission school. He crossed
out from the■agreement the words "the religious lessons." On
being questioned he said, "She is a Muslima, therefore the Chris-'
tan lessons are unnecessary." •
"But did you not ask that she receive the character lessons
for which the school stands?"
"Yes, yes,.that is what I want."
"Here in our Bible is the basis.of that teaching. Without
the revelation,of God which we have here and in Jesus Christ
of whom it tells we have nothing different from others."
He weighed the matter carefully. Further explanation was
made. Then, happily and with his own pen, he wrote in again the
words which he had crossed out? "The earnest desire for better- '
ment lies not in man’s head but in his heart." (From Bowman
Lecture to the ophthalmological Society, April 3, I9 3O, by Sir
Arthur Kieth, M.D.,.F.R.S., Bowman, Middle East Window. (London;
Longmans Green and Company, 1942) p.. I5). The heart had won.
2 6 Arthur Jeffry, loc. cit. Dr. Jeffry is formerly of
School of Oriental Studies, American University at Cairo, now of
Columbia University.
123
1. A stirring of new life within the old orthodoxy.
2 . A new intellectualisra, resulting in Western education
and giving birth to heretical sects.
3. A new type of apologetic.
The first, he says, is "little more, than a rehash of the
old," but in it is a new awareness of modern conditions.
Among its. effects is a.flood of literature of all types warning
"the faithful" against the hospitals, schools and publications
of the Christians. At times in recent years this propaganda
has become very bitter and stirred up public fanaticism to .point
of physical danger to some Christians.
The second, a new intellectualism, is evident in the
adoption by Egypt's Muslim government of a modern school pro
gram which she. has been financing at a greatly increasing rate
in recent years, : striving effectively to enforce her Constitu
tion's compulsory school law. But even more significantly the
awakening is evidenced by the changes within Al Adzhar . ’itself .27
Not only were several buildings added to house the newly or
ganized Faculties of Theology, Law and Letters but new studies
were introduced, even at the humiliating cost of having pro
fessors from outside as teachers. Then in 1937 Al Azhar sent her
own students abroad for study, with the plan that they return to
teach in their alma mater.28 These changes must invettably
2 7 Of. Ante, Chapter V, pp. IO8 -IO9
8 8 The (London) Times, "Trend of Moslem Thought, Al Azhar
and the New’ ^0"utlook", January 2 6, 1937, p. xxxiii.
124
affect every part of the Islamic world as thirteen thousand
students return to their homes from this "the brain-center of
Islam."
The third, a new apo]ogetic within Islam, appeared as
result of various pressures from without. Old orthodox leaders
are faced today with new social ideals. There is an alertness on
the part of some leaders which Islam had. not shown in centuries.
For example, in. 1935 Madame Huda Shaarawi, leading
Egyptian-feminist, was speaking in a public/meeting:about
"Present-Day Development of Women Around the World." She de
clared that the first, and outstanding need for Egypt was the -
restriction or abolition of polygamy. Two elderly Azhar leaders
arose and shouted "Long live polygamyI Long live the law of
Islam!" It was expected that the audience of over a thousand
people would echo their cry. There was an embarrassing silence!
The audience was assenting to this modern-day’Muslim woman who
was informed and gave her reasons in a world which demands
her rightful.place for woman.29 Only a few years previous such
a challenge to Islamic law and custom would not have been dared,
such acquiescence of Egypt’s public would have been impossible,
and no Muslim woman could have had the opportunity for knowing
the facts as this and a goodly number of other Muslim women are
29 E. M. and R. W. Dodd, Mecca and Beyond, (Brattieboro:
The Vermont Printing Company, 1337)7 P*9^~ This: incident is
also recorded in The Moslem World, and by Charles R. , Watson in.
What is This Moslem World?'and by bther writers.
125
knowing nor the preparation for thus effecti.vely informing
others which these have today,30 Neither could the enthusiastic
reception of this audience in American University at Cairo have
been followed by the printing of her address in full in a
leading Cairo paper,, thus carrying it to all the Arab lor speak
ing world.
Thus Egyptian women are demanding and effecting far-reach
ing changes in "orthodox" .Islam;' Egyptian University men and
other leaders of national thinking are questioning the right of
Islam to determine social reform. Polygamy is less preva.lent
because of this change in popular thinking and because of
raised moral standards. It has already been'limited for eco
nomic reasons, if for no other-. 31 In rural districts the cost
of upkeep of another wife may be out-weighed by the work she does ;
she becomes a good investment. ' Yet even there the custom- is
cause of much bitterness, jealousy, scheming and intrigue. Al
though it is not so socially acceptable as a few years ago (and
it certainly is not announced before, the Westerner who is known
to disfavor polygamy) it is far'from extinct. A single Mission
News Letter refers to the difficulties of two school-girls
30 Robert S. McClenahan, Ph.D., Some years president of
Assiut College, then Dean of School of Oriental Studies,
American University at Cairo, personal correspondence, October
26, 1942.
3 1 Sailer, The Moslem Paces the Future, p. 4 3.
126
because of the intrigues of the second wife, and to‘a hospital
patient "the grandson of one of the five wives of a big Bey."32
Pear of her husband’s taking another wife to share the house or
to have, separate -establishment often leads to selfish extrava
gance, to unreasonable.demands, or to conniving to get as much
as possible fob herself age,inst the day of her divorce--for
these twin swords-, polygamy and divorce, hang continually over
her head; they are tenets of the law of Islam.
The Koran’expressly.permits four wives (Sura 4,v.30),
with the addition of female slaves, wife beating (Sura 4,
V. 3 8), seclusion of women (Sura 3 3, v.5 4), and promises to
true believers large-eyed.maidens in Paradise (Sura 5 2,
V.3 0), , . .Lane says that-Egyptians sometimes married
thirty or more wives in the course of ten years.33
Lane in the same place says that he believes that not more
than one husband in twenty has more than two wives. Muslim . .
law courts.in I927 reported less than, five per cent practicing
polygamy,3^ and others claim the,t it is found only among the
older generation. Sailer points out that individual Muslim
women have been well educated and that "in Muslim home-life
there has been real affection,"35 but it is not these individual
32 May, 1 9 4 2. ’
53 T.H.P.Sailer, The Moslem Faces the Future, (Printed in
USA:Missionary Education Movement of United States and Canada,
• 1 9 2 6), p. 4 3 with E. W. Lane, An Account of the Manners arid Cus-
toms of. the Modern Egyptians, (London: J.M.Dent and Sons . LimiTed,
No. 3T5, ' Everyman’s Library , I9 2 3. First published,I9 3 6;, p.188.
' Boktor, op. cit., p. 41.
35 Sailer, op. cit., p. 43.
127
cases which have stirred Muslim women themselves to demand
reform! After speaking of child-marriage, of many child-births
with death following for most babies in infancy, of polygamy
and of divorce, Dr‘ . Charles Watson says.f
All those who have.caught glimpses of Moslem womanhood
at its best--with its deeps of love and loyalty, its
unutterably sweet motherly spirit, its endowment for
sympathy and service, its unmeasured capacity for [p.48]
patience and suffering--will long to see these blighting
shadows removed.3 6
These are the’ things which are spurring Muslim; women: to fight
against the tenets of outdated theology or social usage.% Both
in the attacks on Christianity [by Islamic leaders] and in the
defense of Islam there is a valiant attempt to adapt the-new
arguments to modern circumstances."37 .
A notable example of this new apologetic is the explana
tion given’ for the undeniable facts of their Prophet'^s polygamy:
Marriage is the most important of all man’s relationships. It
was necessary that in this so important matter he give his
example in greatest detail. Therefore, in Khadija he had a
wife older than himself, in Aisha one younger than himself,
and in each of his many other wives a type of different possible
wive s. 38
36 Charles R. Watson,'What is this Moslem World? (New
York: Friendship Press, I9 3 7), pp."iT7-481
37 Arthur Jeffry, loc. . cit., p. 3 0 7.
38 Loc. cit.
128
Also it is known tha^t* the traditional seclusion of
women was called forth by an unfortunate experience which
Mohammed had with one of his wives.39 But today reformers
seek to justify the new freedom for-women-as being in' the
spirit of Al Koran--while leaders of Al Azhar decry national
leaders who advocate it140
Two decades ago Al Azhar leaders condemned -"the short
. . .bright dresses in which women are now seen walking in the
streets," and declared that it is contrary .to the law of the
Islam for women to appear on the stage.But even Al Azhar
cannot stop Egyptians on the march with time. In 1935 Egypt
began producing her own films in Arabic. With a German direc
tor and two foreign technicians, but all Egyptian actors, Egypt’s
first picture, ”E1 Wedad", was produced and -later shown in
L o n d o n . ^ 2
The conclusion one comes to, from the study of these
works of modern apologetic is that perhaps the greatest
contribution Christianity can make toward the solution of
the present problems of Islam is education. It is Western
education that has caused the already enormous advances
from the old position, and it seems very clear that larger
: doses of that same, thing will reveal how untenable the
present positions are. Christianity has nothing to fear
39 Sailer, op, cit., p. 44.
Woodsman, Moslem Women Enter a New World, p. 3 8O;
Stauffer, ' From the Near Eas~t, p. 52 , and . o the r author it ie s.
4i Sailer, op. cit., p. II3, referring to The Moslem. World,
January 1922, p. 86ff, 90ff, and Current History. MagazineJanu-
ary 1924, p. 1 1 0 0. •
^be (London) Times, January 26, 1937, p. xxxvii,
"Films in Arabic."
leg
from the fullest exposure of the light of modern knowledge.
Islam has everything to fear, and, let it he said, every
thing to gain.4 3
The Muslim world in her attempt to be related to the
twentieth century is led by some radics.ls who discredit the
authority of Islam as a socio-religious system. They are not
proposing to destroy it as à personal religion, so long as it
does dnot interfere"with their national development. This is
outstandingly true in Turkey, Egypt has not undertaken such
sudden reforms as did Turkey. She has been more moderate. The
attitude of progressive women leaders in Egypt seems to be that
Islam may just make the'best of it, but that they intend to go
ahead. And they are doing so with 'dignity and confidence
It is the less radical of these leaders who seek to find in the
seventh century system germs of the twentieth century social
advance and to harmonize the emancipation of women with the
spirit of the Koran.^5 Kasim Amin, Judge in the High Court of
Appeal, worked for the emancipation of women despite all
obstacles set by Al Azhar leaders and the K h e d i v e . ^6 gnt today
^3 Jeffry, loc. cit., p. 3 2I*
Robert S. McClenahan, writing out of years of associa
tion with Egyptian leaders, personal correspondence, October 26,
1942, -
-45 Jeffyy, loc. cit.
46 Amine Youssef, op. cit., p. 45.
130
the modern interpretation of the Koran for which he was
censured and condemned is not counted extreme.47■ He was a
pioneer in the field and paid the price of pioneers.
Leaders who have come in contact with Christian schools
and life and literature, are trying to interpret the Koran in
the light of Christianity, even though the interpretation may be
at variance with the text. This tendency has been noted es -
pecially with regard to plural wives and the seclusion of women.
[There is a] desire to liberate woman and make her
equal to thë man in social status and individual rights,
though it is declared in the Koran that in. inheritance
the man’s , share is twice the woman’s, and she is a slave
to the man^.and that when she comes to maturity she must
not appear'even before her relatives, must not attend the
place of worship with a man, and must not take the leader
ship or control of any affair.48
This is attributed largely, to Chifetian influence from the West,■
and to "a desire to. emulate the best Christian' womanhood. "49
The control ' . o f . religion as an iron-clad system of rules
and traditions has been caled in question. A more indi-
vidual interpretation is finding expression. This. . .has
deeply affected life as a whole, but especially the life
and thought of women. They have shared the desire for
greater religious independence.50 .
47 Wood8mall, Moslem Women Enter a New Worldp. 3 8O.
48 Mitry Dewairy, in Stauffer, Voices from the Near East,
p. 8 3. Also Loutfri Levonian Moslem Mentality, (London: George
Allen and Unwin, Limited, I9 2 8 ) " , where ' " l e y " " quotations from their
own writings he lets Muslims tell their own ideas about these and
related subjects.
49 Mitry Dewairy, loc. cit.
50 Woodsmall. Eastern Women Today and Tomorrow, (Brattle -
boro : The Vermont Printing Company, I9 3 3); ppl 9 6- 9 7.
131
Muslim Women and Prayer, There is no encouragement for
Muslim women to pray. Rules for the five -times-a-day prayer,,
are such that it is next to impossible for a young wife and
mother to be. ceremonially clean.5^ It is said that some of the
older women do pray in this way though the writer has never
known specifically that any did. When a Christian Bible-woman
visits in a Muslim h&me in city or village, if there has been a
time of special spiritual fellowship it is not unusual for her,
or even one of them, to suggest prayer of the thanksgiving-petition
type. They use an entirely different word to designate these two.
Prayer of this second type is very real to them and seems to
be free to all, even with the Muslim conception of Allah, although
the women,- at least, are given no leadership in finding it. They
may just find some approach to Allah themselves if they can.
Of-course there are no women in the mosque when the men
are there; their charms or dress might divert the worshipper’s
attention from his pious homage. Rarely, indeed do women
attend the mosque, though the demand for doing so and for
permission of the authorities is being more and more notice-'-
able in"our day, due to the hew spirit, the claim of rights
and a new status for women. But it is still innovation and
impious, a dangerous although perhaps an'inevitable inno
vation. $3
5 1 Annie Van Sommer and S. M. Zwemer, Our Moslem Sisters,
(New York: Fleming H. Reveil Company, I9 0 7), p. 29.
52 Cf. Post, Chapter VI, p. I3 6.
53 R. S. McClenahan, The Moslem World, Vol. xxxii. Nos.2,
April 1 9 4 2.
132
Is this Islam? So we find- that through the long cen
turies Egypt’s women under Islam were denied the life-enriching
things. Then a multiplying of foreign contacts and. of Chris
tian ideals and service fired Muslim, peoples again with a crea
tive ability.which they had long forgotten. That part of the
Muslim world most influenced seems to have roused from an apathy
of.centuries to defend herself. Her social organization is
■ being-altered largely by Muslim leaders to conform to Western
, standards, in marriage, laws, in home-life, in education, in
general social place of women in the life of the-people.
"Islam lies at the basis of Egyptian society and it is
on the future of Islam that the future of Egypt depends."54
Well may we ask is this new Egypt Muslim? Has the newness.of
life that has come to Egypt’s women come from the faith of Islam
or from the God-implanted gifts inspired by motives and ideals
■*iich He gave to them through another channel than Islam? It
certainly did not happen through the centuries that Islam had
full sway there in Egypt. Out of many years of study and of
intimate knowledge of Islam in Egypt has come this seasoned
evaluation:
There is scarcely another country whose history
affords us a better opportunity for judging Islam than
does Egypt. Here is a -land where Islam has had a free
hadd to reveal what was best in it. Here the Moslem
54 Sidney Low, Egypt in Transition (New York: The
Macmillan Company, I9 1 4), p. 297.
13 3
rulers exercised their will with absolute authority,
and after the middle of the ninth century,,the majority
of the population was Moslem. Here too, ample time was
given for the -development of any ideals of individual
life, of social life,.of philosophy, science or art, of
state and national life, that Islam was capable of. For
twelve centuries, Islam held undisputed sway,- and twelve
centuries afford time enough for even a world movement
to display its merits and show its worth, Egypt also
lay near to Arabia, the cradle of Islam. It was not as
if Islamic thought and life and civilization hdd become
. alienated^from a true Islamic type through distance, as
■ in China. Here too, was a rich province, the garden of the
world, whose development afforded rare opportunity for
building up under wise government a nation whose prosperity
would contribute to her institutions of learning, art,
religion, and statecraft. This was no poverty-stricken
country, as Arabia, whose .'only life must be a struggle for
existence. Here too*, was a country whose people showed -
capacity for great deeds as well as,great learning. It
was not like dealing with a savage or barbarous race,
without attainment ■ or capacity,. • If ever -Islam may be
judged fairly it must be by her record in the .Nile Valley.
Egypt lay at the hand of Islam like 8 , rare marble at the
hand of a sculptor, ready to be wrought upon according to•
the full measure of his skill. It must be confessed that
the results are disappointing.55
As we have indicated many Muslim leaders themselves in Egypt are
indicating their own disappointment with their heritage as it
has come to them, and are effecting reform. They have admitted
» . -
that in no phase of the, people’s life has that ' disappointment
been more devastating than in the place which women have
occupied in the national society, that with' one-half of the
55 Dr. Charles R. Watson was born -in Egypt, was for some
years Foreign Secrefery of the United Presbyterian Church, and
since 1919.Is President of American University at Cairo. The
quotation is from in the Valley of the Nile, (New York; Fleming
H. Revell Company,“T9ÜBT, “"ppT^H^^4 .
134.
population deprived of its fullest development there could be
no fullness of life.
Because of circumstances beyond her control Egypt has
now allowed that■this new idealism begin a penetration of her
whole system. It .has taken on something of Eastern Character-
istics. These Egyptian women leaders today are definitely not
Westerns, but, as definitely, they are not women of the old
Islam:. They are themselves--their true selves, as disclosed
by new ideals set operative in their lives. Thirteen centuries
of Islam did not accomplish this in Egypt’s women.. Only as there
came contacts' from outside Islam did her womanhood spring into
this newness of life, into s.ssnming rights as individuals in
home— and national-building. Now it becomes evident that these
women of Egypt have no small contribution to make to the New
Egypt:.
Superstitions. "The Egyptians are very superstitious,
indeed superstition might almost be called the religion of
feminine Egypt."56 This is particularly true of the masses who
are utterly untaught in the fundamentals of whatever religion
they profess. Belief in afareet, ginn, evil spirits, and
guardian angels holds them in constant fear. Charms against
56 Elizabeth Cooper, Women of Egypt (London: Hurst and
Blackett, Limited, I9 1 4), p. 299; aXso Anne Van Sommers and
S.M. Zwemer,- Our Moslem Sisters (New York: Gleming H. Revell
Company, 1 9 0 7), p. 5 2; "Superstition might almost be called the
religion of modern Egypt." •
135
these are found everywhere--on the cars, the donkeys, the camels,
and often a whole string of charms quite weighs down the infant.
For these amulets poor people often pay large prices. Because
of the new health-teaching through recent years progressive
mothers in the towns often have a blue veil over baby’s face to
protect them from the flies (Is the blue signlfleant?) but the
charms persist. The blue bead or. coin tied to baby’s forelock
to keep off the evil eye, amulets or bags of seeds blest by some
sheikh or sheikha (holy man or woman), or writing from the Koran
or from some Christian saint remain "an einevitable part" of
the- dress of the poorer child of city or rural residence.57
"The belief in their efficacy is unquestioned", heritage not
of decades but of centuries, an integral part of the life of
the East, and most particularly of the feminine East.38 pr.
Zwemer in his The influenceoof Animism on Islam and Studies in
Popular Islam and Miss Blackman in Fellahin of Upper Egypt,
have given much detail of practices and beliefs common in Egypt,59
Many of these are not. peculiar to the Muslim,' but to. the Copt
as well, and the Copt adds yet other prac tic es bound in super
stition. Muslims and Copts are alike left to grope unguarded '
57 Cf. Ante, Chapter IV, Woodsmall quotation, p. 8 3.
58 Quoted phrases are from Woodsmall, Moselm Women Enter
a New World, p. 278, as she also describes what is prevalent in
villages, markets, trains, and even in Christian church services
among the humbler folk who have not yet grasped the new teachings.
59- Samuel W. Zwemer, The Influence of A nimism on Islam
(New York: The Macmillan Company, 1 9 2 0) andnstudies Th'^opular
Islam, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1939)7 WihiTredBlackman,
The Fellahin of Upper Egypt (Edinburgh: Neill and Company, Limited,
First pübrishëïï*," London: George Harrap and Company, Ltd., I9 2 7).
136
in spiritual darkness. Sneezing and dreams are counted signs
from a spirit-world and even the most educated often fear the
evil-eye, especially for their children. Mrs. Cooper cites an
Oxford graduate and a medical doctor each of whom indicated
that emanations from the human eye may have evil effect .on.the
child, especially with the evil intent of the one who looks.6C
Incantations and magic are resorted to on countless occasions and
fatalism’s chill cold grasp chokes any-initiative which might
have survived the ravages of disease. Untaught Christian mothers
in some villages use Muslim names for their children, hoping thus
to thwart the evil spirits that their children may live.61 Others
christen with neutral names'to assure against discrimination in
Government school examinations or in getting a job.^2 it requires
long and patient teaching to replace trust in these by intelli
gent observance of the Heavenly-Father..’s laws of hygienic, whole
some living.
Women and Girls in the Evangelical Church Program.
An Egyptian pastor once asked a missionary friend why church
women seem to be better leaders and workers in the church program
60
Cooper, op. cit. , p. 3 0 7.
6 1 A personal letter from an Egyptian who had moved to
a new district in the Delta and found this practice common. It
is true elsewhere.
62 Fashionable names include Muarice, Edouard, Alice,
Susanne; patriotic names are Fuad, Faroiik, Pareeda, Fowzeya,
Faiza, etc.
137
than the men. Her answer was that more of the women had been
educated in Mission schools and had seen and' known Christian
women both Egyptian and foreign at work. 6 3 Leadership training
of the school missionary and Christian Endeavor societies has
been noted, Christmas and Thankoffering gifts, making garments
for needy ones, conducting worship-and-teaching services for
those in neglected communities, have all provided opportunity
for directed Christian service during formative years.
The annual Thankoffering season is for Evangelical Church
women the biggest event of the Church year. Not only.do girls
in the schools participate, and the women who assemble regularly
in the church, but all the pupils of -the Bible-teachers-in-the
homes hear about it. When it is the "turn" of the local district
to be hostess to "The Big Meeting" of the whole Presbyterial
large numbers of these friends in the immediate community and
many from smaller centers of work throughout the district eagerly
share in the- day of devotion, inspiration and fellowshipIn
many village• centers a Thankoffering meeting has led to regular
meetings, then to a missionry society, A number of Egyptian
6 3 Mrs. J. W. Acheson, personal correspondence, April
1 3 , W 3 .
84 The Presbyterial Thankoffering meeting was to be in
the farthest corner of the,area. The women of Minia district
decided to have their own convention, first, so that more members
of their eighteen village societies might attend. Among those
who provided the inspirational program of the day was a woman
who three years before had not been able to read, but who through
the ministry of volunteer workers (Egyptian girls) had come not
only to a fuller knowledge of Christ but to a realization of her
138
pastors are only beginning to realize the possibilities in
Egypt’ 8 womanhood.
The Women’s Missionary Societies are the women of the
church at work, the girls’ missionary societies in the schools
are the women of tomorrow in training. These societies are
under missionary supervision but trained Egyptian women carry
an increasing share of responsibility. 8 5 So the 3,953 members
of seventy-eight societies in l9 4o8 6 though a very small part of
Egypt’s total population of sixteen millions, are yet making a
real impression on the social life of Egypt, quite aside from
any religious implications. For, wherever there are schools
for girls, and women sharing in church activities, 8? it means
64 (continued) ' ’
own powers. A pastor said afterward, "When an Egyptian village
woman wearing her long black shawl can get up in a city church
and give a message like that it bespeaks a new day for the church
in Egypt." -
6 5 Cf. post. Chapter VI, p. 147.
86 Foreign Missions Handbook, 1941 (Printed in U.S.A.:
United Presbyterian Church of North America), p. 5I.
8 7 In most missionary societies of church women it is the
younger women only who are able to preside, to keep the roll and
minutes and to take part in the programs. Often the older women,
though willing and devout, have been uneducated and could not
carry on a society alone. Though they are faithful in attendance
and sh^are in the worship they are proud to have their daughters
take the lead. Yet effort is made to find something that even
the humblest of these can do to make the meeting her very own.
One society had some forty members responding to roll-call with
favorite Scripture verses, most of them rising in their places
and speaking so that all could hear and share in its previousness.
Another had many members bringing friends with them to the meetings
of worship and instruction. One woman took it upon herself to
teach certain neighbors to read the Bible, that they might have
139
greater freedom for all women of the community.88 number
of congregations of the Evangelical church saw the important
ministry of Mission schools as they trained pupils for effective
Christian life and service. .They therefore established their
own schools for boys and for girls where Missions had not done
s o. 69
6 7(continued)
it as daily instruc tion and help. In a more service -minded group
members, take turns holding Christian services for women in neigh
boring villages where they have no church. When told of women
and children in. other lands they gladly-remember th#m in prayer
and in gifts. In all the teaching there is emphasized the need
of a Savior from the power of sin, of God dwelling in the heart,
the importance of living "in the Christ way" in home and family
life and with the neighbors. Egyptian Bible-women are the
patient leaders of their Egyptian sisters to this wider interest
and many of their pupils in the homes attend such special services
as the annual Thankoffering program.
68 Mrs. Acheson, (Cf. Ante, Chapter V,p.l^tells of a wealthy
Coptic woman in Upper Egypt who pled with the missionaries to open
a school for - girls in the large village, where she was married
that by the freedom of school-girls it might become acceptable
for her, brought up in Luxor with greater freedoms, at least to
go out in her carriage by daylight.
8 9 Some congregations began as small Mission schools then
later assumed support of their school, How, one hundred and fifty
schools are owned and operated by Egyptian Protes tants. (Cf.
general letter. Dr. Glenn P. Heed, Foreign Secretary of the Board
of Foreign Missions of the United Presbyterian Church, dated
April 27, 1943).
For a number of years Synod requested the aid of a missionary
as Inspector for these schools thrbughout the seven-hundred-mile
valley. He has now retired in America but his Egyptian assistant
carries on ably. In recent years' a number of these schools, ori
ginally for boys only, found that admission of aspiring girls
really improved discipline and quality of work done. (Cf. personal
letter. Dr. A. A. Thompson, the Inspector just mentioned^ December
4, 1942).
One congregation had for perhaps a dozen years- loan of a
missionary superintendent for their girls’ school. They provided
living apartment for her as well as full staff and equipment for
the school of some two hundred and fifty girls. Other schools.
which originally belonged to the Mission have been turned over to
Congregational management.
140
Leadership-training in the Mission schools was not merely
for dlcasroom teaching. The center of the Christian message was
never forgotten. The Lord’s Day was the special time set
apart for worship of Him and for special service in His name.
Worship in the Evangelical churches is usually at eight or
eight-thirty Sunday mornings so the men may attend before going
to work in the Government offices at ten o’clock.* Then, for many
years, volunteer groups have gone from Mission schools, to hold
a simple Gospel service. Some to prisons, some to a Home for -
the blinc, others deprived of a regular Christian, ministry.
Some go to distant village places, some a-foot and some by car.70
Congregations have grown from these humble beginnings under
Egyptian leadership, much of which .is done by women teachers
and by school-girls.
Daily Vacation Bible Schools. Since I9 2 9 Egyptian teachers
and pupils of both boys’ and girls’ schools have devoted some
weeks of the summer vacation to passing on some of the good things
which they have enjoyed in schools to less fortunate children
of the land. With a minimum of foreign supervision these volun
teer workers present lessons in "the three R’s", also songs and
stories of Bible, truth, with practical application of these to
70 Men from at least one congregation have done such
sharing on Friday which is the Government holiday when educated
men are free from their office work.
141
daily living. They give memory verses and songs to he kept
always, and temperance and health lessons are often presented
with graphic demonstration. Human-interest stories could be
multiplied regarding these Egyptian teachers, their pupils,
and communities thus "brought into touch with the Bible and
given their first contact with working, living Christianity."
In 1 9 4 2, despite the uncertainties, with Axis armies inside
Egypt’s borders, fifty-four such schools enrolled 2 0 0 3 pupils'.
These schools were conducted by II9 Egyptian' workers, a large,
percentage of whom were Egyptian girls thus c'oluntarily assum
ing leadership. 71 - . .
Inter-Church Fellowship. The World Day of Prayer is a
contribution of Christian women to the world church. Through
-Egyptian women it is aiding a richer fellowship among Egyptian
Christians. The program prepared by women for this annual
united interdenominational abservance is taken by.a committee
of Mission and Egyptian women and adapted to local conditions.
Announcements are circulated weeks ahead in Arabic. Publici.ty
is given through the Women’s Missionary Society section of
AlhHuda, the Evangelical Church paper. (Many different Egyp-
'tian women contribute articles for this paper.) The program
71 Quotation from Foreigri Miss ions Handbook, lg41, p. I5
Other items are from Miss Mary L. Thompson, Women's Mis si onary
Magazine, Vol.. 4 3, - No. 8, March 1930, p. 459 and Miss Anna !b.
Criswell, Ibid., vol. 5 6, No. 7, March 1943^ p. 412.
142
of the day Is observed In girls’ schools, In women’s missionary
societies, in village centers of women’s work, and in some
cases by full congregations. Many who cannot attend group
meetings follow- in their homes the program prepared for'the
round-the-world remembrance. In I9 3 8 almost nine-thousand.people
were in reported meetings. It -was known that some Coptic,
Armenian and Greek groups also observed the day and program.
Women of Egypt are growing in conscious fellowship with Chris
tian women the world around.
Weekly Bible Schools of the Evangelical Church. In many
Evangelical Church congregations the Sunday School is held in
the afternoon. It is seldom restricted to the brief hour
allotted in most American churches. School boys and girls are
an important part of the enrollment. In most congregations,
even today, the teachers are chiefly those of the"Mission or
church school. In smaller centers they alone are often the
only ones prepared in heart and mind for such leadership. Many'
of these are eager to grow for richer service.72
■ 72 Following a district conference of Christian workers
a group of women teachers approached their superintendent, ask
ing that, they might have a training class for help in their
Bible School work. Five of their number had only received the
formal preparation of the six or seven years in their own local
school. So each week from February to June the teachers met
with their superintendent.after school on Tuesdays. Each had
studied the Sunday School lesson assigned for the next Lord’s
Day, keeping in mind the question: "What new do I find in the
old story'for myself?" As these findings were shared, methods
of presenting them and the old truths to various age-groups were
discussed and planned, adapting to each child’s need. It was
definitely the teacher’s own meeting, and a time of recreation
for all. Thus, according to each group’s needs and according
to local conditions, leaders grow as they lead, and lead as they
gr ow.
143
Youth Groups. One hundred thirty-two Christian Endeavor
Societies and like groups have 4340 members.73 Probably none
are more full of interest than the Society which meets in
American Mission Building, Ezbekieh, Cairo. It was originally
organized back in the last century. Succeeding student genera
tions have learned not only to enjoy each other, as they fellow
ship in Christ, but in this and in the picnics at the Pyramids
and elsewhere they are building for happiness in tomorrow’s
world. Egypt’s young women do not fall short when thus given
a chance in Christian cooperation, and a growing number are
granted that opportunity today.74 Youthful leaders from such
groups become teachers and pastors. Government employees and
business people. By far the most of these become fathers and
mothers in their various places. But they are mothers with
richer ambitions for their sons and especially for. their
daughters, mothers with understanding of foods and home-comfort
for their families, with companionship for their husbands, and
helpfulness, not self-seeking. They are fathers who have seen
73 Foreign Missions Handbook, 1942 p. 16.
74 This meeting is typical of World War II days: Presid
ing and Scripture reading were by an-Egyptian girl in English
learned in the-Mission school. Hearty singing was followed
by a period of prayer which was "like a pop-corn meeting", so
eagerly was it shared by youth talking with God in English, in
Arabic, and in a language of India. The special speaker wore a
United States Army uniform and brought greetings from a San
Francisco Christian Endeavor group. The discussion was partick
pated in by young people from Scotland, New Zealand, Ireland,
England and America (Reported by Miss Mabel MeMichael.in The
Christian Union Herald, May 8, 1943, Vol. 6 3^ No. I9 . . PiFfs-
burgh : On i ted i P r e sby Fe'r i an Board of Publication and Bible School
World, p. 1 7).
144
evidences of real love in mission homes and desire the same
In their oyn and for their sons and daughters. These home -
happy people have much to give In community service, rich con
tributions toward the building of a new and better Egypt.75
Having found their own personal Savior they seek further en^
rlchment for their own lives and for their, neighbors’, also
for. the correction of social wrongs wherever they are found.7^
One of the greatest results of Christian missionary efforts
in Egypt, as elsewhere, has been these trained leaders In
thought, an Influential number of. whom are women In the Evan
gelical Church.
’ ’ Women’s Side" and Church' Music.. It may be unfortunate
that the Evangelical Church,. like the Copts from whom most of
them came early placed women in another room or behind a cur
tain away from the men.77 Many, If not most of the city
75 Cf. Ante, Chapter'IV, p. 84.
7^ "in the-first century", says Harnack, "the most
numerous and successful missionaries of the Christian religion
were not the regular teachers but Christians themselves In vir
tue of their loyalty and courage. . . .It was character1stlac
of this re^JEglon that everyone who seriously confessed the faith
proved of service to its propaganda." In other words, the early
Christians [p.105] began to preach at their own doors (Zwemer,
Harnack’s Mission and Expansion Vol. I, pp. 536—337)• In the
early days of missions in Korea (Chosen) one condition of ad
mission to church membership was that the convert had already
won someone else to Christ (Samuel Zwemer, Into All the World--
The Great Commission, A Vindication and An înterpretatTon
{Tîrand Rapids, Michigan : Zdhd e rvan PubTlsTilng House, 1943, PP.
104-105.) It was not so specified In the Egyptian Evangelical
Church as condition of membership, but practical Christian wit
ness In dally living has been emphasized.
145
congregations have now removed the curtain hut women keep
mostly to thelroown side of the room. Such segregation will
doubtless disappear entirely as education penetrates and as
there is acceptanceoof the richer Ideals for owmanhood, home -
life and companionship of husband, wife and children.78
A large factor In breaking down this separation has
been the essential place which singing has had In the whole
Evangelical Church program, : Even where there.have been dis
tinct separations between men’s and women’s sides of the church
there has been attempt at following the same leader In songs
of Christian worship. In more recent years, especially where
there is some foreign leadership, there have been church choir§
usually school girls or boys. One Cairo congregation has a
choir of both young men and girls, who for some years have
been singing In front of the congregation.
In one congregation where missionaries and teachers
aided the girls In leading the congregational singing, on the
death of a dearly loved elder of the congregation this group
was asked to provide music. Music at a funeral in Egypt
(certainly in this part) was an Innovation. The church was
packed, an estimated six hundred people, Copts and Muslims
uniting to honor their friend. Promises of the Christian
Gospel were sung, the girls In school uniform (which were not'
78 Cf. Ante, V-20, American University Lecture Hall.
146
black). There was no wailing at that funeral. At the very-
close the outburst of an old-school woman was quickly hushed
by Egyptian women. A day or so later the widow recalled with
thankfulness the singing at the funeral service. "Why, it was
just like a wedding, rejoicing!' And we must rejoice with him '
for he was gone to be with his Lord." This was particularly
remarkable as, when they were married perhaps thirty years be
fore, she was quite untaught In the Christian faith, and all
her family still follow the traditional customs. Even his
daughter by an earlier, marriage would have followed-the tradi
tional shrieking and wailing, but there was none of that allowed
in. all the days of customary mourning. The widow especially
requested that there be those present who would teach the friends
who came, of the Christian hope.
Thus, wherever Mission schools, or church schools, or
Vacation Bible Schools or Temperance workers of Egyptian Bible-
Teachers-In-the-homes,79 have gone, the Christian message has
been carried In song. Many could join with the Muslim lad, now
3,n Evangelical Church pastor, who testifies: "The first thing
that attracted me to Christianity was the s i n g i n g . "^0 Uncounted
79. Cf. Post, Chapter VI, p. 147-
Davida Finney, Tomorrow’s Egypt (Pittsburgh: Women’s
General Missionary Society, 1939)/ P- l2$. '
147
are the women and girls In the Nile Valley who have gone from
Evangelical Church and school influence to their homes singing
in heart and life (either literally or In meaning):
Christ living in me. That others may know
Others His beauty may see; Christ, living in me.
Sealed by His .Spirit, Abundant life there will be;
His likeness will show, Christ, myself and others.
I’ll witness for Him We’ll build for eternity. 8l
The New Bible-Woman for the New Egypt. Outstanding
among women of the Evangelical Church are the Egyptian Bible -
teachers-who-visit-in-the-homes. These went early to the women.
By ixnderstanding and love they comforted, strengthened, directed,
thus■interpreting God’s word "love". They have thus played an
important role In improving the status of large numbers of Egyp
tian women extending far beyond the Evangelical Church Itself.
The Need. Egyptian women, Christian as well as Muslim,
have lived for centuries in seclusion. Often there is little
difference between them today. Each group guards jealously Its
name of Christian or Muslim, yet not Infrequently a Muslim woman
will explain with pride, "My grandfather was a Christian."
It seems, to be a sort of assurance, "You’ve- really come to your
own people and we welcome-you.” Each group celebrates Its own
feasts--but surprisingly much of the detail is the same--
81 Alice S. Heinz, words and music, Theme Song, Forty-
third National Young People’s Christian UnlÊn Convention of United
Presbyterian Church of North American, taken to Egypt and loved ■
by various of the Church groups there as sung in English or In •
Arabic.
148
approximate dates, ritual, new dresses, rich foods, gaiety.
They they settle hack again into the drabness of everyday, like
the soil of which they seem to be a part. Though there are ex
ceptional grand souls among them who have weathered the storms
of life and come up smiling, for the vast majority the utter
bareness of things intellectual, spiritual, sanitary, construc
tive,-. for themselves and for their families. Is one. In Chris
tian and Muslim homes. There Is nothing but living in the
physical--working, eating, sleeping, having babies, and an
occasional feast. And, in seclusion from all that would up
lift and enrich, the great majority of these women-live, today.
It is because of this need of Egypt’ s women that the
Egyptian visitors in the homes were of the earliest Mission
workers. They are trained not to serve the Mission but to be
contributing members in the Evangelical Church, leading their
sis ter-Egyptians individually toward a new life in Christ Jesus,
ministering to spiritual and physical needs of others whom they
may be able to.contact. -
Early Workers. In the beginning these Egyptian Chris
tians called in the homes with the missionary. At first only
the widows and the blind who had been more or less outcast by
their families were permitted to enter this work. With God’s
love in their hearts they went to comfort the sorrowing, to help
those in sickness and distress, to bring cheer to the discouraged.
149
When the missionary went on to another village these women con
tinued to visit, to lift thoughts to the God who cares. It
was easy, even somewhat of a distinction, to go with this foreign
woman in her strange hut accepted freedom. But it took real
courage to go alone, past groups of gazing and commenting men;
sometimes the menfolk forbade their women to admit such ^’street-
gadders" with their talk which must surely be disruptive and
provocative of new Ideas. But the true leader then-, as now, won
the respect of the whole community.
Mournings. It has long been the custom in Egypt when
there is a death for women friends to come from far and near to
sit in black robes on the floor. On the third, seventh, fifteenh
and fortieth days they weep and wail together. Often professional
mourners who demand a -liberal fee come to stir up the emotions
of the grieving wife or mother. Such demonstration is supposed
to indicate the degree of esteem held for the departed. The
friends pause occasionally and exchange neighborhood news, then
the*paid mourners. Invited or not, set them walling again,
beating their breasts and tearing their hair. Some save them
selves a part of the bo the r by using indigo as substitute for
black-and-blue flesh, hoping thus to deceive the evil spirits.
Mournings seem to be one form of social life permitted
some women who are otherwise kept in strict seclusion. Many
women not only spend previous days in going from one mourning
150
to another, or grieving over their own.loss, hut have actually
wept themselves into blindness. They have ruined their health
as well as happiness. They have ruined their health as well
as happiness. Few of the older women ever wear colors, but
are continually in deep black, for one relative after another.
Long-years ago Mission workers felt that the best com
fort to these who mourn is God’s offer of light and jlife and
peace. Therefore they quieted the mourners and read or ex
plained to them the way of life in the risen Savior. Some of
the Bible-women have spent a large part of their time thus
ministering to crowds of women. The women listen with wrapt'
attention, and are glad for "the talk of God" to think about
as they go to their homes. Many have thus found peace.
The graphic way In which these Eastern women open the
Word of God to their sisters Is often revelation to those from
the West of the ^astern-ness of the Bible, and, even more, of
the Christ’s ability to supply heart-needs no matter how deep,
of that in the Christian faith which.distinguishes from all
other faiths on earth--its ability to reach even to the lowest
being and by its transforming power to make a new creature;
for the Egyptian Bible-women who has found new life through
the Savior revealed In that Book loves her people, presents a-
message pregnant with new joy and power for every day.
Regular lessons for study. But the work of these teachers
in the homes is not "all talk." As the women gained confidence
. 151
in the teacher, systematic lessons in the homes wee^e begun,
the teacher going to the pupils week by week, 82 incidental
ins truc tion is given in child-care and, training, in health and
home-making. Increasing the benefits to the whole, family.
Neighbors and friends of the pupils are expected to share in as
much af the lesson as possible. Thus the helpfulness is ex
tended. Practical application is always made of the stories as
read and of passages memoralzed to give comfort and strength
when no human teacher Is at hand to help. Pupils learn to read
the Bible to test for themselves by this, the record of Chris
tian authority, things which they are taught from other sources
The Bible-women goes to the home, not as a condescending
one to teach ignorant folk; but as a friend who; loves them and
who has One to share with them as FRIEND.
The Bible.Training ‘ School. Early missionaries realized
the almost limitless variety of individual problems which the
teacher In the homes must help the women to meet. As was the
case with teachers for the schools, at first the missionary
trained her own helpers, trained them In the situation. But
as the work grew opportunities widened and it became evident
that a central training school was needed.
8 2 Many of the slxty-one Bible-women with the American
Mission in 1939 had regular pupils studying assigned Bible
lessons. Figure Is from 8lst Annual Report of the Board of
Foreign Missions, May 1940, at Buffalo'^ New' York, which gives
figures' dated "December 3I, I9 3 9, p. 2 2.
152
This school was begun early in the twentieth century by
Miss Minnehaha Finney of the American Mission. It has grown
In scope, effective study and methods of work; under leadership
of American and Egyptian staff. No effort has been made toward
a large Institution, but -thoroughness and spiritual building in .
the lives of.-those who attend the school have been the goal,
that these.in turn may be trainers of leaders In the communities
to which they go. In the beginning, some entered this school
with-devoted hearts but with little or no previous school train-
.ing. Now, no less emphasis is laid on the necessity of being '
"born again", as Jesus required of an Intellectual religious
leader in His day (John 3), but it is also urged that they have
at least a Primary school and preferrably a Secondary school
course-before entering an approximate three-year training period.
Graduating class of 1942 Included one girl from each of two
0ther Missions.^3
As these are to be Christian leaders it is but logical
that the central text-book is the Bible Itself. There are of-
course, Bible Geography and Church History, and some-'knowledge
of the teachings of the various sects which they are likely to
meet In their work, for they must understand how to meet these
lovingly. Health lessons, home-making, including the preparation
83 Minutes of the Seventy-Third Annual Meeting of the
American MFssionIrT^gypt' January 2 -7, 1943, (Cairo; NTle
Mis Sion -"Press), p. 2l. "
153
and cooking of their- own meals, care of their own clothes,
sewing, knitting, crochet, making and making-over garments (this
last a new practice for Egyptians), help these girls to budget
their time and salaries for Kingdom-building, for personal and
family needs. They have recreation Indoors and athletics in
the garden, both for themselves and that they may teach others.
And they sing. When one goes into.homes and villages with no
other leaders of sacred song the importance of this becomes
evident, for Christians of all ages have loved to sing the
Gospel Message. The purpose of the Bible Training School,Is
to .equip well-rounded leaders to help- meet the need of Egypt’ s
women who are yet outside the school-room.
Modern Egypt’s Bible-woman does not enter a community
■ as a mendicant seeking donation in return for which she prays
the blessing of God upon the donor. She is a well-trained pro
fessional woman in a country which is increasingly education- -
.conscious. In a businessr-1 ike yet personal way she presents
the Christ whom she has experienced in heart and life, without
which other messages may be good but are powerless to meet
man’s'and woman’s deepest need, that of a Savior from the guilt
aid power of sin. -
The Message. These trained Egyptian teachers for the
homes have a message and they know how to give it, and when.
"The Feast Is coming. What will you serve to friends in honor
of Him who came that we might have abundant peace and abiding
154.
joy?" Father, brothers, husband, guests at the morning lesson,
converse Interestedly on the evils of social drinking and re
ceive leaflets to share with friends.
In another home Baby has-been sleepless- and fretful
"but how with this nice tea he sleeps nearly all the time." The
teacher asks about the tea. It is made from poppy seeds--strong
opium! Soon the mother, who really loves her baby, is told of
the dangers of "abu.nome" (father of sleep), and is given'help
ful suggestions for food and sleep program, bath and clothes,
and an Inexpensive bed for Baby alone. Sometimes there is a
personally conducted trip to the doctor to learn what else may
be needed, for these teachers are not only bringers of a Gospel
of redemption but of salvation; not mere rescue work, but full
ness- of life .
These things are each part of the wholeness of life in
the Savior who has brought light and peace to the teacher’s
own heart and life, and to many others whom she knows. She
offers His love-gift to each who will accept (Romans 6:23),
and to those who know Him, words of council and strength. Thus
she leads homes closer to the Daily Companion Who will not per
mit trials too heavy to come upon His own,, but provides the Way
whereby each may be victor in Him (I Corinthians 10:1 3).
And the Egyptian is always eager to hear what the heart
of the message. really is, whether he or she chooses to accept it
or not. What Dr. Duncan B. Macdonald of Hartford has written
155
of missionaries is doubly true of Egyptian Christians working
among their own people;
Are the missionaries of the future to be missionaries
of Christ or missionaries of the Christian civilization
of the West? This is the alternative which we face at
present, although it is often disguised behind forms of
words which conceal its real nature and essential impor
tance. Do the missionaries of our'Christian churches go
■ out to proclaim to the world the unique and divine fact ■
of the Inc8.rnation or to carry to the non-Chris tian world
the benefits--educational, medical, generally humanitarian--'
which have grown up in our civilization under the stimulus
and guidance of the Christian faith?,
The whole Eastern, non-Christian world is theologically
minded, and when our missionaries go to them with a non- .
theological temper of mind, they are simply unintelligible.
The East is quite certain that these men know nothing of
religion, that the Divine Spirit has never'[p.I9 0] spoken
to them. They may bring in their hands many useful things
for our present life, here and now; they may be teachers,
physicians, helpers in many ways. . But if they do not come
to proclaim a definite theological teaching which produces
a life-transforming faith they are a puzzle to the Oriental.
Why do they come? What is their motive?' The whole East
understands a theological motive; but when that is obscured
the East is only too ready to impute other and discreditable .
motives.84
Explanation of this theological mission has been the reassuring
answer to many a questioning Easterner in the writer’s experience
Presenting of that message has been the avowed purpose of the
American Mission in Egypt and of teachers whom they have employed
for homes or schools or other phases of their work.
84 ’ ’The Essence of Christian Missions," The Moslem World,
(October, I9 3 2), as quoted by Samuel M. Zwemer, IntoAll the
World (Grand Rapid, Michiga.n: Z onde rvan Publishing House , 1 9 4 3),
pp. 1 8 8,1 8 9-1 9 0.
156
Conferences of Early Bible-Women and Today. It has
been customary to hold summer conferences of those who work in
the homes among the women^' Earlier conferences assembled wor
kers many of whom were "halt., lame., blind and pock-marked" - - 8 0
older women, living and working much as the humble folk of the
village or city among whom they worked. Conservative in many
outward ways, they were yet daring pioneers--for.their very
going from house to house was a breaking of ancient seclusion
customs, and these went even among strangers to give the Gospel
message. That took courage and initiative. Also, they firmly
opposed the hurtful mourning customs, the. drinking of liquor at
special functions and in religious festivals, and many super
stitious practices.
In interesting contrast was the conference of 1942,
marked by its number of young women in attractive modern dress,
indicative of educational preparation and progressive thinking.
Attention and response in classes as well as in extra-programmed
activities, games and singing between sessions, evidenced their
worthiness to be leaders in Egyptfe new day. Teachers from
schools shared in this as in other recent conferences. Also,
workers from two other Missions accepted the invitation and
enthusiastically expressed their desire to be back again.86
8 5 Ruth A. Work, personal correspondence, forty-one years
in Pressly Memorial Institute, Assiut, Egypt.
86 Personal letters from Venna R. Patterson and Ruth A.
Work reported this conference, the latter comparing with ones a
quarter century and more ago.
157
More and more the interests of teachers in the classrooms and
of teachers in the homes merge, as education permeates the middle
and lower economic groups and as girls’ clubs multiply. 87
The New Bible-Woman’s New Opportunlties, Wider contac ts
in the homes. The challenge before the Bible-teacher-in-the-
homes today is even broader than that before the teacher in the
schools of Egypt-. She is not only teacher of the women who de
sire teaching but the new freedom means that when she visits
she is likely to meet other people as well. Doctor, lawyer,
teacher in Government school. Government official, as husband
or other relative, may be present at the lesson-time. With
intelligent interest in his work and in his service to his
country, as Christ’s ambassador she seeks to worthily represent
Him who saves the world through saving individuals. The class
rooms teacher soon knows her pupils who come to her from day
to day. She can prepare ahead of time how .to meet them. But
the teacher in the homes must not only be prepared to meet her
regular pupils but also each of these others - -she knows- not
whom or when or where - -with a practical application of Clirist’s
love. In this multiple contact, the challenge of the homes is
Infinitely wider than that of the classroom.88
8 7 Infra, Chapter VI, p. I58.
88 One of extensive school-teaching experience, mother
of four boys, has said of American Government Welfare work; -
"This hearing tales of suffering and need then helping supply
those needs is the hardest work I ever did in my life--ten times
harder than teaching school." Egyptian Bible-women minister in
158
Girls’ Clubs. Of Increasing importance, because of the
growing freedom granted girls and young women, are clubs for
■girls. Here lies another widening opportunity for the New Bible-
woman.
In every community there are girls of school age whose
parents have not sensed the need' of education for their daughters,
or have felt that need after she was "too big to learn alif-bey
(the alphabet) with the little girls." The teen-age girl who
"sits at home" awaiting a husband learns through the visitor-
in-the-homes of the Club where she may have Bible study, songs,'
games and handwork with girls of her own age. Many parents
permit their daughters to attend these Mission-directed groups
when all other goings-away from.their family are forbidden.
Activities of these groups depend on the interests of
the group and on the ability of the leaders, foreign and Egyp
tian. Elementary reading lessons, writing, arithmetic, dicta-,
tion and letter-writing, handwork of various- sorts, drafting of
patterns for their own dresses, knitting, sewing, making quilts
and other touches for the home are the most common. The girls
usually provide their own materials Most of the classes are
free, though some charge a small fee for purchase of supplies.
88 (continued)
all these ways, then openly present the Christ-messâge where
Christianity has too often meant mere outward form and cere
monial, ritual not life, a professing of Christ without the
power He came to give.
159
Most of all, the girls enjoy finding for themselves in the
Bible record of God’s dealings with men and women in other ages,
and truths about Himself with applications for their own lives,
a relating of the -secular and the-spiritual as-parts essential - -
of the life complete.
In most cases these clubs assemble in central Mission
buildings or in Mission village schools. Often elsewhere there
are interested girls but no suitable meeting-place or no leader
available. Hence it is too largely true that for the village
girl conditions are today much as they were for her grand mo the r--
nothing, done to give her the richer life which finds its greatest
fullness in Christ.
- ÇoniDinnity Service Pro jec ts. The work of the new Bible-
woman may be anything which can help open some of God’s riches.
to any woman or girl. As she leads ' Club girls in the Chris t-
message they spontaneously share with others the benefits they
have gained. Many become real missionaries in their homes.
Voluntary Christmas and Thankoffering gifts, making garments for
the poor, and now. Red Cross service are wider expressions of
that new love.89
89 At least one group of privileged girls has conducted
a club for girls in a poor section of the city, thereby forming
friendships invaluable to both groups.
160.
Thus, through home visits, at mournings, in girls’
clubs, and in groups of church women, the New Bible-woman for
the New Egypt not only teaches a new imderstanding of God,, the
way of salvation from sin through-Christ Jesus the crucified
and risen Savior, but, through and because of this, she leads
toward a more abundant living. Her message in not merely a
new theology in heads but à new life in hearts.
CHAPTER VII
EGYPTIAN WOMEN AND RECENT SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS
The social structure of Egypt is as pyramidical as her
anclent historical monuments.^ At the top the large landowner
has long lived in a laziness and luxury - utterly disinterested
in the physical misery of the humans who till the soil. These
fellaheen are quite at the mercy of the rapacious wakeel (agent)
who farms his own rights for all he can keep and turns over- to
the owner only enough to assure a like-generous profit next year.
The toilers are the foundation on which the wakeel’s prosperity
rests, and that of the landowner, and that of Egypt as a whole.
Between are the small landholders (many owning less than two
tennis-courts in size), the mechanics, the artisans, the clerks,
the government employees, and the professional men--all in vary
ing stages of economic welfare or distress. As education and
social attitudes change, the government employees, the pro
fessional and the large-landowner classes are less clearly dis
tinguished. Also, with the implanting of new ideals of service
many of these are showing real concern for and helpfulness
toward those less fortunate. Trade schools, teaching clinics
^ The figure and some of the following thought are from
Erdman Harris, New Learning in Old Egypt (New York; Association
Press’ , 1 9 3 2), pp. 6, 6 5- 6 6, eT passim. Cf. ante. Chapter IV,
Woodsmall., p. 68.
162
for mothers, societies to teach the harm of alcohol and drugs,
and another to combat tuberculosis have been organized. Homes
have been established for street children where they are taught
to be useful citizens instead of burdens.
Homelife: But in perhaps no other sphere of Egyptian
life is there more far-reaching change than in the homelifeoof-
those who have had educational privileges. As already mentioned,
one of Egypt’s greatest needs was homes. Today Muslim, Egyptian,
Christian ând foreign witnesses in Egypt testify to great advance
in this field. There is yet much to be gained.
Many girls who enter Mission schools have had none of
the home richness which Americans have learned to take for granted
--books, reading, lectures, music, educated parents with cultured
activities and varied interests--and above a,ll, these have no
knowledge of a loving heavenly Father. Home-life lacks must
be met by schools if they are to be met. In May 1Q42 a missionary
wrote of homes represented in a large school in The Delta:
I have been the rounds with thekind ergar ten teachers
in visiting the homes of the children. . . .It is a real
joy to get into a home where there is real love, peace and
happiness. And of all I visited I found two such homes.
Many of the children come from such sorry places--it is no
wonder they enjoy school.
Many of these only get a year or two in school but the happiness
of those days of love and kindness cannot but make a lasting
impression against such a background.
163
In 1 9 0 7 this was written of Egyptian homes:
The homes of the sons of Ishmael [i.e., Muslim-homes]
might he {lappy and united, the abode of gladness and family
love, but they are the opposite of this. Pew Mohammedans
know that such a home is possible. They only know a place
full of jealousy, of quarreling and evil talk. What wonder
that they have the proverb: . ’Thé threshold of the house
weeps for forty days when a girl is born. ’ Unwelcome at
birth, unloved in her life-time, without hope in her death
. . . . . ’as a babe she is unwelcome; as a child untaught;
as a wife unloved; as a mother unhonored; in old age un
cared for; and when her miserable, dank and dreary life
is ended, she is unmourned by those she has served.’2
This easily explains why the missionaries found no Arabic word
meaning "home."3 Add to this the fact that the word for a rival
wife, is "durrah, " the root meaning. of which is "to injure, to
harm, " a simple linguistic indication that "fellow-wives' are
not expected to be on terms of amity with each' other. It is
encouraging to read the words of- one born and- educated a Muslim
dated I9 2 7: "The first point to be noted in the social life of
Islam is that family life is gradually becoming'better." This
he attributed to imitation and assimilation of Western customs
and says that if "the ideal of a peaceful home" should spread
throughout Egypt it will be because of "the education of girls"
of "recent reforms .affecting divorce, the choice of a husband.
8 Annie.Van Sommers and Samuel M. Zwemer, editors of
Our Moslem Sisters (New York: Blaming K. Revell Company, I9 0 7),
pp. I9 , 2 0.
3 Cf. ante, Chapter II, p. 2 7.
4 Van Sommers, op. cit., p. 49.
164
the age at which a girl may marry, and the education of both
hus band and wife in the responsibilities of marriage and home -
making."5 Another in 1943 speaks of the advance in Mohammedan
home 3 :
While there are hundreds who hold to orthodox Mohammedan
eus toms there are scores of others. . .throughout the
.country. . .who. . .are adopting some of the ideals of
Christian home-making. . . .A gain, women who have had
the privilege of a liberal education are asserting them
selves for the liberation of women, and for. . .giving. . .
the womanhood of Egypt an equal opportunity with men.°
. Immature marriage has been attacked in two ways: legis
lation and public education or creation of public opinion against
it. Although for personal reasons the law is frequently evaded,
the increasing importance given girls’ education, the desire
of educated men to have wives who will be intellectual companions,
has for the middle and higher economic groups automatically raised
the marriage age, even as higher educational standards in the West
have done the same. Those of lesser school privilege follow
their lead, more or less, in this, as in other things.7
5 Kamil Mans our, ’ ’ The Status of Islam" in Milton Stauffer
(editor). Voices from the Near East (New York: Missionary Educa
tion Movement bf HThe' TJhite'cT^Staies and Canada, 1927), p. 44.
Sheikh Kamil is an Azhar graduate, became a Christian, and for
many years has been a lay-preacher, special friend of Muslims
throughout Egypt and the Near East. The following paragraphs
have been suggested in part by his discussion,, op. cit./pp.44-5 7.
6 Dr. A. A. Thompson, Cf. ante, Chapter IV, personal
correspondence, p. 82
7 An Egyptian girl finally seciured permission of her
widowed mother, and probably of other relatives too, to be a
helper, then a teacher in the Mission school where she had been
a pupil. She was very happy, daily learning more in her prepar
ing to teach others. One Monday morning in I9 3O her companions
were all excited. Zaheya had been engaged the day before, with
165
It must be admitted that behind the laws laid down by
Mohammed there lay
the thought that women could not be trusted. They
were inferior in intelligence and character to men
and should be permanently under the guardianship of
their menfolk. This is why in Islamic law a woman
has all her life a male guardian--first her father,
or if he is dead, a near relative, and after her
marriage, her husband; and if widowed she is given
back again to the guardianship of her father or
relative, who claims and exercises the right to marry
her again to a man of his choice. . . .The leaders
of Islam decided the fate of millions of their women-
kind from their own standpoint of male superiority. 8
Because of this supposed inferiority of women,, parents
have traditionally arranged Egyptian marriages, often without
the .girl’ 8 knowledge or consent. This frequently meant that
for financial reasons she was wed to one whom she not only did
not love but could not respect. Parental approval of education
and the independence of thinking thereby fostered tend to ac-
quaintance before marriage and often to real affection. An
7 (continued)
all the customary ceremony and celebration.
While marriage is openly the desire of every Egyptian girl,
it was known that Zaheya really desired to stay longer in school.
But her cousins, boys, younger than she, who were the oldest male
relatives, had decided that it was; time for her to be married,
and they had arranged itI Nothing could be done about it except
to defer the date a few weeks until the school year ended, for,
although this was a Christian family, many of the laws and cus
toms of Islam control even their lives and especially where there
has been little educational privilege. Zaheya had already en
joyed some years longer girlhood than most of her family.
8 W.' Wilson Cash, The Moslem World in Revolution (London:
Edinburgh House Press, 1 9 2 6 7, p. 99. Bishop of"Egyptand Sudan,
Llewellyn H. Gwynne, in foreword to this book says of the author:
"He is always fair to Islam, whose good points as well as inherent
weaknesses he recognizes fully."
16 6
increasing number even of Muslin-girls now have a voice in plans
made for their marriage with those of ideational background
similar to their own. This is especially true now in Coptic
and Protestant families. where acquaintanceships are often with
the fullest approval and encouragement of parents who have
themselves had school and Christian fellowship privileges, Many
Egyptian girls are today happily married to men whom they have
known andlloved.
Traditionally the bride goes to the home of her mother-
in-law, not to leave the house, even to go to her own mother,
until with her she takes her first-born son. This living in
with "the in-laws"--not to speak of with the other wives--not
only fails to allow opportunity for the young couple’s "love
to grow and ripen" as it could in the privacy of'their own home,
but intellectual growth and independence of judgment are also
frozen in the chill atmosphere of the' patriarchial home where
love of wife may be deemed disloyalty, to parents.9 Most ofaall,
there is difficulty in applying what they each may have learned
in schools toward better rearing of their children--for of course
the mother-in-law and all the relatives must tell just how to do
things. In all good intention there is continual interference
with all the new ideas of hygiene and home-management which.
9 Ruth Frances Woodsmall, Eastern Women Today and Tomorrow
(Brattleboro: The Vermont Printing Company, 1933)> P" l3»
167
when set in operation, lay the foundation not only for the
happiness of Individual lives' and homes but for a new and better
soc ie ty.
Lack of preparation of girls for child-care and training
is often direct cause of the death of children. This very
naturally (as in the case of their mothers before them, perhaps
even more now, since men through education are learning that
such deaths are unnecessary) becomes cause for anger, bitter
ness, marital mal-adjustment and divorce. Many mothers are
too ignorant to realize that it is their own unknowledge which
is cause of their distress. Hence Mothers* Classes and Welfare
Centers bring untold blessing not only to mothers and children
themselves- but to their husbands and fathers, thereby helping
in the building of happy homes. Increased studyoof home eco
nomics, child-care and home-making arts in Government schools
could give added help. The idea that it is humiliating for one
of good family to work, that housework is. servant’s work is
only gradually being replaced by a spirit of service in home
and in community life.
Divorce and the -fear of it. . .is the black cloud
over women’s existence in Egypt of which she. is most
conscious. In many of the humble village homes there
is a constant dread of a second wife appearing. , . .The
10 Suggested by Woodsmall’s op. cit., pp. l^ff, charac-
ter1zing of Chinese conditions. It is very applicable in many
Egyptian families even today.
168
number of prayers and charms, and special praying places,
and sheikhs’ tombs, to avert childlessness is incredible;
not only for the love of children, but again in view of
the horror of divorce, for which childlessness is
sufficient reason,H
Every Egyptian child knows the bitterness of the reproach
of childlessness and the haunting fear of divorce which it brings
It is refreshing Indeed to enter a home where a step-mother cares
for her husband’s children by a deceased wife as lovingly as
she does for her own--a care and understanding which she herself
attributes to the teaching of the Bedouin (once Muslim) Bible -
woman who brought to her the message of the love' of Christ Jesus.
Homes with husbands and wives, parents and children, are
the ideal; but there are Christian missionary homes with ladies
only, which, because of their very manlessness, are unrestricted
rallying-places for school-girls, and for alumni and older girls
who have been denied school privileges. Women of the church and
community can expect'to find their foreign friends freed from
other service in school, office and district on their weekly or
monthly at-home-day, and awaiting their Egyptian friends. Girls
are permitted to meet girl-friends at The Mission who are never
allowed to go to each other’s homes and the mothers of these
eagerly await the missionaries’ visits in their homes. Muslim
women in seclusion also find this one place to which they can
S. H. Leeder, Veiled Mysteries of Egypt and the Re
ligion of^ Islam^ p. 3 5 6, as quo ted by CharTes ft. ‘ WsTt'son, WEat
is ' ThTs"^o3lem World? New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1 9 1 3)
p. 4 7. Muc'E of this condition still prevails despite recent
advance. Cf. intra. Chapter VII, Section 4, "Egyptian Women
Lead in Reform Measures."
169
1 p
go under cover of darkness. ^
12 In one such home the evening prayer time was climax
of the day. When the evening dishes were finished and the
kitchen spio-and-span, the faithful man-servant, who had
been working in Mission homes since his boyhood, took the
handbell from its place on the cupboard, opened the door
and in the stairway rang signal to two Syrian and one Egyp
tian teacher in the flat above. They soon arrived, greeted
him as friend, and his relative who was the school janitor,
than all were seated together with those from the West in
the livingroom for ka song and portion of Scripture and
prayer together. The first servant learned to take his
turn with the others in leading the prayer and reading.
Precious indeed to him are the knowledge of the living
Savior, the presence of the Holy Spirit in his heart and
life, and the promises of the Book which he daily claims:
^*Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and
I will give you rest.^ The prayer ended, the two servants
proceeded homeward, rested by this time of Christian
fellowship.
But sometimes as the day was done and "the ladies" at
supper, the doorbell rang, a quiet figure,enswathed in
black was ushered into the living-room, and a Muslim neighbor
was announced. Quietly she awaited them; then the kisses on
both cheeks of true friends were assurance again of the
love she craved.
Out of deference to Muslim custom and in true gentlemanly
courtesy to the guest, on these evenings, the servs.nt, with
his unfailing "is there anything [which you would like me
to do further before I leave?] "took the last letters to
post and bade goodnight. It was understood that as he went
he prayed in his heart that the guest might come to a fuller
knowledge of the living, loving Savior.
Sometimes one or more of the daughters came with her.
Mother of a dozen living children she longed for them a
happier lot than hers had been, and did all in her power
to keep the girls in the Mission school as long as possible,
for there she saw that they were getting things which she
did not have to give, things of the heart, equipment for
life-building. She knew that the center of the teaching was
Christ Jesus, the living Savior, embodiment of Cod ^ s love.
Sometimes the teachers stayed after the prayer, and there
was more singing. A special favorite was "God is my salva
tion. . .1 have hone else." Sometimes before she left the
daughter was sent on ahead,that she might alone unburden
her own heart. In the Christian home she found shelter
from the buffeting storms of life, in Christian hearts
.the love and understanding for lack of which her heart was
heart was desert.
170
Through contacts such as these, ideals in Coptic and in
Muslim homes are changing. Enlightened men are demanding in
wives the character and ability which is trained for home-making
and companionship--not simply women for the multiplied bearing
of children, each henceforth tote known by the name of her
eldest son, "Mother of So-and- 8 0". Because of education to
mutual sympathy, "home" has become a place where men like to be,
with their families. Also, husband and wife appear together in
public, or she alone goes out shopping or socially.Women
in Egypt are coming into their right-to-be-themselves.
Orphanages and Needy Children. Closely related to the
new home ideals was the establishment of the first orphanage
for girls in Egypt. This was in I9 0 6, as result of the visit
to Egypt ten years previously by a devoted Quaker couple, John
and Mary Fowler.1^ For many years this work was mothered by
Miss Margaret A. Smith of the American Mission, into whose care
these Friends committed their work of faith. Miss Ella M. Barnes
succeeded her and mothered yearly some fifty girls in a real
home atmosphere, older girls caring for younger ones, then the
older ones getting their turn to go on from the school^home
to higher schools for specialized training. They returned home
Kamil Man8our. Cf. ante. Chapter VII, ftn 5, tells
something of these developments. They have multiplied since his
writing in I9 2 7.
14 "Fowler Orphanage, A bbasia, Cairo—A Bit of Quaker
Hia^^É^in,Cairo, " Reprinted from The Friend, April 2 5, 19^0.
171
again for the summer and helped prepare the family wardrobe for
the next school year. Many teachers, Bible-women and pastors*
wives here started on their paths of rich service to Egypt.
Its ministry continues.
A missionary nurse reports visiting in I9 2 9 in a Govern
ment home for foundlings which had been opened by Lady Cromer
before she left Egypt in I9 0 7. Tivo hundred babies had been
picked up from the street when but a few days old. Clothes,
radeicine and treatment were all provided and a wet-nurse employed
and paid by the Government to care for them until weaned. Then
they were ready for adoption, with the one stiplulation, that
the y be raised Muslim.^5
But any general thought of care for homeless children
was late to arrive in Egypt. Although the first organization
for the protection of animals was formed in 1 8 94 it was not
until 1 9 2 7 that the Government established its first Child Wel
fare Clinics. Yet so effectively does Egypt move that these were
established under a Child Welfare Section of the Ministry of
Public Health.This Department has made remarkable progress
since that time in making healt%i-care available in cities and
in many rural areas, also in instructing adults who bring the
15 Jane G. Smith, Women*s Missionary Magazine, March,
1950, Vol. 43, No. 8, p. WW-
Almanac, I9 3 8, (Cairo: Government Press), pp. 5 8I
and 5 5 1.
172
children to the clinics for care. In this field Egyptian women
are doing their full share to dispel clouds of ignorance and
disease as they build for a better Egypt.
The Orphanage at Rod el Parag, Cairo, under the Ministry
of Waqfs (Muslim religious law courts) gives to five hundred
boys and girls boarding, clothing, "elementary, primary, tech
nical and professional education and the art of music." There
are a number of other homes for foundlings under the Ministry
of Public Health, attached to the Kasr el Aini Hospital, to
Alexandria Government Hospital, to the Government Child Welfare
Center in Assiut, and elsewhere. Egyptian women’ s clubs and
individuals have also sponsored similar --Refuges" for children.
Miss Lillian Thrasher’s project of care for small child
ren has grown to a village of several hundred people of all
ages, a healthy, wholesome village near Assiut, with school and
church and industries according to the needs of each. It is a
private enterprise but affiliated with the Church of God (Ameri
can). A large part of the support financial comes from Egyptian
sources and the whole project is a great achievement in helping
down-and-out Egyptians to help themselves.
But foundlings homes are not solving Egypt’s problem,
Russell Lewa Pasha, for many years Commandant of the Cairo City
Almanac, I9 3 8 (Cairo: Government Press), pp. 118,
173
police, in his report to the Ministry of the Interior dated
January I9 , I9 2 9, told how eight days previously he had detailed
a number of police to collect the youthful vagabonds whom they
could find, and to take note of what they were doing at the time
of arrest. Seven hundred ninety-four children were taken, and
obviously not all were captured. The Commandant estimated that
there must have been a thousand such children on Cairo streets
that night. Then these-were investigated, to learn if they were
actually without homes and parents. Incredible as it may seem
to American Christian parents, 791 of these ha,d parents. All
but three were proven to have been sent to the streets by their
parents to make what money they could. 1%_9
"Much of the filth andl litter" of Cairo, and of other
Egyptian cities "is caused by these children who in their search
for food or profit pull out and sort over the public refuse bins
^Unpublished report, by courtesy of Russell Pasha,
Boktor, School and Society in the Valley; of the Nile (Cairo;
Elias’ Modern Press” Tg'^EJ, pp. 34, 3 5.
These figures recall an indelible experience in a dimly
lighted Cairo street about nine-thirty one night. The sweetest-
imaginable child-voice was heard ; "iddini millième, ya sitti,
iddini millième" (Give me a coin. Lady. . . .), Scampering
along ahead of two swift walkers like a soap-bubble whose
cleansing joys ahe had never known, her baby-hand outstretched,
a wee toddler smiled appealingly abover her one long garment of
earthen hue, repeating her request. All disappointed that these
"fine ladies" would not give to her, she turned back at the call
of the youthful mother who appeared from a shadow with another
tiny bundle of humanity in her arm.
20 Boktor, op. cit., p. 35.
174
Spasmodic attacks have been made by the Government upon this
evil, but until the moral and spiritual standards of parents
are raised such efforts can be but superficial.
Health-care for Egypt’s Women. ' Government Health Projects.
When the Council of Public Instruction, in I8 3 6,
recommended 'the foundation of Girls’ Schools, this
suggestion was considered immoral,. . .ended in the
establishment of a maternity school in which not a
single Egyptian girl agreed to be a student. Ten
Abyssinian women slaves were, therefore, housed in
that school to pursue the studies and justify its
existence. 2 1
This was a beginning of medical care for women in Egypt.
But how lacking it must have been is gruesomely suggested by
Dr. Sandwithis word-picture of Kasr el Aini Hospital as he was
placed in charge of it shortly after the British Occupation (1882),
and as vouched for by Sir Valentine Chirol who had visited it
shortly before the Occupation.22 Dr. Sandwith found that the
people considered the Hospital a preliminary to the cemetary,
and well they might with surgeon’s utter disregard for sanita
tion, not to speak of their antipathy to anaesthetics and the
"systematic absence of clinical■teaching, note-taking, tempera
ture records" and all things professional.23
21 Amin Sarny Pasha, Education in Egypt (Arabic), p. 11,
reported by Boktor, op. cit. " , p~. I3 3. *
22 Sir Vplentlne Chirol, The Egyptian Problem (London:
Macmillan and Company, Limited,. 1$217^ pp. early in book.
2 3 Some faint reminder of above poignant details was
suggested by a British Superintendent of nurses in a Government
Hospital who had standing invitation to supper at the Mission
whenever possible. Seldom did she talk of problems, therefore.
175
Despite present relatively high standards set by authori
ties and the great progress made, tales which the common people
tell and fears which they hold for neglect and inefficiency in
Government hospitals have undeniable foundations in fact.23
Here again Westerners in Egypt and Egyptian observation in the
West have contributed largely to ideals and standards of work,
consequently to the social status of that work, and its workers.
Today the Government is doing much in clinics and welfare
centers, teaching mothers and giving immediate care to children.
Maternity care is given in hospitals, in welfare centers and
in homes at child-birth. They particularly emphasize prevention
rather than remedies for disease through an extensive program of
health education.
Beginning in I9 2 7 with three welfare Centers, by 1929 the
Government had twenty-two, seven of which were in Cairo. In
1 9 3 1, thirty-one centers and seven Children’s Dispensaries were
under the Public Health Department plus twelve under private
agencies. By 1935 the Government had thirty-two Centers, in
1 9 3 6 thirty-eight, and in I9 3 8 forty-nine. These are each in
charge of a Medical Officer and one or more midwives, graduates
of Kasr el Aini Hospital, Qualified midwives who had been trained
23(continued)
what she told came with force. Late one night she unexpectedly
returned to a ward and found a child cold in death, the nurse on
duty neither knowing nor caring. This was climax to a long recoodd
of professional neglect. Lack of action on the part of Medical
Officers to correct such when reported or to empower another to
do so required a spirit of Christian service which few could con
tinue for well over twenty years.
176
there totaled 4 9 7 Ir 1 9 3 6.^^
The dayas are traditional attendants at every child -
birth, their practices bound closely by custom and superstition.
As public awareness of the appalling mortality caused by their
practices demanded that something be done, the Government very
wisely, rather than attempting the impossible task of abolishing
them, undertook their education, and required a certificate of
qualification in order to practice legally. Training courses
of three to six weeks were given to a total of 8 ,4 3 6 such women.
Government Almanac, 1938, indicates that these short courses
are "temporarily abolished," obviously another step in raiding
standard requirements. Provincial Councils have also established
maternity training schools and dayas training schools annexed
to the Child Welfare Centers.25
24 Almanac, I9 3 5, I9 3 8, 1939 (Cairo: Government Press),
Various pages.
25 1 9 3 5 and 1 9 3 6 were characterized by traveling centers
combating puerperal fever. Experience has shown that inspection
of the Dayas and their cleanliness were not sufficient because
mothers still ignored the principles of cleanliness and hygiene.
These. . .travel to the towns where puerperal fever is prevalent
to give mothers the sanitary instructions to be observed during
pregnancy. Cf. Almanac,I9 3 8 (Cairo: Government Press), p. 334.
A few interesting figures from the thirty-eight Centers
of 1 9 3 8: as gleaned from Almanac, 1938, pp. 331-335 and Almanac
1 9 3 9 > pp. 3llff. Cf. also. Almanac^ 1935 s,s quoted by Wood small,
Moslem Women Enter a New World, ppT 337-344.
New Pregnants who attended Centers 6 0 ,8 0 9
Visits to old cases 264,412
Visits of midwives to homes of confined 314,149
Home visits by health visitors to confined 22,180
Confinements attended 48,733
Visits of Centers’ Medical Officers to confined women
who had developed complications 2 ,2 6 9
177
American Mission Health Projects. In 1868 the first
American Mission doctor opened a daily clinic in Assiut and
made house calls. "His medical skill and his Christian charac
ter and attractive manner won confidonco." He was called to
neighboring villages and Muslims laid aside their prejudices
to ask his advice. From 1875 to 1884 there was no doctor, then
a son of the Mission held a clinic for four years. But a date
of greatest importance to Medical Missions in Egypt is December
1, 1 8 9 1, for on that day Dr. L. M. Henry began his work, the
beginning of the American Mission Hospital in Assiut which is
now welcoming Allied service men convalescent. It is known to
Egyptians everywhere as "The Hospital of H e n r y . "26
25(continued)
Wassermann tests of pregnants at public health
laboratories 5 8 ,5 2 2
Vaccinations to babies 2 9 ,5 3 6
Circumcisions performed 2 ,3 8 7
[usually done by village barber]
Children’s Dispensaries treated, new cases 46,389
old cases 48,001
In addition to the above.
The Centers and Traveling Units spare no effort in examin
ing and treating gratuitously expectant mothers from venereal
diseases and diseases of pregnancy and attend to their confine
ment and to the welfare of their babies. Besides, it is the
duty of the midwives and health visitors to call on pregnant or
confined women and their babies in their homes and to diffuse
health propaganda wherever they go. Sanitary advices are also
given, in a simple manner, to women attending Child Welfare Cen
ters on subjects bearing on motherhood and childhood and how to
feed, clothe, and bathe the child and to prevent his contracting
any disease; and similar health projects. Cf. Alamanc,I9 3 8,p.332.
28 Susannah Hutchison, Heal the Sick, Our Medical Work in
Egypt (Pittsburgh; Women’s General Missionary Society,1939),p.3.
Mrs. Hutchison is wife of Superintendent of American Mission Hosp-
pital Ta.nta).
178
Quarters were outgrown repeatedly as popular confidence
grew. Thousands of calls in homes were made and no longer do
even Muslim families require that a male member of the family
be present when the women are attended. Dr. Finley, several
years before his death said he had officiated at more than three
thousand births in the community.27
In Assiut, two hundred forty miles south of Cairo in
the American Hospital of one hundred thirty beds, another
pioneering project was opened in 1925--a Training School for
Nurses.28
The educational prerequisites. . .are very high and
the training is similar to any American training school,
including all phases of general work, with didactic work
given by the doctors and nurses. No other such school
exists in Egypt. There have been thirty graduates. . .
Not only have they gone out into unusual opportunities
for Christian service, but they have very definitely
raised the nursing profession in the eyes of the people.
What was looked upon as degrading work for servants is
now recognized increasingly as a trained professional
service by educated women, 29
At the time the first girl. Miss Qamr Mansour, was graduated
fr
from this school, nurses were
2 7 Ibid., pp. 4-5, also Woodsmall, Moslem Women Enter a
New World, p. 2 9 8.
28 cf. ante. Chapter II, p. 2 9. Here is also a large out
patient clinic, in addition to the 1 ,6 0 0 treated in I9 3 8 as in
patients. The clinic for lepers is doing a highly commended
work with yearly grant from the American Mission to Lepers.
29 Hutchison, op, cit., p. 10.
179
still looked upon rather as specially trained upper
servants than as professional women, partly because of
the very low standard of education of those entering
the training. And young women of good education will
not train as nurses because of the general social
circle from which that splendid profession is finding
difficulty in escaping.30
But Miss Gamr and her successors have proved themselves worthy
members of this great world profession, she conducting a Child
Welfare Clinic in Cairo for some years, a part of the American
Mission program. Leaders of American Mission schools for girls.
Miss Bennett then British Superintendent of Nurses in Assiut
Hospital, and the American doctors, all encouraged and helped
to mould Egyptian thinking in this field. In the fall of 1937>
as the Training School began its new year with room for only
eight new girls, no less than seventeen qualified girls applied
for those places. Where at first there had been the greatest
difficulty to overcome prejudices, to find pupils willing, now
the problem is one of financial support--for many of those with
true vision for this service still are not able to pay fees
sufficient to support the school.
The American Mission also, in I8 9 6, opened a hospital
for women and children in Ts.nta. This is a city of 90,000
midway between Cairo and Alexandria, "the seat of the Sayyed
Helen J. Martin, Executive head of American College
for Girls, Cairo, Women’s Missionary Magazine, Vol. 4 3, No. 8,
p. 4 6 5. Cf. infra'J "Women’s Bphe re Extend s Be y ond the Homes, ’
on social status of nursing.
180
el Bedawi Mosque, the religious center of fanatical Mohamme
danism in North Africa, a shrine visited yearly be more pil
grims than is the holy city of Mecca." With confidence in
spired by the skill of two women-doctors, Dr. Anna Wetson and
Dr. Caroline Lawrence, and the later enlargement to a general
hospital of one hundred twenty beds, it admitted in I9 3 8 no
less than 1 ,3 2 2 patients from one hundred ninety-nine villages.
Some years the Muslim patients are seventy per cent of total
Egyptian patients. It is often found that cause foriillness
of infants is improper feeding and lack of most ordinary in
fant care. Egyptian trained nurses are important in the
staff of these two American hospitals.^2
Other He a1th-Pr omo t ing Agenc ies. "The Hospital of
Harmel", as the Egyptians term that of the Chursh Missionary
Society in Old Cairo, has given a large service to women and
children, and to others, during the past forty years. Egypt
General Mission has a hospital in Shabin el Kanater specializing
in care of women. They have done much good work in villages
by traveling clinics, as have other Missions named. Very
early_A.meripan Mission doctors used the Mission house -boats as
centers from which to reach distant villages in recent years
they have had more than they could do without leaving their
home ba.se8, but these hospitals all keep friendly contact with
Hutchison, opl cit., pp. 6-9, quotation is from p. 9 .
32 Ibid., p. 9 .
181
the homes of ex-patients throughout a large area. The Govern
ment is now assuming responsibility for much of this village
care.35
Muslim women are now working to combat tuberculosis
which is very prevalent. Dr. Ali Ibrahim Pasha, Minister of
Public Health, stated that in some villages seventy to eighty
per cent of the people have this disease, while in some it is
as low as forty to sixty per cent, and that is not in a damp
industrial country, but in a dry sunny, agricultural land.5^
Dr. Abd el Wahid, Professor of Hygiene at the Faculty of Medi
cine, Fuad the First University, in a public address revealed
that ninety per cent of the people have eye diseases, and
seventy-five per cent parasitic diseases. He said one of the
greatest contributing factors to this ill health is illiteracy,
which is still the condition binding three-fourths of the men
and nine-tenths of the women, and only one in 1 ,3 3 3 of the
fellaheen can read.55 Dr. Taha Hussain (named as "perhaps the
leading educationalist in Egypt today," despite his blindness.
55 American doctors feel that now their greater service
can be rendered in the fields of surgery. X-ray and laboratory
work. They do not want in any way to seem to compete with the
Government program, rather to encourage and cooperate with it.
Monthly conferences of Egyptian and American medical professional
people in Assiut proved of mutual benefit. This encouraged find
ing and following of best up-to-date methods and latest develop
ments in their various fields. It has been the aim of Mission
doctors to always hold the highest professional standards and to
encourage them in others.
54 "Socia.l Conditions in Egypt," The Moslem World, vol.
XXXII, No. 4, October 1942, pp. 344-345.
35 Log. cit.
18 2
and thanks to his wife’s cooperation) says that the central
cause of this wretched state of educatinn is that the people
even yet fear education.56
Through her Extension Department the American University
at Cairo has sponsored public lectures to promote social better
ment. During the eighteen years of this work sixty-three of
these lectures have been given by twenty different Egyptian
women.57 Mixed associations of Egyptians and foreigners, and
an increasing number of Egyptian women’s societies of Christians,
of Muslims, and of the two together, are united for one object,
the building of a better Egypt. Progressive women leaders in
Egypt have not only made demands of their Government but "they
have opened schools, homes for mothers and babies, factories
to provide poor girls with work, and centers for giving medical
advice and for fighting against the spread of malignant disease.
Yet all that these and foreign agencies have done and the splen
did work of the Government are but as a drop in the bucket of
Egypt’s great need.
Eoc. cit., Cf. ante. Chapter II, conditions in Mohammed
All’s time, also Vol. I3, 1st sentence. Dr. Tata Hussain is
Professor in the Egyptian University and author of a number of
books, one of which tells vividly of his own childhood in an
Egyptian village. Cf. Bibliography.
57 Dean Wendell Oleland of this Department, personal
letter, February 2, I9 4 3.
5 8 Karima el Said, Inspector, Ministry of Education,
"Women’s New Role in National Life, Notable ^ears of Emancipa
tion," (London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, December 12,
1 9 5 8, p. xvi.
183
A Few Egyptian Women Lead In Reform Measures. Legis
lation. In the day of turmoil in I9 1 9 women of Egypt surprised
not only their menfolk59 but themselves with their abilities.
This discovery gave new impetus to aspirations which were worthy.
The Feminist Union, organized soon after the disturbances of
1 9 1 9 sought to defend women’s cause in a disciplined and orderly
way. Under the leadership of Madame Huda Shaarawi, Muslim friend
and frequent consultant with Western missionaries regarding her
plans and program,this group became the voice of women of
Egypt as they presented to the Government certain "important,
yet reasonable demands" including "essential legis3ative reforms
and equality of education."41 Though the: majority of its mem
bers werw wealthy women of leisure, and for that reason not
truly representative of all Egyptian women, yet they informed
themselves of conditions existing over the country and, through
journalism, lecturing and legislative procedure they and similar
groups roused public interest and action to correct certain
evils. Results attained affect all Egyptian women.
39 w. Wilson Gash, The Moslem World in Revolution (London;
Edinburgh House Press, 1926), p. I0 5.
40 Personal notes of Miss Minnehaha Finney, now retired
after forty years in Egypt, mentioned this friendship and recall
comments made years ago by other missionaries regarding Mads.m
Shaarawi’s friendship. At times her action may have been of an
extremist type which the Missions would not have councilled, yet
the new ideals must be applied to Egyptian national life in the
time and way acceptable to Egyptians. They know their own people
as Westerners cannot.
4^ Karima el Said, loc. cit., also Buchanan, ^Movements
in the Life of Women in the" TslamTc World," in Mott, The Moslem
World Today, (New York: George H. Doran Company,_1923, reprinted
Lbndoh: Haze11, Watson and Vlvey, Limited, June I9 2 6), p. 22.
184
1, A law was enacted fixing minimum marriage age for
boys at eighteen, t>r girls at sixteen.
2. Divorce, which has long threatened the stability
and securitv of family life, has been "favorably
restricted. ’
3* In 1925 secondary education was opened to girls, and
in 1 9 2 7 -2 8 the Fuad I University received its first
women students.42
The Feminist Union aims toward equal sufferage and women’s
representation in Parliament, but they are not urging these
aims immediately, they are working for social welfare and
Industrial education.
Egyptian women were represented in the Women’s Interna
tional Alliance for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship held in
Istanbul, April I9 3 5. Subsequently they submitted, a report to
the Prime Minister requesting legislation on polygamy, prosti
tution and the use of alcohol. The general debate which
followed indicated a strong conservative element, but the re
formers were fearless.
The lengthy law of I9 2 8 touches polygamy but lightly,
yet the very fact that a custom taken for granted for so many
centuries should be mentioned in a reform law was itself
counted real progress.43 Madame Garnila Abu Shauab wrote in
A1 Balagh, August 26, 1935:
42 Karima el Said, loc. cit., and Ruth Frances Wood small
Moslem Women Enter a New World "%New York: Round Table Press,
1 9 3 6), p. 3 5 8.
4 3 Woodsman, Moslem Women Enter a New World, p. 121.
185
Anyone desiring the good of the family and its
happiness must work to convice the legislators of
the necessity of making a law forbidding polygamy
except in rare and exceptional cases.44
The growth of public opinion on this subject has been noted.^5
These progressive women, only a few of the nation’s
millions, are fired with a new idea— women’s emancipation for
a better Egypt, They are capable leaders. Because they have
not demanded such violent changes as those made in Turkey
they have the apparent approval of many of the leaders of
national life and the acquiescence of all but the most con
servative Azhar group.46
Egyptian women are now battling age-old evils which
militate against personal health and family happiness. The
battle against superstition and immorality is the hardest to
fight and takes the longest patience. But Mulsim women them
selves are effectively fighting the use of charms, Ears, and
similar evils.47 These privileged women seem spurred on by the
ghosts of their own past sorrows, also by a realization that
44 Woodsman, op. cit., p. 370, quotes this Arabic daily.
Cf. also Edward M. and^ose W. Dodd, Mecca and Beyond, (Brattle-
boro: The Vermont Printing Company, 1937)V P* 9TI
^5 Cf. ante, Chapter VI, pp. 124-125.
46 R, s. McClenahan, Ph.D., many years in Egypt, Presi
dent of Assiut College, then Dean of the School of Oriental
Studies, American University at Cairo, persona^ personal corres
pondence, October 26, 1942.
47 The Zar is a Muslim ceremony and expensive ritual con
ducted by a professional "holy woman" for driving out evil spirits
186
these other creatures so helpless in their misery of body, mind
and spirit, are after all women like themselves.
Some Egyptians are feeling that with present health
programs the rapid increase of population will soon become a
major economic problem. As they consider the homeless and neg
lected children a number have made it their primary aim to better
the quality of parents. Madame Shaarawi says;
We need a strong race, strong in nature, not in
numbers. We must improve the health of villagers and the
poor in the cities. . .We must remove. . .the harm. . .
that strikes at the mother. . .prevent the chronically dis
eased from marriage and from parenthood,. . .such as those
with mental diseases and addicts to liquor and drugs,48
She also states her firm belief that "abortion and other medical
means of birth control are not only criminal but subversive of
character in the mothers themselves."
Licensed prostitution has been the subject of serious
study in certain city centers. Although many foreign girls are
imported for this business, under guise of s . respectable job
it is also the oblivion into which many Egyptian girls disappear
yearly.
Egyptian women who had learned what was being done in
other lands have also been active toward correcting Egypt’s
punitive system. Prison living conditions have been improved,
women have been given separate quarters, and industrial training
(tailoring, needlework, laundrying) is now provided for boys
48 "Madame Shaarawi on Birth Contrd,” quoted in The Mos-
lem World, Vol. XXX, Wo. 1, 1940, p. 99. Cf. ante, ChapEer VTT
p. 183.
187
and girls that they may be contributing citizens on their re
turn to society. 4 9
Child-Welfare and Industrial Schools. Before I9 3O the
Feminist Union supported an industrial school where children
were taught to read and write, to do housework and to make rugs
and pottery. At the same time the "Work for Egypt Society" of
Christian and Muslim women sponsored a day nursery for children
of working mothers.5C
It has now for several years been praiseworthy for
wealthy women of influence, Muslim as well as Christian, to es
tablish clinics then to don white aprons and to work among the
patients who come, also to personally train girls in such ser
vice. Lectures are given to the patients on sanitation and health,
and, applying the lessons taught, some require that babies be
bathed and clean or be refused treatment. The fee charged is
often only a two-and-one-half-cent-piece, but enough to keep
out disinterestdd individuals.
In 1 9 0 8 the Lady Cromer Dispensaries were opened, and,
acting on this incentive the Egyptian ladies formed an
association which established at Abdin in I9II a dispensary
called after its founder, "Ain al Hayat". In March I9 1 4
Lady Byng formed an International Club for women in Cairo.
Again, the "Egyptian ladies wished a society which would
be more exclusively for Egyptians" and in May 1914, with
Mitry Dewairy, "The Contribution of the Western Church'
in Milton Stauffer (editor). Voices From the Near East, (New
York; Missionary Education Movement of United' B tate s and Canada,
1927), p. 94.
5c Evelyn McFarland, Women’s Missionary Magazine, March
1 9 3 0, Vol. 4 3, No. 8, p. 4 7 2.
188
the Egyptian princesses heading the movement, they formed
"The Association of Egyptian women for Social and Intel
lectual Improvement." It had but one meeting and then came
the War. 51
More women’s clubs and individuals today carry on work of
social reform, child-welfare and industrial schools, basing
their work more or less consciously on ideals and methods
which they have seen demonstrated in their own land or abroad.
Government, group and private agencies have carried these much
farther than missions from abroad with their limitations of
staff and funds had found possible.
Today everyone is aroused to the necessity of better-
training in the care of children. The missionaries of
the West have been pioneers in all child welfare work.
They have opened schools for the children of our streets
who were unhoused, neglected and despised. They have
founded hospitals and nurseries for children. They have
taught us by example--in rearing their own children— how
to care for ours.
Better child welfare is a natural result of educating
woman. . .Because of the ignorance of the majority of
mothers the death rate among our children is 5 0^ in the
first year. . .; between the first and fifth year. . . 3 0 ^ .5 2
So stated an Egyptian, familiar with child-life in Egypt and
in the Sudan. Another Egyptian who knows a city and village
conditions, in enumerating causes of unhappiness in Egyptian
5^ Buchanan, Loc. cit., p. 217
52 Mitry S. Dewairy, "The Contribution of the Western
Church,"pp. 79-101, in Stauffer (editor). Voices from the Near
East, (New York; Missionary Education Movement of Ünitëd States
and Canada, I9 2 7), p. 9 0.
189
homes wrote ;
Most of the diseases among poor children are the
result of filth. About 90^ of the eye diseases are said
to result from dirt, because the parents fear the evil
eye if they keep their children clean and attractive
looking.53
Early in the I9 2O’s, Mr. and Mrs. Azer Goubran established
in Assiut a rug factory. It not only provides work for some one
hundred fifty boys and girls (about an equal number of each)
but gives regular lessons daily. They are required to have a
bath, for which provision is made, before beginning their work.
The yarn is spun and dyed in the factory and beautiful rugs are
sold. It is counted a most worthwhile project in training child
ren for richer living.54
The Government has a somewhat similar factory which offers train
ing for conducting this as a home-industry. Rug designs are
distributed among rug-makers throughout the country.55
About 1 9 2 4 Mrs. Amin Khayatt established in Assiut a
sewing institute for girls, well-housed, and with Christian at
mosphere and training for some one hundred sixty poor girls who
were without school opportunity. They were much in demand as
53 Kamil Mansour, "The Status of Islam," pp. 3 6- 6 4, in
Stauffer, op. cit., p. 5 4.
54 Mrs. ¥, W. Hickman, Women’s Missionary Magazine, Vol.
4 3, No. 8, March 1930, p. 471. tDEis factory and school still
continue.
55 Almanac, I9 3 8, (Cairo: Government Press), p. 2 3 6.
190
wives.5 6 Certain women’s organizations and private individuals
have established other industrial schools and homes for girls,
some of which have been quite successful.
Women of the lower classes have entered industrial life,
especially in Mahallet Kubra in the Delta. This mud villa.ge
was been transformed within the last twenty years into a manu
facturing center for fabrics and other domestic needs, and not
without many of the problems of Western industrial centers.
Encouraged by certain women’s organizations the Government is
working at needed labor legislation. Hours are long and wages
low with working conditions far from good and living conditions
even worse. The interest in the welfare of these less privi
leged women which is taken by some wealthy and educated women
is really quite encouraging for Egypts social future.
The Veil. Between the extreme view of Al Azhar and that
of the modern woman of educated Egypt there is a great chasm.
To unveil is to stray from the religion of God
Almighty. It is a great setback to the nation. . . .It
is contrary to the book of God (The Koran] and the regula
tions of his prophet [Mohammed]. Moreover, many today
proclaim that woman should leave her harem and participate
with men in their activities. They encourage women to
mingle with many people in clubs and meetings. For all
this there is no excuse except that of blind imitation
of the West. The worst of it is that those who are
56
Mrs. Hickman, loc. cit., pp. 470-471.
191
proclaiming this new practice are among the prominent
men of our nation.
Who is this woman you are trying to civilize and whom
you encourage to participate in every phase of life?
Women in Egypt are the weakest-minded of all the earth
and the slowest to understand. They are still innocent
of life and know nothing of either religion or education
To demand that they he unveiled is a crime and an un-
pardonable sin in the eyes of God.
So have mercy on our country. Do not cause her to
fall into destruction and do not lead her into evil.57
Yet, in spite of these conservatives, a veil is now
rather a conspicuous thing on Cairo and Alexandria streets and
the habara has almost disappeared. ^ils worn out of deference
to tradition are for formal occasions, and the same women may
be seen on tennis courts and elsewhere in quite modern habit.
But Egyptian women have adopted these things conservatively,
gradually, and as each chose to do so, not under any compulsion
from Government or other authority. The veil is symbolic of
a whole philosophy and psychology of life, which is changing.
Tradition had said that a woman might not appear in a
carriage with a man or if necessity compelled it, that the hood
must be drawn. But tradition knew nothing of the motor car,
so women seized their opportunity. Tradition said that a woman
at a theater must be veiled and must be seated in a box, but
tradition knew nothing of the cinema, so women go there with
their husbands, or unattended. "The change which has taken
57 From a newspaper article of Al Azhar source, Stauffer,
Voices from the Near East (1927)^ P* 52.
192
place in the position of women and in the relations between
sexes during the post-war period has been the most fundamental
of all. "5 8 Educated Egyptians are introducing friends to their
families much more freely than formerly. They are going out
much more freely. In the summer of I93 6 the wife of Nahas Pasha
went with him to Europe and appeared there with him in official
banquets and receptions.59 Itis not uncommon since about I9 3O
for Egyptian couples to go to Cyprus or to Europe and while
there to conduct themselves much as do Westerners. It has been
interesting also to note that some women who appeared thus
freely unveiled throughout the summer, before disembarking at
Alexandria or Port Said, have donned again this sumbol of social
res trie tions.
Until after the death of King Fuad I, Queen Nazli re
mained in strict seclusion. But in the summer of 1937 she, with
her daughters and son. King Farouk, summered in Europe. Some
time later the Royal engagement was announced. The chosen lady
was one whom the King really knew and loved, playmate of his
sisters, daughter to his mother’s lady-in-waiting, "a commoner,"
of Turkish blood but Egyptian-born. They had climbed mountains
and skiid together. These two daredtto go alone together in
Egypt, incognito, from Cairo to Alexandria, the King driving
his own car, thereby casting aside more of ancient tradition.
58 "Tradition in Eclipse," The (Bond on) Times, Egypt
Number, January 26, 1937; p. xxiv.
59 London Times, ,loct. cit.
193
Yet, when It came to her wedding day, in compliance with
Muslim tradition Queen Fareeda went to and from the palace of
the legal ceremony (which of course she did not attend)
heavily veiled. Later in the s 8 . . . m e day she appeared in an open
car unveiled. The throngs of people went into wild ecstacies
of joy at seeing her. They would have crushed in upon her but
for the restraining cables and strenuous efforts of traffic
officers.
Muslim tradition has forbidden the use of pictures, and
certainly a woman in seclusion could not have her photographs
taken or on display. Yet, from the time King Farouk’s engage
ment was announced through the wedding ceremonies the country
was flooded with pictures of them both or of the bride-elect
alone. "All the world loves a lover" and Egypt thoroughly
delighted in this her nation’s modern romance.
As Egyptian women learn to think with the rest of the
world their old attitudes disappear and the sumboIs of the old
thinking disappear from their dress. It is said that some of
the older women of Turkey actually went insane or committed
suicide at the enforced necessity of appearing on the street
in what to them seemed a nude stater-unveiled. Nothing like
that has taken place in Egypt. A merciful time is being allowed
for the older women to grasp the new attitude. With it growing
all about them and their own daughters adopting it they gra
dually lose their antagonism and shock. In fact, many of the
194
pioneers in these things are themselves no-w grandmothers,
Egyptian Women Lead the Fight Against Narcotics, Another
serious menace to the home and national life of Egypt is the
secret and licensed sale of narcotics. Although Egypt is a
Muslim land and the Prophet of Arabia taught abstinance from
liquors, yet his precepts are being disregarded in this as in
many other matters today. Therefore, it is no longer uncommon
to see and Egyptian drunk in the streets. The cafes are filled
from morning to late night with men drinking various things.
Easier transportation has brought whiskeys and wines of the
foreigner into the villages. The best grocery stores of the
cities have wines in their foremost cases, and cookies and
candies are "spiked" to educate the taste of the ■unsuspecting.
But Egypt is not dependent on foreign production.
"Beer is brewed in five breweries in Cairo and Alexandria.
These supply about 65^ of local consumption." This is the sad
comment included with items of a wholesome nature under the
title "Egyp-tfs Efforts to Supply Her Own Needs and Raise the
Standards of Living" as recorded by the Minister of Commerce
and Indus try.Obviously Egypt is following Western "Chris -
tian"nations in this as in other matters, adding their liquors
Saba Habashi Bey (London) Daily Telegraph and Morning
Post, December 12, 1938, p. xxii.
195
to her- own "home-brew" from dates.
Following World War I there was a marked Increase in
the use of white drugs. Since these evils came to Egypt largely
from Western cources 11 is good that long before that time
(in 1 8 9 1) women in Cairo had organized a Women’s Christian
Temperance Union, following the leadership of American and
British women there. This has become one of Egypt’ s most effi
cient women’s organizations, with its purpose that of the world
organization, to combat the foes of God and home in Egypt and
in other lands. Schools have been enlisted in the fight against
narcotics through poster contests, through literature and by
lectures with object lessons. Pupils who thus learned the evils
of drugs and drink were led to sign the pledge. They took home
reports of these lessons and brought back their families to
see pictures and to hear lectures. Thus a more and more sys
tematic program of public education has been conducted.
Through some of the women thus trained, and as a result
of this rousing of public conscience among educated people, the
Government was moved to take up the fight against these evils.
In 1929 the Egyptian Government organized the Central Narcotics
Intelligence Bureau, placing at its head Russell Lewa Pasha,
aforementioned.^^ This organization seeks to cope with foreign
sources of drugs as well as to deal with local crime.
61
Of. ante, Chapter VII, p. I72.
196
[Russell Pasha] has perhaps done more than any other
one man to check the drug trade not only in Egypt but
throughout the world through his appeals at tie world
court at Geneva as well as his excellent organization
of the secret service.
He has said that no nation ever weuit down before a , vice as
Egypt has gone down before drugs. He estimates about 500,000
addicts in the country, one to every twenty-eight persons.
Marihuana (hasheesh) forbidden by the Government since I89I
and further restricted in 1 9 2 5 ,8 3 heroine, cocaine, and opium,
still raised stealthily, have wrought much havoc especially
among young men. Boiled black tea and henbane (sacaran)
similarlyfboiled, are used also by women and girls. Russell
Pasha stated in one of his reports to the Government:
There is hardly a family in the towns of Egypt today
that has not among its relatives or friends an example
of. . .drug addiction. . . .In the cities there are
scores of educated youngmen walking the gutter, having
lost employment, home, everything, by their slavery to
heroine.8 5
The Asylum for insane in Cairo reported insanity from drugs
and
and in drug addicts more than doubled in four years, and
82 This statement, the quotation, and much of the following
material are from personal papers and letters loaned by Mrs.
M. C. MePeeter8, Chairman of the Temperance Committee of the
American Mission, and co-laborer with Mrs. Loretta M. Hoyman
Women's Christian Temperance Union Secretary for the Wear East.
83 Almanac, I939 (Cairo: Government Press), p. 279.
84 A child of seven was noticed refusing nourishing food.
Her breakfast of black tea had removed all appetite. It took
months of cooperation to bring her out of the emaciated condition
into which parents’ ignorance had led both her and themselves.
Cf. MePee ters papers.
85 Loc . cit.
197
Madame Alice [Azer] Goubran, National President of the Women's
Christian Temperance Union, reported that national expenditure
for drugs was several times the national budget for education.
One-third of the prisoners of Egypt are drug addicts and traf
fickers .
Specific instances are given by workers in the popular
education program of men stealing the shoes left at the door
of mosques at the hour of prayer, of mortgaging the rice crop
at three hundred per cent of its value, and even pawning the
tiny baby to get the drugs their habit demanded. Little girls,
manure“gatherers, were noted by a doctor sucking a rag dipped
in a colorless fluid. It proved to be a weak solution of
h e r o i n e . 86 Babies are put to sleep with a tea made from poppy
seeds, the untaught mothers all unconscious of the effects of
opium, then if death occurs similarly ignorant friends come
from far and near to comfort the sorrowing mother. It is the
custom to serve native coffee--unsweetneed, as a sign of grief.
But the "modern" thing is to serve cigarets. Many of these
are doctored with marihuana. Thus not only society women of
the cities but the villagers are enslaved to cigarets and to
other narcotics.
Popular education is being carried on by Egyptians who
88 Mrs. Loretta M, Hoyman. The Union Signal, Vol. Ixvi, No
5, p. 73.
198
are■informed of the perils involved.8? Bible-teachers-in-the
homes, teachers in the schools, and leaders of women’s societies,
each do their part. The Government has prepared some films
which may be had on request for showing to groups. Two young
Egyptians men are employed full time in visiting schools and
villages with stereoptican lectures and demonstrations, pre
senting in story form and by scientific films the dangers, con
ditions as they exist in Egypt, and the remedy. Pamphlets and
posters are left for those who can r e a d . 88 %n one year these
workers attended eight principal Mulids89 where they showed
pictures and had many conversations with individua.ls and groups.
That same year they met more than 10,000 students in schools,
and each year they are welcomed by more of the Government schools.
The lantern work is supported almost entirely by Egyptian women
who also cooperate most efficiently in preparation and distribu
tion of literature which totaled 6 2 3 ,0 0 0 leaflets (over a billion
and a half pages) in I9 3 8. These are sent to graduates of
schools, to Vac at I d a . Bible School workers, to key persons and
interested individuals not only throughout Egypt but in Sudan,
87 Organizations and leaders of Footnote 62 are cooperating.
88 In a land where illiteracy reigns and where in the
villages the movie has notcome, the still picture gives opportunity
for discussion and better understanding of lesson. Here, as the
Chinese proverb states, "one picture is worth ten thousand wordsT
Meetings of this type numbering 528 held in 563 towns with 181,850
total audience were reported in I9 3 8. Of. MeFeeters papers.
89 Mulids are "somewhat after the fashion of a county fair
in America, but have the added feature of being a religious pil
grimage to the birthplaceof some saint. . .scenes of much drunken
ness and sin". Cf. Mrs. McFeeters’ report-letter to Prayer Groups
and friends, January 24, 1939.
199
Cyprus, Algeria and other countries of the Near E a s t .70
The Syllabus of Narcotic Education for Primary and
Secondary Schools, prepared a few years ago primarily for use
in American Mission schools, so pleased the Ministry of Educa-
tion that they purchased five hundred copies for their own use.
Through son, story and drama, through easay and poster contests,
through distribution of interesting and instructive printed
blotters, boys and girls in the schools are taught to build for
a better Egypt. A thousand posters were accepted by the Minis
try of Communications and hung in railway stations for popular
instruction. During the Annual Temperance Week Madame Goubran
(aforementioned) Miss Eva Habeeb, journalist, members of the
Prances Willard Club,71 and various others, speak to thousands
of people. This intensive education campaign is directed and
supported largely by young Egyptian mothers.
Muslims are cooperating in this campaign. The Egyptian
Temperance Association of Muslim Men showed such cooperation
with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union when one of their
officers spoke in the nationa.1 convention of the women’s or
ganization. Most of the village stereoptican lectures are
70 The Women’s Christian Temperance Union of Australia
has, since.World War I, given a liberal annual grant toward this
literature work, in appreciation for kindnesses to their troops
in Egypt at that time.
71 Assiut young women, mostly graduates of Pressly Mem
orial Institute and Khayatt Schools.
200
arranged through the Muslim officials of the various villages.
Village mothers who see and understand the lessons plead that
their sons in the schools be taught in the same way in which
they have been of the evils surrounding them. In I9 3O, for the
first time Russell Pasha’s reports gave encouragement that public
opinion was changing. To be called "a snuffer" of drugs was
no longer counted smart, but an insult,
A Notable Leader. Outstanding, yet representative, among
Egypt’s women leaders is Madame Alice Goubran, national presi
dent of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union which sponsors
this education c a m p a i g n .72 Her father was one of the early lay-
evangelists with the American Mission. She is a graduate of
the Pressly Memorial Institute, the wife of a prominent lawyer
who has at different times been member of the Na.tional Senate.
Two of her brothers, also lawyers, have been members of the
King’s Cabinet. Mother of five children, she has managed the
72 As a girl in school she had signed the pledge, but
wines had been kept in their home for special occasions. In I929
Madame Goubran was asked to be national president of the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union, As the matter was pressed, she and
her husband had a long talk, and as a result together they went
to the pantry and poured their whole supply of wines down the
sink. Her husband and sons are very proud of her and very3oyal
to her.
When the wedding of the oldest daughter approached,friends
wondered if, in accordance with her principles this could be a
wineless wedding, especially as there were to be influencial
political guests from Cairo. "It was a struggle, and no one of
us will ever know how difficult it was for her, but she carried
it through, and everyone said it was the most beautiful wedding
that had ever been held in Assiut."
This story, heard frequently, is recorded much as in
personal letter from Mrs. M. McFeeters, dated December 1,1942,
201
the spinning and weaving factories as her husband’s political
duties took him often to Cairo.73 Among her varied Christian
activities, for many years she has conducted a Sunday afternoon
service for under-privileged women. She taught her daughters
to be like her, teaching in Delly Vacation Bible Schools and
active in the VoJ-unteer groups which go weekly to give the
Gospel message to others. Because their mother was a pioneer
thinker these two girls were the first women students in Assitt
College (in I9 3 6), and due to her enthusiasm soon fifteen girls
were enrolled.74 Thus, a few women lead in reform measures for
enrichment of the lives of Egypt’s women.
Woman’ 3 Sphere Extends Beyond the Home. The striking
change in popular attitude toward women’s activity outside the
home seems to have been parallel with the increase in education
for girls.
School Teaching Opened the Door to a Varied Government
Employment. Teaching in schools, so closely allied to the work
of mothers in the homes, seems to have been the entering wedge.
In 1925 a school woman wrote:
73 Cf. ante, Chapter VII, p. I8 9.
4 Above material is largely as reviewed in McFeeters
letter cited.
202
One of the most hopeful signs of progress is the
willingness of the Moslem girl to become a teacher. . .
even among the richer class. Women are pushing their
daughters into the medical professions also. The spirit
of service has come only to a few in Egypt, it is true,
but these few are leaders, and in consequence benevolent
and industrial schools are springing up.75
In 1936 a man in Egyptian school life wrote:
In upper Egypt, to be a school teacher is the last
resort of any girl who is not the daughter of a pauper
or a coachman. It is only during the past ten years
that more Egyptian girls have come into the profession.
The intelligent girls who were sent by the Ministry of
Education to England returned with a clear record and
are now occupying important teaching positions and doing
excellent work. Most of these came from middle class
families. . . .Nurses are similarly recruited from the
lowest class of society. Telephone operators have mostly
been non-Egyptians. Work for a girl of middle-class
family, or even of a lower social standing, is an act
of indecency. For a girl of the poorest class it is
more honorable to beg than to work. 78
These two statements may at first glance seem contradictory,
or indicative or retrogression through the intervening years.
Rather do they emphasize the fact that despite the amazing
progress made by and for a relatively few of Egypt’s women,
ancient and modern customs are very close contemporaries in
Egypt today. Old conservative ways of living are often outwardly
75 Buchanan, in Mott, The Moslem World Today (New York:
George H. Doran Company, 19 25" First printing, "Reprinted London:
Hazell, Watson and Vivey, Limited, June I9 2 6), p. 214.
78 Boktor, School and Society in the Valley of the Nile
(Cairo: Elias’ Modern Press, lÿÿb ), D’ f‘ 1 Nurse s * "Tr a ihïhg "~Scho o 1,
Chapter VII , p. 178.
203
as little affected by the modern as is the mud hovel by the
fine buildings surrounding it or the camel by the aeroplane
overhead. Both statements are true, the one of a leadership
few, the other of a wider group. When Egyptian girls were
granted education, and some sent abroad for higher training
they returned to occupy important Government offices.7/ Fur
ther progress was made when all faculties of the Egyptian
University were opened to women.78
Admitted to the University, many qualified, sought work,
found it. Many Government offices are now familiar with
women officials. . .in fairly large numbers. The Ministries
of Health and Education, for example, had alwa.ys employed
women for nursing and teaching. Women doctors hold
responsible positions, some few Egyptian women with degrees
from Egypt and abroad are on the staff of the University. , ,
There are women in the Labour Office, in the telephone
department of the Ministry of Communications, and as censors
of films and supervisors of women’s prisons in the Ministry
of Interior, . .Outside the Government offices women are
active in journalism, writing, aviation and other lines. All
this is a good beginning for an Eastern country with so many
traditions; it proves that Egypt no longer [1938] puts
difficulties in the way of women, but leaves scope for them
in practically every field.79
In 1924 Kebaweya Musa, who had been educated abroad, was
made Superintendent of Girls Schools for Egypt, the first woman
77 Madame Azer Goubran, personal correspondence,
February, 1943.
78 Agriculture and Engineering, by the very nature of
their work do not welcome women, though they are not excluded
by any administrative fiat. Cf. Karima el Said, Incpector.
Ministry of Education, "Women’s New Hole in National Life"
(London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, Egyptian Supplement,
December l2, I9 3 8, pi 5Tvi.
79 Karima el Said, Idem,, somewhat abstracted.
204
to occupy that position. She was thus associated in national
school affairs with four Egyptian men in immediate consultation
with the Minister of Education. She became the first woman
decorated by the King of Egypt with the "Order of the Nile."80
Professions. The first woman law student in Egypt was
graduated from the Egyptian University in 1932. Forbidden to
practice law, she worked for two years in the Ministry of Educa
tion, then in the National Office of Labor, and is now classed
as a social worker, in which cause she (Dr. Naima el Ayoubi)
lectures before large mixed audiences.81 Since 1930 a growing
number of Muslim women have been studying law, and other women
are entering the professional world. Kitchener Memorial Hos
pital (for women) is managed by an Egyptian woman doctor, as
are various welfare clinics and other responsible positions.
A few Egyptian women with degrees from Egypt or abroad are on
the staff of the Egyptian University and in the Pedagogical
Institute.82
Athletics have had to win their popularity in Egyptian
80
Buchanan, in Mott, The Moslem World Today, p. 2I5.
81 Woodsman, Moslem Women Enter a New World, p. 245,
manuscript by Ruth MeCleery, and WendëTl Cleland, personal
correspondence, February 12, 1943*
82 Karima el Said, Idem.
205
schools.83 Perhaps it was outgrowth of the fto she had in
athletics in American College in Cairo84 that following her
graduation there Lutfeya Nadi became the first Egyptian girl
83 The fellaha who carries burdens on her head is erect
as any queen. Necessity compels a perfect posture to balance
the jars of water which must be carried from the river or canal,
and to carry the grain to market. But too often the Egyptian
school-girl is stooped and hollow-chested. Some say this is
because of the long hours spent in preparation for the Govern
ment examinations; others that she does not get normal out
door exercise, with the traditional seclusion of townsfolk she
cannot play in the street (with boys) after she is ten or a
little older, often not at a younger age. Public playgrounds
are rare indeed, and private gardens are only pos&ble to the
wealthy. These both contribute. But, after a number of years’
attempting to secure healthful posture in schoolôgirls some have
come to the conclusion that there is an even more fundamental
reason, and one harder of correction; There is still a servant
class in the valley of the Nile, and educated people do not
want to be classed as working people. Many an Egyptian mother,
jealous for her daughter’s advancement boasts that the girls
is in school: "l never let her do a thing at home. She spends
all her time studying." And beneath all the girl’s seeming
indifference regarding.her stooped shoulders, though of course
it is not put into words, there seems to be the attitude; "l am
not a mere fellaha to stand straight as a ramrod. I am a school
girl and I wa.nt to look the part with ray stooped shoulders which
could never have carried a burden and my weak muscles and pale
face, quite the reverse of any peasant maid’s. There is also
a fourth cause, almost if not quite as hard to overcome as
this class superiority. No less loyal an Egyptian leader than
Zaghloul Pasha admitted that "no other people are so strong
as individuals and so weak as groups as the Egyptians" (Cf.
Boktor, op. cit., p. 2 0 5) Therefore team work has been to them
a difficult accomplishment.
83 In Athletics also. Mission schools have pioneered thou^
often limited by lack of playground space and using school roofs
for exercises and games. At American College for Girls in Cairo
the spring sports festival has long been an annual event. Their
Cartouche (school paper published by the studnets) for April-
June, I9 41, summarizes the year’s activities in inter-class
volley ball, tennis, hockey, basket ball, baseball, and a ping-
pong tournament, also inter-school contests with girls of the
American University at Cairo and with 8t.Claire’s Girls’ School
(French Catholic?) The American school for Girls in Tanta has
held inter-class games also contests with a Hewish school, and their
Girl Guides are prospering.
206
to gain her air-pilot permit. That was in 1933* She flies
today with Misr Air Lines in a world whose women air-pilots
are still a small percentage of the total number.
Government school recognition of athletics began in I9 2 9,
when public demonstration was given in Cairo with a Moslem woman
in charge. " 8 5 After Muneera Hanim Sabry was graduated from the
Saney a . Schools in Cairo she studied Physical Education abroad
then taught in Egyptian Government schools. She became inter
ested in the Girls Scout Movement and was again sent to England
for special study of that organization, then returned to or
ganize Scout groups in many Egyptian schools. As Inspector of
the Egyptian branch of the International Scout Movement she has
had wide activity among an Egyptian girlhood awakened to possi
bilities of the athletic and extra-c-urricular nature. 88
Writing. Since women discovered their own abilities in
1 9 1 9, since the Constitution of I9 2 3 granted freedom of the press^J
and most notably, since the opening of educational opportunities
to them, women writers are increasing, particularly in journalism.
More and more Muslim and Christian women contribute articles to
various of the setimated three hundred publications--daily,weekly.
85 Woodsman, Moslem Women Enter a New World, p. 81.
88 Manuscript of Ruth McCleery, then with American Mission,
and Wendell Cleland, American University at Cairo, personal
letter.
87 (London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, December
1 2, 1 9 3 8, p. xvii.
207
and monthly--in the Nile V a l l e y .88 Many of these are propaganda
for the social reforms which they seek to effect through their
various women’s organizations by thus educating popular opinion
and promoting Parliamentary action. Most prominent among their
subjects are improvement of home and family life, care of child
ren, and public health. Educated Egyptian women read publica
tions in English and French as well as their own Arabic, and
some of their publications are in these languages. Olivia
Awaida’s book on The Egyptian Family, Nebaweya ’Musa’s Women
and Work, Ansaf Slrry’s book for guidance of kindergarten
teachers, Sahir Kalamawi’s Tales of My Grandmother, are but
samples of many splendid contributions to Arabic-speaking women
from the pens of women rich in experience in home, school,
national and International affairs.89
88 Figure is from Dean Badeau of American University
at Cairo, in lecture on University of Southern California
Campus, March 1943.
89 Olivia Awaida is graduate of American Mission school
in Luxor a.nd writing for some years for various publications.
Nebaweya Musa, first Egyptian woman to receive
Baccalauréatte Certificate, first Inspectress of Egyptian Girls’
Schools, Superintendent and founder of the Banat al Ashraf
Schools of Alexandria and Cairo.
Ansaf Sirry (Madame Mansour Pahmy) mother of three boys,
tireless educator, had three years in England at Government
expense, is supervisor of a school of some four hundred girls
which is chief feeder of the Egyptian University. Her husband
is supervisor of The Royal Library and author of the aforemen
tioned monograph (cf. ante. Chapter III)
Sahir Kalamawi, was the first Egyptian woman to receive
Bachealor of Arts degree in Arabic Literature, is now a member
of the Faculty of Letters of the Egyptian University.
These da.ta are chiefly from Ruth McCleery’s manuscript.
208
Business. Unique business woman of the land a dozen
years ago was Sltt Helana Abd el Malak, "The Cotton Queen of
Egypt." Although able to neither read nor write, she personally
managed a huge cotton plantation and three cotton mills, then
held her own in a man’s world, respected among men from many
nations who gathered in Egypt’s Wall Street, the Alexandria
Bourse. Unmarried, she made it possible for relatives to profit
by Mission School and Hospital where she, a loyal Orthodox Copt
has always been a true friend.90 But even today Egyptian women
in commercial life are few Indeed.
In cosmopolitan Alexandria the American Mission has long-
had a Commercial school for boys. Some few girls have been
given a business training in their own school (in the same
building). When World War II conditions compelled the temporary
closing of this girls’ school six of its pupils were admitted
to the boys’ Commercial College: two Syrians, one Armenian,
two Greeks and one Egyptian. "They did good work and some were
employed by the military before their final papers had been
graded," but it is thought that the Egyptian went inland with
her panents. 91 -
90 Mrs. H. S. Hutchison, Women’s Missionary Magazine,
Vol. 4 3, No. 8, March I9 3O, p. 456.
91 w. P. Gilmore, long time head of the Commercial
College, personal correspondence, January 27, 1943.
209
Office and secretarial work Is opening up more and
more for women. The Ford Company employs only women as
stenographers and many other companies empToy"them when
obtainable. Some girls [trained in the girls’ school
earlier] have been employed in the National Bank. . . .
Women are entering into secretarial work in increasing
numbers. At first the most of them will be Europeans,
Syrians, Armenians, then Coptic and possibly eventually
Muslims. At one time. . .we had to use Syrians to teach
in our girls’ schools and now we can find plenty of
Egyptians. I think it reasonable to expect that the
Egyptians will take up the work in offices in the same
way. . . .The Egyptian woman. . .will probably follow
the lead of these other women who move into things more
readily than the more conservative Egyptian woman.92
This will recall the statement the.t many centuries of foreign
domination had taught the Egyptian to follow, rather than to
initiate.93
The Government has opened in its schools of Accountancy
and Commerce in Cairo a Night Section for girls. This was
attended in 1934-35 by eighty-eight students. Nothing is said
about their racial origin. From what is known of the initiative
of Greek, Jewish, Armenian, and French girls in Cairo, as well
as of that of Egyptian girls, it seems a safe guess that at least
as few as in the Alexandria class above cited were basically
Egyptian. But that will come. Daughters of Egypt are now in
dicating their determination to not always remain followers.
Splendid examples of fearless and capable women leaders promise
an interesting tomorrow in business and industrial fields.
92 p. Gilmore, personal correspondence, January 27,1943.
93 Amine Youssef, cf.* ante.. Chapter II, p. 14.
210
Mus le. In 1914 Elizabeth Cooper wrote of Egyptian women
and girls that they "take part in the modern life very much as
do the Western women," that "they are skillful on the piano,
reading Browning and Tennyson, and are often. . .fluent. . .in
both English and F r e n c h ."94 Those who visit Egypt today and go
beyond the city-dwellers of medium and high economic oppor
tunities will soon begin to question this statement. Though
it was undoubtedly true of women whom she met, obviously Mrs.
Cooper did not go afield. Even today, with all the advance of
these intervening years in education and in popular attitudes,
this does not begin to be true for all the people. In Assiut,
where such standards are probably highest in proportion to
total population because of the longer educational training
and the larger foreign staff there, it is possible to live
happily in a voy cultured a,tmosphere in which a large number
of Egyptians participate with American and British and make
valuable contributions. That community has been building a
music and cultural atmosphere since 186$. Yet the vast majority
even in that city know nothing in their own lives of suc|^ privi
lege. Wihh all the progress of recent years it is definitely
misleading to make such statements as generalizations. At the
94 Elizabeth Cooper, Women of Egypt (London: Hurst and
Blackett, Limited, I914 ), p."3W7
95 Rena L. Hogg, in A Master Builder on the Nile (New
York: Fleming H. Revell, I9T47I makes frequent" mentionof the
large place her father gave to music in his pioneer work with
the American Mission.
211
same time we must observe evidences of a growing desire among
the masses to obtain these cultural values as soon as their
economic status permits. Parents want to give their daughters
piano lessons. It o.ids toward a good marriage. But the girls
often do not go much farther in music than to te able to play
"8alam il Malik (The Salute to the King)" and a few other
Arabic pieces.
It has been stated that music is almost unknown in the
rural districts of E g y p t . 96 yet the boatmen on the Nile, the
men at the shadoof, and other workmen keep their rhythm of
movement by a tune, and the peasant mother often has a little
tune for her child.97 "Western music is as a foreign language
to the women of E g y p t . "98 But they can and often do, if they
keep at it long enough, learn to love the so-called Western
mus ic.
These are comparatively few in number, but these few
give us reason to believe that if the study of music could
be more universal throughout the country there would be
more who would develop into good pianists and thorough
musicians and even prove to have real talent, as have two
of my pupils.99
96 Boktor, o£. cit., p. 217.
97 Egyptian folk music even for joyous occasions resembles
a dirge or chant of minor key, with intervals quite unfamiliar to
Western ears, involving the "Use of the harmonic scale melodi-
cally," in which it resembles the ancient Hebrew melodies.
.Arabic music, like that from the West, has its inferior
and its better artists and composers. Some of the latter have
produced some quite lengthy works "corresponding somewhat to our
sonata movements."
Quotations and intervening material are from Grace Sample,
many years instructor of piano in American College for Girls in
Cairo, personal letter, August 7, 1943.
98 T. Ulrica Liggitt, Many years head of Music Department
in Pressley Memorial Institute, Assiut, singlehanded in World
War II, emergency. Personal letter, January 29, 1943 .
99 Liggitt, Idem.
212
Because the Arabic music which they love is so highly
developed in rhythm and melody, Egyptian girls find it rela
tively easy to hear the "horizontal interweaving of melodies"
of a Bach Fugue, for example, and can "learn such a composition
more quickly than Western students." But the simple harmony
of Arabic music gives them little background for the mastery
of works of later periods and in these they find greater
difficulty.
A British banker in Assiut in 1937, very capable soloist,
was invited to sing with a mixed American-British-Egyptian
chorus as they prepared parts of "The Messiah" for an evening
during the Christmas season. He was skeptical, frankly, so, but
assented out of regard for these fine American friends. When
the program was ended he was first to congratulate the direct
ress, American head of the Music Department, most enthusiasti
cally urging that it be done"again next year." The same leader
in 1941 "conceived the idea of a Songs of the Nations concert."
The chorus of four Americans and sixteen Egyptians, graduate
students and alumni, gave a concert which "was a triumph" and
"by the urgent request of a lot of people they repeated it to
an audience of over five hundred people.101 Correspondence
also reveals the giving of programs for their own and popular
^60 G. Sample, Idem.
101 Ruth A. Work, of Pressly Memorial Institute Execu
tive Committee since 1904, family letter.
213
enjoyment by "The Assiut Women’s Chorus." These activities
are direct outgrowth of the strong music emphasis given in
Mission institutions.
Songs of the Evangelical Church have so far been almost
entirely Arabic words set to Western music. Egyptian leaders
of the Church have insisted that the native tunes had such
associations that they could not use them in worship.102 %t is
interesting to note the Oriental variations which Egyptian
people left to themselves insert in these Western tunes. How
ever, as Egyptian men and women trained in the language of
international music begin to write their own modern tnusic, it
is to be hoped that they will succeed in preserving the spirit
and expression of the East blended with the higher ideals and
spiritual richnesses which the changes of the years are bringing
to leaders in Egypt’s life,
A loved leader in modern Egyptian song as a little peasant
girl sang to the delight of her companions, while filling her
skirts with the white cotton bolls. The Omda (owner of the plan
tation, near Mansura) heard her and took her to his dinner
parties for thennotables. They too were charmed by the beauty
102 The Church in India has done just the opposite. They
have taken tunes loved by their own people and given them words
of elevating thought, then have sung them as they traveled
through the villages. These new songs have themselves become
popular possession because they were carried to hearts byoold
familiar tunes.
214
of her- voice. She began singing in village streets for coins
which women dropped from stealthily opened hareem windows.
Then her father took her to Cairo where she appeared before
large audiences. Today radio takes her voice to all aparts
of the land. In I93 6 she received two hundred fifty dollars
an hour for her singing, meanwhile starring in "Wedad", Egypt’s
own first movie, and later in "Nasheed el Amal" (Song of Hope)".
Uraukalthoum scorns cheap love songs and her demand for and use
of better ones is educating the country" for she is "without
doubt the most loved singer in the land."103
The Egyptian film industry began in 1934. Aziza Amin
was the first Egyptian woman to appear in film. She too was
from the fellaheen. Bahega Hafiz, related to the historic Mame
lukes used that relationshipas leverage to gain from the Govern
ment financial support for her cinema work. With her artist’s
soul she lives her dramas and "writes the notes for her songs,
which twist the oriental heart with joy and sadness.”^^4
The successes of these and others encourage yet more Egyp
tian girls to seek a career in the musical or theatrical world.
With the coming of Egypt’s own broadcasting, also in 1934, more
of her people are becoming conscious of the music of other lands,
103 Detail and quotations from McCleery manuscript.
104 Personal detail from McCleery manuscript, dates from
(London) Times and Daily Telegraph elsewhere cited.
215
What Egyptian women do in these fields also influences
all the Arabic-speaking East, for "More than 2,500 copies of
The Egyptian Radio Magazine are sold abroad", not to speak of
other publications, especially in Iraq, Palestine, and Syria.^^5
^0 5 The (London) Times, January 2 6, 1937. p. xxxvii.
CHAPTER VIII
COHCLUSIÛMS
Modern progress in Egypt began about one hundred
years ago. With the beginning of the twentieth century it
increased in tempo, and after 1918 each decade saw greater
acceleration.^ It has included economic, intellectual,
social and religious changes. The masses of Egyptian women
had been held in slavery to hard manual labor, to serving
the whims of men and being unthanked drudges to their many
children, enslaved by superstition and by fear. They had
been secluded, degraded, counted as inferiors, until a true
home life was impossible.
Then came new ideals. To some they came through
Western schools in their homeland or abroad, to some through
Christian homes into which they were welcomed as friends.
Some found hospitals and other agencies ministering to
humanity’s need. These had not been present through the
long period when Islam alone was in control in Egypt. They
A. R. Oibb, The Arabs, Oxford Pamphlets on
World Affairs, {Oxford; Clarendon Press, 1941), pp. 3,
4, 14, 16, 17.
|17
came about from or by stimulation of foreign contacts,
largely Western.
These contacts were with lands where doctrines of
God, of humanity, and of the inter-relationship between
God and man had not only granted but had encouraged freedom
of thinking and of experimentation thus permitting demo
cratic growth. So great is this freedom and so great are
its ramifications in contrast to the Eastern patterns that
an Egyptian leader who has witnessed much of this trans
formation has written;
I confess my belief openly, on behalf of the
people of the Near East, that all we have of knowl
edge , religious life, social and political progress,
family order and industrial improvement, is due to
the Western Church.2
Good things which Egyptians saw in and through
Westerners, within Egypt and as E^ptians themselves went
abroad, they wanted for themselves and eagerly adopted in
a new self-conscious patriotism. Western government,
schools and hospitals have presented new social ideals.
^Mitry 3. Dewairy, in Stauffer, Voices From the
Near East, (New York; Missionary Education Movement of
United states and Canada, 1927), p. 99.
:^18
Because observant Egyptians saw that certain of the new-
found, standards produced better -r^stu-ls than those they had
been using they are applying many of these to Egyptian life
and society, through economic reorganization, through
educational programs, and through social reforms. Thus,
by their new-found ability to think things through, they
have challenged the right of Islam to dictate social control.
It would even seem that leaders of the new apologetic are
challenging, at least to some extent, Islam’s religious
validity. Many Egyptians today accept Islamic dictates
until they conflict with modern progress, then they choose
the progressive path.
Al Ahram, a leading Arabic daily, published in a
correspondence column these significant words, part of a
long article:
Radio, newspaper, constitution, parliament,
election, independence — have opened the ears
which were closed, and the peasants have learned
to stand on their own feet against the Sheikh
(traditional Muslim leader) and contend for their
rights.^
Western countries, through the toil and experimenting of
centuries, have worked out plans and programs of society
^Al Ahram, Cairo, December 9, 1938.
219
and government# Many of their findings Egypt has been
permitted to adopt in two or three brief decades, laturally
there are errors in her using of them, but Egypt is growing
in efficiency.
”A much more advanced family unit is perhaps the most
significant single feature of the modern educational move
ments.^ Polygamy and divorce are less prevalent as higher
home ideals penetrate. Education of Egyptian women has made
possible a greater companionship of husband and wife and a
possibility of cooperation in home and community life.
some Egyptian women are contributing a larger share to
the intellectual and spiritual transformation of the nation
than certain leaders like to admit. The pre-War I "tendency
to be self-assertive, practical, and independently construc
tive"^ has become a ruling passion on the part of a few
^Ahmed Lufti el Sayed Pasha, cf. ante, V, p.l0,ftn.27.
^Sidney Low, Egypt in Transition, (Rew York: ïhe
Macmillan Company, l9l4, pTS^OF^ He continues:
The East may take over from us various external
forms and material appendages, such as parliaments,
military tactics....without necessarily assimilating
our spirit, our morals, or our view of life. It was
our teacher before, and it may have much to teach us
again, even in the purely scientific sphere, when
it has learnt from us the alphabet of modern knowledge.
220
educated Egyptian women. They have prepared themselves and
entered the professions and occupations which they chose,
despite defensive efforts of conservative Islamic leaders
against such unbelievable shattering of ancient Muslim cus
toms. Even in the most backward villages a spirit of inquiry,
of investigation, of wanting to learn what the rest of the
world is doing, has brought some new ideas and some material
comforts. Egyptian women, a leadership portion of them, are
really awake to opportunities and to responsibilities in a
new day. They are shunning neither. Successes thus far
fill their hearts with new courage for future attainments.
Some suggestion of the contributions which Egyptian
women, both Christian and Muslim, can make to the world of
tomorrow is indicated by recent developments herein noted.
More would appear had we detail of the part which educated
Egyptian women are taking in present war relief programs and
of their planning toward the post-war world. They are build
ing worthily with ambitious Egyptian men for a better
Egyptian society. They are worthy successors of those who
in the West have fought despotic rule in home, church and
state.
"Educational opportunity, social equality, economic
independence, widening of women’s interest beyond the home"
have been cited as evidences that the East is "rethinking
221
religion" IJncLou'btedly the religious-politieal-social
system which had ruled Egypt is today faced by another system
with other foundation principles and other evaluations of
God and of humanity. Some Egyptian leaders seem to be re
jecting as their source of control anything which cannot
contribute to a life vibrant with progress. Some leaders
among women have broken away from the old fears, from things
which could not stand the test of broader world-thinking.
Contacts with non-Muslim people have initiated and encouraged
this "re-thinking". In 1926 one who knew Egypt well wrote:
Islam nourishes within its bosom many disruptive
forces, but we venture to think that the greatest
force for the breaking up of Islam, will be the
women themselves.^
Whether what has taken place and continues in Egypt today
be called "the breaking up of Islam" or the remoulding of
it on another pattern, or the turning of her people to a
something better where they find it, educational and social
progress are a reality in Egypt today. The vast majority
of Egyptians are still untaught, especially of the women.
^Woodsman, Moslem Women Enter A Hew World, (Hew York:
Round Table Press, Incorporated, 19S6), p. 376.
%. Wilson Gash, The Moslem World in Revolution,
(London: Edinburgh House Press, 1926) , p.'~lOT^
222
yet the number who may share in educational opportunity is
increasing yearly. The result of such privilege in the lives
of these few justifies the conclusion that backwardness of
the masses is caused by no inherent lack in personal gifts
but by the circumstances in which they have been bound. It
is also obvious that in and of themselves they are powerless
to conquer the forces which bind them. Millions still know
nothing of new ideas and ideals, or how some have attained
toward better things in life. There are many other evils
yet to be corrected. As "all great reforms have required
many years to establish them firmly and finally"^ so it will
require time before all Egyptian women are reached with the
blessings which are their right.
But Egypt the theological is not being satisfied by
mere social reform. Improvement of physical and educational
conditions cannot alone be a lasting foundation for society,
people are more than their bodies and more than their minds.
An integral part of every human being is a spirit from God
which cannot be satisfied without right relationship to Him.
Because they appreciate this, more or less consciously.
%arren A. Candler, D.D., quoted in Prayer Cycle of
the United Presbyterian Church, 1915-1943, (Pittsburgh:
Women * s "Gene ral Mi s s i onary Society), p. 15.
Egyptians are asking an answer to their theological questions.
Some are attempting an answer by re-interpreting Islam-- an
attempt to read from their old teachers these new lessons.
It seems futile.
This too is certain,, that, though Egypt has accepted
for her modernization social patterns (a government plan
which seeks to avoid oppression, schools, hospitals, freedom
for women) which were found only where Christian concepts and
ideals had encouraged democratic growth, E^pt has not in any
general sense accepted the Christian religion as such.
Leaders of Government and many reformers themselves, women
as well as men, while they apply the new principles, ardently
proclaim their loyalty to Islam. Yet, uncounted Egyptian
women have through the new social ideals been delivered from
former miseries and rejoice in their release.
By whatever means this freedom came, new doors have
been opened to Egypt’s womanhood. Progressive Egyptians of
both Muslim and Christian affiliation have entered these
open doors, and many patriotic Egyptians today are seeking
for more of whatever it is that has brought to Egypt her
growing place in today’s world.
Some few Muslims have accepted as their Lord and
Master, Jesus Christ who claimed to be the one and only
Savior for all the world. Only a very small per cent of
Muslim women have formally accepted the Christian faith.
224
A larger number are investigating and experimenting with
Jesus’ claim to be the Truth, The Way, The Life. They have
watched foreign Christians in Egypt as they demonstrate the-
Jesus-way with little children, with mothers, with prisoners,
with lepers, with all sorts of needy ones. Therefore today
child-eare and care of sick, ignorant, blind and homeless
are the earnest concern of many Egyptian women. Protestant
Christians have declared that the Incarnation, the Atonement,
and Justification by a faith which is evidenced in a life of
service distinguish Christianity from all other faiths on
earth, and that the in-dwelling Christ is the privilege of
all who will accept Him as He has directed. They proclaim
Christ’s Gospel of salvation, not just redemption; fullness
of life, not mere rescue work; a religion able not only to
enrich the fortunate but to reach even to the lov/est human
creature and to transform that life.^ It is as result of
what they have seen and heard that Muslim women are now
experimenting with outward evidences of this Christ-faith
in their own varied humanitarian services. Other faiths
have been found lacking, and died. The faith of ancient
2 25
, though counted one of the world’s greatest religions,
passed into oblivion except for students’ study. Islam and
Christianity are both on Egypt’s laboratory table today.
Whether or not one believes in the eventual
Christianization of the world, one is convinced
that the Christian missionary has been the pioneer
.who has opened new pathways in the field of educa
tion and caused the youth of Egypt to demand a
higher learning throughout the land. This aggres
sive religion from the West is bound to raise the
religious plane of whatever country it touches, by
forcing other faiths to resume higher levels and
higher forms in order to survive.
Many Egyptians are undeniably adapting their own religious
interpretations to conform to these which, by their so doing,
they admit to be more adequate for the demands of the new
day. Thus, directly, and, even more, indirectly, the Chris
tian message has produced transformation in modern Egypt.
It must also be remembered that, though these trans
forming ideals and teachings came from the West to the Egypt
of today, they had been embodied in and taught by Christ Jesus
in the East. They had been accepted there by individuals
during the first and second centuries, though not by govern
ments. Then they were forgotten or submerged, largely lost
to Egyptians by neglect or disuse. Should Egypt accept them
^^Elizabeth Cooper, Egyptian Women, (London: Hurst
and Blackett Limited, 1914), p. 565.
226
fully now she but receives her rightful heritage. Should
she refuse, it is hers to decide — and Egypt’s women both
Muslim and Christian, will have much to say about what that
choice shall be. The Christ-centered service of many
Egyptian women (and men) today would seem to be introducing
a new chapter in the Christian history of that land.
When all due credit has been given to Christian
Missions and to the British Government for their laying of
foundations and their guidance in new paths, it must be
admitted that Egyptians are showing real ability in adminis
tration of their own independent country in material im
provements, in economic stabilization, in education and
health programs, in Christian church leadership, and in an
undeniable re-shaping within Islam.
A strong reactionary element centers in Al Azhar,
which has itself been subjected to certain modernizations.
The young king seems now to be their ally. But able Muslim
women, as well as Christian, are leading in reforms which
they feel essential to bettering the conditions of their own
people. These are being loyally supported by a number of
their menfolk, despite the protests of this reactionary
group. Which element shall control in the post-War II
period, a part of Egypt’s womanhood will undoubtedly have
a share in answering.
227
The new world contact has undeniably brought a
recognition that Egyptian women are an integral part of
society with a social contribution to make, both in the
family and in larger groups. Very gradually the sphere
of women has expanded to the making of many real homes,
then, for a few women, to a constructive sharing in the
life in a community, in the nation, and even in the world-
family.
Whatever be the future for E^pt’s women, as God
first placed with man a helper, so today Egyptian men find
by their sides a few women increasingly able to be co-
operators as together they build the Hew Egypt.
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^30
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&31
faith, he was imprisoned and in danger of death at
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_____________ , Into All the World, A Vindication and an
Interpretation, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1943. (About 250 pp.)
233
ARTICLES AID PERIODICALS
The Cartouche, School paper of American College for Girls,
Cairo: Hile Mission Press, Apri1-May-June 1941,
vol. 13, Ho. 4.
Criswell, Anna B., Women’s Missionary Magazine, vol. 56,
10. 7, March 19%3:
Habashi, Saba, Bey, "Egypt’s Efforts to Supply Her Own Heeds
and Raise the Standards of Living, London Daily
Telegraph and Morning Post, December l2, 1936, p. xii.
Hickman, Mrs. W. W., Woman’s Missionary Magazine, Vol. 43,
Ho. 8, March 1930.
Hoyman, Mrs. Loretta M., The Union Signal, Vol. Ixvi, Ho. 5,
p. 73.
Hutchison, Mrs. H. S. (Susannah), Idem.
Lutfi, Ahmed, el Sayed Pasha, "Significant Social and
Cultural Changes", (London) Daily Telegraph and Morning
Post. Egyptian Supplement. December l2% 1938, p. xvi.
Maher, Ahmed, "Hope of More Revenue from Vital Fiscal
Reforms", (London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post,
Egyptian Supplement, December 12, 1938.
Martin, Helen J., The Women’s Missionary Magazine, Xenia,
Ohio: Women’s General Missionary Society, Vol. 43,
10. 8, March 1930.
MGCague, lydia. The Women’s Missionary Magazine, Vol. xlviii,
HO. 9, May 1935. Pitts burgh: W omen’s General Missionary
Society.
Daughter of pioneer missionaries of American Mission
in Egypt, an article based on her mother’s letters.
McClenahan, Robert S., The Moslem World, Vol. xxxii. Ho. E,
April 1942.
McFarland, Evelyn, The Women’s Missionary Magazine, Vol. 43,
Ho. 8, March 1930.
McMichael, Mabel, The Christian Union Herald, Pittsburgh:
The United Presbyterian Board ofPublication and Bible
School Work* Vol. 63, Ho. 19, May 8, 1943.
a-34
Said, Karima el, "Women’s Hew Role in national Life,
notable Years of imanoipation", (London) Daily
Telegraph and Morning Post, Egyptian Supplement,
Deeember 12, 1936, p. xvi.
Sarny, Amin, Pasha, (London) Daily Telegraph and Morning
Post, Egyptian Supplement, Deeember 12, 1938.
Shaker, Mahmoud, Pasha, "Expanding network of Railways",
(London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, December
12, 1938, p.x.
Smith, Jane G., Women’s Missionary Magazine, March 1930,
vol. 43, Ho."^
Thompson, Mary L., Women’s Missionary Magazine, Vol. 43,
Ho. 8, March 193Ù.
Thomson, William, "Islam the Religion of Muhammed",
The Moslem World, Vol. XXXIII, Ho. 2, April 1943.
(London) Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, Egyptian
Supplement, _______December l2, 1938.
The (London) Times, "Trend of Moslem Thought, Al Azhar
and the Hew Outlook", January 26, 1937, p. xxxiii.
The (London) Times, "A Venerable Sect, The Copts and Their
Church’ *, Egypt Humber, January 26, 1937, p. xxxii.
The( London) Times, "Great Britain and E^pt, Steps to the
Hew Alliance", January 26, 1937, p. vi.
The (London) Times, "Tradition in Eclipse, Advance of Hew
ideas", January 26, 1937, p. xxiv.
The Moslem World,^ "Social Conditions in Egypt",
vol. XXXII, HO. 4, October 1942. Published by
Hartford Seminary Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut.
The Moslem World, "Madame Shaarawi on Birth Control",
vol. XXX, Ho. 1, 1940.
8EG0HDAKY QUOTATIOHS OR ClTATIOHS
Al Balagh, Arabic Daily, August 26, 1935, as quoted by
Woodsman.
Almanac, 1935, Cairo: Government Press, as quoted by
Woodsma.lI.
Annuaire Statistique, quoted by Boktor.
Bertrand, Louis, Le Mirage Oriental, cited by Stoddard.
Dor, Y. Edouard, (Bey), L’Instruction Publique en Egypt,
quoted by Boktor.
Elgood, P. G., The Transition of Egypt, as quoted by Boktor.
The Gleaner, Church Missionary Society Publication, quoted
by Charles R. Watson.
Harnack, Mission and Expansion, Vol. 1, as quoted by zwemer.
Into All The World, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1943.
Madame Jehan d’lvray, "En Egypte", Revue de Paris,
September 15, 1920, as quoted by Stoddardl
Kieth, Sir Arthur, Bowman Lecture to the Ophthalmological
Society, April 3, 1930, quoted by Bowman, Middle-East
Window, p. 15.
Leeder, s. H., Modern Sons of the Pharaohs, quoted by
Boktor.
Macdonald, Duncan B., "The Essence of Christian Missions",
The Moslem World, (October, 1932), as quoted by
Samuel M. Zwemer.
(Lord) Milner, England in Egypt, quoted by Boktor.
Report on Elementary Education, 1919, Cairo: Government
Press, quoted by Boktor.
Report of Bureau of Registrations and Examinations,
quoTed by BokTor.
236
Palgrave, as quoted by Zwemer,
Russell Pasha, unpublished report quoted by Boktor.
Amin Sarny Pasha, Education in Egypt, (Arabic), cited
variously by Boktor.
Ahmed Shafik Pasha, Howliat, etc., Introduction to Vol. 1,
cited by Boktor.
Statistique Scolaire de Egypte, 1934, quoted by Boktor.
Statistique Scolaire de Egypte, 1939-40, quoted by
Wendell Gleland.
237
PAMPHLETS AHD REPORTS
Alexander, J. R., Sketch of the History of the Evangelical
Church of Egypt, being an address prepared for the
8eventy"Z?ifth anniversary of American Mission in Egypt.
Alexandria, Egypt: Whitehead Morris, Ltd., 1930.
Candler, Warren A., D. D., Prayer Cycle of the United
Presbyterian Church, 1915-1943T "Plt¥sburgh:
Women’s General Missionary Society, 36 pp.
Gibb, H. A. R., The Arabs, Oxford Pamphlets on World Affairs,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1941. 32 pp.
Hutchison, Susannah (Mrs. H* S.), Heal the Sick, Our
Medical Work in E^pt, Pittsburgh: Womeh’s "General
Missionary Society of the United Presbyterian Church
of Horth America, (1938). 19 pp.
Kerame, Oreste, S. J., Rev., "Roman Catholic Missions in
Egypt," in 1942 Twenty-First General Conference of
the Egypt Inter-Mission Council. Cairo: Hile Mission
Pressl 29 pp.
1942 Twenty-First General Conference of the Egypt Inter-
Miss ion C ounc i I ~"~hërd in All "Saints ’ Cathedral,
Cairo, May 1st, 1942. Cairo: Hile Mission Press.
29 pp.
The Westminster Catechism.
"Fowler Orphanage, Abbasia, Cairo — A Bit of Quaker History
in Cairo", Reprinted from The Friend, April 25, 1930.
8 pp.
The Statesman’s Year Book, 1942.
Almanac 1938. Cairo: Government Press.
Almanac 1939. Cairo: Government Press.
Minutes on the Seventy-Third Annual Meeting of the American
Mission in Egypt, January 2-7, 1943, 'Cairo: Hile Mission
Press. ¥1 pp.
The 1941 Handbook of Foreign Missions of the United
Presbyterian Church of Horth America Printed in
Ü* S.A. 65 pp.
Eighty-First Annual Report of the Board of Foreign
Missions, May 1 9 at Buffalo, Hew York.
Eighty-Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Foreign
Missions, presented to the General Assembly of
the United Presbyterian Church of Horth America,
Hew Wilmington, Peima, May 26, 1943.
238
239
PERSOHAL LETTERS
Mrs. J. W. Acheson
Madame Azer Goubran
Ella M. Barnes
Wendell Oleland, Ph.D.
Minnehaha Finney
W. P# Gilmore, Rev., (also personal interview).
Robert S. MeClenahan, Ph.D.
Mrs. M. C. McFeeters
Venna R. Patterson
A. A. Thompson, D.D.
Ruth A. Work
GENERAL LETTERS
Mrs. Loretta M. Hoyman
Glenn P. Reed, D.D.
PERSONAL NOTES
Writers notes on John S. Badeau, at University of Southern
California, March, 1943.
Writers notes on H. E. Phillips, Ph.D., and on Rev. F. D.
Henderson, at Sixty-Eighth Annual Association of
American Mission in Egypt, January, 1938.
Her own notes loaned by Minnehaha Finney, including
manuscript of Ruth McCleery.
Her own notes loaned by Mrs. M. C. McFeeters.
INDEX
(No attempt has been made to list here all references found
in footnotes. Outstanding Egyptians and a few others have
been included.)
Abbas I, 11-6
Abbas II, VI-11
Abd ul Malak, Sitt Halana, VII-50
Abd el Wahid, Dr., VII-EE
Abu Shauab, Mme. Garnila, VII-26
Accountancy, School of, and Commerce, VII-51 (Cf.Commercial
Aoheson, Mrs. J. W., V-24, VI-27,29. College)
Agricultural Exposition, IV-19
Agricultural Schools, lV-19
Ahmed Lutfi el Sayed Pasha, 11-46
Al Ahram, VIII-3
Al Azhar, 11-4,7, V-22 to 26, VI-14,18,19, VIII-9
Albanian, II-4
Al Balagh, VII-26
Al Huda, VI-32
Ali Ibraheem Pasha, Dr., VII-22
Alexander, Dr. J. R., 11-34, ftn. 52
Allah, 11-24 to 31
American College for Girls in Cairo, V-16,19
American Mission, (beginning of work) II-8
American University at Cairo, V-18,20, VI-15, VII-23
Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, 1-3, 11-43, III-13
Amin, Kasim, 11-39, 111-2,3, VI-19
Arabi Pasha, III-l
Assiut College, 11-15, IV-17,19
Assiut Women’s Chorus, VII-54
Assurance, trust, is basic, 11-18
Armenian, II-5
Armenian Church, VI-33
Automobiles, IV-15
Aviation, VII-45
Awaida, Olivia, VII-49
Bach, VII-62
Badeau. Dr. John S., Dean at Amer. Univ. in Cairo, V-18
Barnett, Rev. James, II-12, ftn. 24.
Begging, VII-14, ftn. 19, VII-44
Bertrand, Louis, IV-13 to 14
Bible, 11-8,10, VI-31,44,50
Bible-teaehers-in-the-homes (See Bible-women)
241
Bible Training School, 11-15
Bible-women, Vi-21, Vi-38 to 51
Birkas, IV-2,17
Blackman, Winifred, 1-8, Vi-25
Blindness, eye diseases, VII-22,23, IV-16
Boktor, Dr. Amir, 11-1,41, et passim
Bowman, Sir Humphry, 11-35,41, IV-19, ftn.35
British, 1-2, III-4, V-24, VIII-9
British Occupation, II-8, III-l ff, 7, IV-9,10
Buses, IV-15
Business, VII-50
Butcher, Mrs. E. L., IV-13, VI-3
Canadian Holiness Mission, 11-8,10
Cash, W. Wilson, 1-5, V-1, ftn.1
Central Narcotics Intelligence Bureau, VII-38
Charms, VII-27
Child-care, IV-11, VII-7,21,23,29,31,49
Chirol, Sir Valentine, 11-42, III-8
Christian Endeavor, 11-24, and ftn.27, VI-33
Church Missionary Society, 11-8,10, VII-21
Cinema, 1-2, VI-18, VII-45,56
Clark, James Freeman, 11-25
Clubs for girls, VI-49 to 51
Co-education, V-19 ff.
Commercial College, VII-50, (Cf.Accountancy)
Constitution, 1-3, IV-19, VI-14
Cooper, Mrs. Elizabeth, VI-25
Coptic Christians, 1-7, 11-15,18,38, VI-1 to 7, 33
Cotton, IV-6,10
Cromer, Lord (Evelyn Baring), 1-2, 11-5,41,44, 111-1,2,4
Dairy, Assiut College, IV-19
Dar el Blum, II-6
Dayas, VII-16,17
Delta Car, 11-15
Demonstrations, 111-7,9,11,12
Dewairy, Mitry S., 11-13, ftn.27
Deyo, Ruth, V-17, ftn.42
Divorce, VI-15, Vii-4,7,8,25
Djamal ad Din al Afghani, III-2
Dunlop, Advisor to Minister of Education, 11-41
Dor, Edward, Bey, II-6
242
Idmu Village Project, IV-19
Education, Ministry or Department of, 11-5,6,43, V-11
Budget, 11-40, Cf. all Chapter V
Effendi class, 11-39
Egypt General Mission, 11-8,10, VII-21
Egypt Inter-Mission Council, 11-11
Egyptian character, 11-17,44, III-8, Vi-6, VI-11, ftn.23
Egyptian Evangelical Church, 1-6, 11-32 to 35
Egyptian Nationalism, 1-7, Chapter III
Egyptian Radio Magazine, VII-56
Egyptian State Broadcasting, 1-3
Egyptian State University, 11-45, V-11,12, VII-25,45,56
Egyptian Temperance Association of Muslim Men, VII-42
Elementary Schools, V-3
El Wedad, VI-18
Evangelical Church Schools, Cf. schools
Evil eye, IV-16,24
Evil spirits, IV-16, VI-41
Eye diseases, VII-31
Ezbekieh American Mission School, 11-15, VI-33
Fahmy, Mansour, II-3
Fahmy, Mans our, Madame, (Ansaf Sirry), VII-49
Fatalism, 11-26 to 27, VI-11
Fayoum (American) Mission School, 11-21
Fayoum Province, III-3
Fear, IV-7,11
of education, 11-5,6,38, V-1
Fellaheen, 111-5,7,9. All Chapter IV
Feminist Union, VII-24,29
Films (Cf.cinema)
Finley, Dr., VII-19
Finney, Minnehaha, VII-26, ftn.40
French, 1-2, 11-3,9,39, 111-4,10
Fuad I University, (Cf.Egyptian State University)
Funerals, VI-37, (Cf. Mournings)
Gairdner, W. H. T., Canon, 11-10, V-17
Gibb, H. A. R., VI-10, ftn.18
God, new understanding of, 11-23, IV-11, VI-51, Vii-2
Gorst, Sir Eldon, 11-40, III-4
Goubran, Madame Alice (Azer), 11-38, VII-31,39,42,43
Government Hospitals and Clinics, 1-7, Vii-14 to 17
Greek Church, VI-33
&43
Habara, 11-40, VII-33
Habeeb, Eva, VII-41
Hafiz, Bahega, VII-66
Hareem restrictions, 11-41,42, V-6 to 7,18 ff, VI-3,12,18,
20,36,38 ff,47,48,.VII-8 ff,32 to 36
Harvey, Mrs. William, 11-12
Hasheesh (marihuana), VII-38
Henry, Dr. L. M., VII-18
Higher Institute of Education for Girls, V-12
Home-making, 11-19 ff, V-14
Homes, 11-18 ff, IV, VII-2,3,10
Hospitals, VI-10, VII-12,16,18 to 21
"Ibis, The", 11-15
Illiteracy, IV-20, V-2 to 3, VII-23
Independence, 1-3, Chapter III, esp.pp.13 to 16
Industrial training, Vii?28,31,44
Industrial problems, VII-32
Insane, VII-39
Islam, VI-7 to 24
Ismail Pasha, Cf.Khedive Ismail
Italian Schools, II-9
Italy, 1-3
Jeffry, Dr. Arthur, VI-10,13 ff
Journalism, VII-25,45
Kalamawi, Sahir, VII-49
Kamil, Mansour, VI-7
Karima el Said, III-17
Khayatt, Madame Amin Bey, VII-31
Khayatt School for Girls, Assiut, V-18 and ftn.44
Khedive Ismail, 11-6,7,37,38, III-l
Kitchener, Lord, III-4
Kitchener Women’s Hospital, V-12, Vii-46
Kindergartens, 11-22, V-8,16
King Farouk, VI1-34,35, VIII-9
King Fuad I, V-11,22, VII-34
Koran, 11-26, VI-16,20
Kuttabs, II-4
Lady Cromer Dispensaries, VII-29
Lawrence, Dr. Caroline, VII-21
League of Nations, 1-3
Legislative reforms, VII-25
Levonian, Loutfri, 1-4, V-24
Liquor, VI-43,47, VII-36 to 43
London Times
Luzor Girls’ Boarding School, 11-20
MacàonalcL, Dr. Duncan B*, VI-46
Mahallet KuDra, VII-32
Maher, Ahmed, V-4
Malta, III-6
Mamelukes, 11-1,5
Mans our, G-amr, VII-BO
Marriage, VI-17, VII-4,5,6,25
Maternity care, VII-14 to E4
McCagae, Dr. Ihomas, 11-12
McClenahan, Dr. Robert S., VI-19,21
Mecca, II-1
Medicine, Schools of, II-4, V-11
"Messiah, Ihe", VII-54
Milner Commission, III-6
Mohammed Abdu, III-2
Mohammed Ali, 1-1,6, II-l ff.
Mohammed Mahmoud Pasha, III-ll
Monastaoism, VI-2,to 3
Moravians, II-8
Mosques, III-IO, VI-21
Mo.thers* Classes, VII-7
Mournings, VI-37,40 to 41,47
Mulids, VII-40 and ftn.49
Musa, lebaweya, VII-46,49
Music, 11-15, V-8,17, VI-36 to 38, VII-2,12,52 to 56
Muslim, Moslem, 1-6, VI-1,3,7 to 24
Hahas Pasha, III-13, VII-34
Napoleon, 11-1,7
Narcotics, VII-46 to 43
Nationalism, Chapter III, Vi-10
Nile Mission Press, II-9
Nurses, VII-44,45
Nurses Training School, 11-21, VII-19 to 20,21
Opium, VI-45
Opposition to girls' schools, 11-12,13, ftn.27
Orphanages, VII-11 to 13
Oriental Studies, School of, 11-11
Palgrave, 11-25
Pan-Islamism, VI-10
Parasitic diseases, IV-15, VII-23
Parliament, II-7
Pedagogical Institute, VII-46
persecution, VI-6
Polygamy, VI-15 to 17
Prayer for Muslim women, VI-21
press, III-ll, VI-15,32
Pressly Memorial institute, 11-15,21, V-18
Primary certificate, V-13 to 14
primary schools, V-3
Prisons, VII-28,45
Prostitution, VII-28
Public health, VII-22,49
Qp.een Nazli, VI1-34
Q.ueen FareecLa, VII-35
Radio, 1-3, VII-56
Red Gross, V-16
Rizk, Nuir, V-17
Roman Catholic, VI-1
Russell Lewa Pasha, VII-13,38,42
Saba Habashi Bey, VII-37
Said Pasha, II-6
Sandwith, Dr., at Kasr el Aini Hospital, VII-15
Sayed el Bedawi Mosque, VII-21
Saneya School, IV-38, V-EO
School of Oriental Studies, 11-11
Schools, Chapter V, also II-l to 8, 12 ff.
of Accountancy, VII-51,50
of Agriculture, IV-19
A1 Azhar, 11-4,7, V-22 to 25, VI-14,18,19
American College for Girls in Cairo, V-16,17
Assiut College, 11-16, IV-17,19
Bible Training School, 11-15
Egyptian State University, 11-45, V-11,12, VII-25,45,46
Evangelical Church Schools, VI-30
Saneya School, 11-38, V-20
trade schools, VII-2,IE,13,29,30,31
co-education, V-19 ff
elementary schools, V-3
fear of education, 11-5,6,38, V-1
girls' schools neglected, 11-5,7
Seclusion, 11-28, Cf.Hareem
Secondary examinations, V-14
Secondary schools, V-10 ff, VII-25
Seminary, 11-15
Sensitiveness, 11-17
Shaarawi, Madame Huda, Vi-14, VII-24,25,28
Shabin el Kanater, VII-21
Sirry, Ansaf (Madame Mansour Fahmy), VII-49
Storrs, Sir Ronald, 11-35
^46
Sunday Schools, VI-34
Superstitions, VI-24,£6
Supervision of Mission schools, V-3
Suspicion, III-8
Swiss, II-6
Syrian teachers, 11-16 ff, 37
Taha Hussain, Dr., VlI-23
Tanta, VII-21
Tea, black boiled, VII-38
Teacher Training Courses, 11-15,37, V-6 ff, V-15,16,
VI-34, ftn.72
Telegraph, III-ll
Telephone, III-ll, VII-44,45
Thankoffering, VI-27
Thompson, Dr. A. A., IV-16, ftn.26
Thrasher, Lillian, VII-13
Timour, Aishat, III-3
Titus, Murray T., 11-27, ftn. 45
Tuberculosis, VII-2,22
Turkey, 1-2, 11-2,3,39, III-4, VI-19, VII-27,35
Umukalthoum, VII-55,56
Vacation Bible Schools, IV-18, VI-31 to 32, VII-41,42
Vagabonds, VII-13
Veil (Cf.Hareem)
Versailles Conference, 111-5,8
volunteer groups, VI-30, VII-42
Wahhabis, II-2, VI-10
Wakeel, VII-1
Waqf, 11-37
Watson, Anna, M.D., VII-21
Watson, Charles R, Dr., VI-17
Welfare Clinics, 11-23, III-16, IV-16,17, VII-12,16,20,29
Western Contacts, I-l ff.
Wilcocks, Sir William, III-7
Woodsman, Huth Frances, 1-4,8
Women's Christian Temperance Union, VII-27
Women's Missionary Societies, VI-28,29, ftn.67, p.32
Work for Egypt Society, VII-29
World Day of Prayer, VI-32
14.7
Youssef, Amine Bey, II-17
Zaghloul Pasha, SaacL, 11-17, 111-4,13
Zagazig, Xl-10
Zars, VIlT-27
Zwemer, S. M., 11-10, TI-24

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Creator Work, Margaret A. (author)

Core Title The place of women in the new Egypt

School School of Religion

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Religion

Degree Conferral Date 1944-02

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,social sciences

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c39-350103

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Document Type Thesis

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