Sex Roles, Vol. 51, Nos. 5/6, September 2004 (
Women in Egypt: Islamic Rights Versus Cultural Practice
In order to understand the predicament of Muslim women in Egypt, it is necessary to look
beyond religion to the strong social and cultural forces, which shape their position in society.
Islam is often held responsible for the inequitable and sometimes violent treatment of women
in Egypt. However, Islam is unjustiﬁably blamed for such discriminatory practices against
women. The Islamic rights granted to women are, for the most part, just. Women have gained
more rights over the years; nevertheless, they continue to suffer, as these rights are often not
put into practice, because of social and cultural inﬂuences. The Islamic religion is all too often
misunderstood and held accountable for the unacceptable treatment of women; whereas in
reality, cultural traditions have led to this inequity.
KEY WORDS: islam; women’s rights; egyptian culture.
Understanding the circumstances of a Muslim
woman in Egypt requires an earnest consideration
of both the social and cultural structure of her mi-
lieu. In other words, women’s issues, Islamic or oth-
erwise, and gender concerns are endemic of soci-
ety’s broader dynamics. For this reason, a woman’s
circumstances cannot be understood apart from her
context. Egypt has undergone a series of successive
invasions or conquests, each of which has impacted
Egypt’s social fabric. Egypt’s contemporary culture is
thus a mixture of a multitude of elements, shaped by
the progression of historical events, which has con-
tributed to the development of Egypt’s current atmo-
sphere. Accordingly, it is the cultural context, which
shapes the environment for the Egyptian woman.
The cumulative effect of the historical transfor-
mation of Egypt has consequently created an en-
vironment in which, at present, a woman’s rights
are caught in a contradictory cultural foundation.
On the one hand, a long history of a highly active
feminist movement, dating back to the beginning of
the twentieth century, has expanded over the years.
This movement stems from a liberal Islamic faction
that has been greatly inﬂuenced by Western thinkers
To whom correspondence should be addressed at Depart-
ment of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Egyptology.
The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt; e-mail: el-
and has succeeded in granting women many long-
struggled-for rights. The decades of the ﬁfties and
sixties particularly marked the climax of an upsurge
of the liberal movement for women’s rights in accor-
dance with the socialist transformation in society in-
troduced by the new political regime. With this new
regime came legal equality for all citizens. Women
began to enjoy their rights to a similar extent as men,
in all spheres of life (e.g., education, employment,
politics). Thus, the gender gap during this period was
undeniably reduced, though not eliminated.
One must mention that the newly introduced
socialist ideology was able to reconcile its doctrines
with Islam, going so far as to claim Islam as the reli-
gion of socialism. This strong support developed out
of the prevailing inﬂuence of liberal Islamic thought.
Scholars in support of this movement, highly edu-
cated in religion, aimed to eradicate the rigid percep-
tion of Islam as propagated by conservative scholars.
Liberal scholars portrayed Islam as broad-minded
and ﬂexible in nature, a religion applicable to all
times and situations. In particular, they attempted
to trace modernity to the Islamic doctrine. Their in-
terpretation of religion indicated a consistency with
modern life, as opposed to the austere, archaic ideas
advocated by a more conservative group. Central to
this liberal trend was the emphasis on the rights of
women provided by Islam.
2004 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.