THE BRAVE WOMEN OF EGYPT: A HISTORY IN PICTURES
Ahram Online, Egypt
March 6 2014
On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Ahram Online recounts
how our grandmas broke the mould to pave the way for the modern lives
of Egyptian women today
by Ola R. Seif, Thursday 6 Mar 2014
As social norms were in constant metamorphosis in the first half of
the 20th century, Egyptian women seeking to ride the modernity wave
became subject to problems of identity, particularly in appearance.
Long-established dress codes, after all, inevitably had to change to
reflect newly acquired lifestyles.
In order to comprehend the social developments of the times,
two sources of information have proven invaluable: private family
albums – where snapshots of ordinary women document their lives –
and media records, which actively updated the public with the news
and photographs of leading women activists and feminists.
As the evolution in photography technology around the 1920s yielded
portable cameras, images taken in diverse outdoor locations captured
an ever widening range of social and political changes in Egyptian
society.
A case in point is the 1919 uprising. In an unprecedented development,
Egyptian women took to the streets to join their male compatriots in
demanding the political rights of the nation. In so doing, Egypt’s
women also paved the way towards a new life for themselves, becoming
vigorously more active in the public domain.
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In the mean time, street photographers were stealthily capturing
paradoxical images of veiled women riding the traditional horse-drawn
hantour while chanting slogans and holding aloft Egypt’s green Khedival
flag. Some even boldly posed to be photographed in a challenging
declaration of opposition and rebellion.
The full spontaneity of the women’s revolutionary street manifestations
starkly contrasted with the studio photographs which had hitherto seen
them portrayed in limited stereotypes. They were either part of staged
family photos and school group pictures, or the “orientalist” subjects
of late 19th-century French photographers: belly-dancers, harem girls,
street vendors or menial workers known to carry out “petits metiers”.
Interestingly, or perhaps intentionally, none of the famous
professional studio photographers – who were all either European or
Armenian – were present to record this memorable revolutionary moment.
Their absence only made the photos of the avant-garde role played by
women in the 1919 demonstrations – where an unveiled lady was near
impossible to find – all the more rare.
In the images that captured the 1919 uprising, women were uniformly
dressed in black knee-level gowns and strictly covered their faces
with either a white or black burqa’, as was the prevailing tradition
then. Unlike men, whose socio-economic class could be detected from
their clothing and head covers, the homogeneous appearance of Egyptian
women who partook of the 1919 Revolution hindered any such deduction.
##
With the gradual emancipation of Egyptian women, which started to
bear fruit in the aftermath of the 1919 Revolution, new trends also
emerged in photographs of women, documenting the earliest careers
that had become accessible to middle class women in the 20s and 30s.
Photographs of women particularly in the nursing and teaching
professions are commonly available as they were annually photographed
in front of their respective work institutions. While women teachers
usually taught girls’ classes, nurses posed more liberally for group
photos where male physicians were also present.
##
By the late 20s and mid-30s, Egyptian women belonging to society’s
higher echelons began to enroll in sporting clubs and practice
various sports. While swimming was gaining popularity in Egypt’s big
town sporting clubs, women wearing bathing suits were more commonly
photographed on the beaches of Alexandria and other coastal cities
than around club pools. Private swimming pools were still unheard of.
Swimming was not the only sport that attracted higher class Egyptian
women, however, as can be seen in the society sections of feminist
magazines like Bint Al-Nil, published by activist Doria Shafik. Some
recently found family albums in private collections reveal photos of
Egyptian women who practiced even aggressive sports such as boxing,
fencing and shooting.
By the 1940s, 50s and 60s such sports had become commonplace
among Egyptian girls, especially those enrolled at Egypt’s leading
university, Fouad I, currently Cairo University.
Away from the capital but sharing the Nile River stream, Nubian women
featured in the photographs of 19th-century European photographers
as icons of shining beauty and pride. They were neither influenced by
the recurring waves of emancipation and political changes, nor by the
previous harem-like depictions of their counterparts in upper Egyptian
and medieval urban settings. The privilege of heading out to work
daily, even if in their own land, had been embedded in their culture
for centuries. Nubian women had long contributed to the construction
of the family home, its annual painting and refurbishing, as well as
to the age-old tradition of carrying water in earthenware.
Photos of Nubian girls in the first half of the 20th century reveal
them exposing their braided hair while performing daily outdoor
activities. The documented everyday life of Nubian girls evidently
shows that the advent of modernity was not to intercept their
traditional dress codes – adornment, jewellery and uncovered heads
proudly held as high as ever.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/32/138/96011/Folk/Photo-Heritage/The-brave-women-of-Egypt-A-history-in-pictures.aspx