By the Status of Women

By the Status of Women

World History Name: ______

E. Napp Date: ______

Historical Context: Overview – History of Egypt

In the 1950s President Gamal Abdul Nasser pioneered Arab nationalism and the non-aligned movement, while his successor Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel and turned back to the West.

The protests that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 put Egypt at the crossroads once again, as they led to an Islamist Muslim Brotherhood breakthrough at subsequently annulled parliamentary polls and a narrow win for the Brotherhood candidate in the presidential election of 2012.

Egypt's ancient past and the fact that it was one of the first Middle Eastern countries to open up to the West following Napoleon's invasion have given it a claim to be the intellectual and cultural leader in the region. The head of Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque is one of the highest authorities in Sunni Islam.

But the historic step by President Anwar Sadat to make peace with Israel in the 1979 Camp David agreement led to Egypt being expelled from the Arab League until 1989, and in 1981 Mr. Sadat was assassinated by Islamic extremists angry at his moves to clamp down on their activities.

President Hosni Mubarak took a more conciliatory approach, but Islamic groups continued their campaigns sporadically. They have been responsible for deadly attacks that often targeted tourists and resort areas, and more recently began to harass Egypt's Coptic Christian community.

While providing stability and a measure of economic progress, Mr. Mubarak's rule was repressive. An emergency law in force since 1967 – apart from an 18-month interruption in 1981 – muzzled political dissent, and the security forces became renowned for their brutality. Corruption was widespread.

What are the main points of the passage?

Encouraged by the protests that overthrew the long-term leader of Tunisia, mounting popular anger burst to the surface in huge anti-government demonstrations in January 2011, which eventually led President Mubarak to step aside. He was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment over deaths during the demonstrations.

An interim military administration took charge, promising to effect a quick transition to democracy. In practice the process took more than a year, with the parliamentary elections taking place in December 2011 and January 2012, and the presidential poll in May and June.

The victory of Islamist Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi at the presidential elections caused concern about the prospects for democratic gains, the status of Coptic Christians and women, and the crucial tourism industry.

Soon after his election, Mr. Morsi won a tussle for power with the military by cancelling a move by the ruling army council to give itself far-reaching constitutional rights. He also dismissed key generals, including Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi.

Another dispute flared at the end of 2012, as the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly signed off on a constitution that infuriated the secularist and liberal opposition. President Morsi says a 15 December referendum on the draft will go ahead, despite violent protests against it.

Egypt's teeming cities – and almost all agricultural activity – are concentrated along the banks of the Nile, and on the river's delta. Deserts occupy most of the country.

The economy depends heavily on agriculture, tourism and cash remittances from Egyptians working abroad, mainly in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries.

However, rapid population growth and the limited amount of arable land are straining the country's resources and economy.

What are the main points of the passage?

Historical Context: Overview – Status of Women in Early Islam

“Women seldom traveled. Those living in rural areas worked in the fields and tended animals. Urban women, particularly members of the elite, lived in seclusion and did not leave their homes without covering themselves. Seclusion of women and veiling in public already existed in Byzantine and Sasanid times. Through interpretation of specific verses from the Quran, these practices now became fixtures of Muslim social life. Although women sometimes became literate and studied with relatives, they did so away from the gaze of unrelated men. Although women played influential roles within the family, public roles were generally barred. Only slave women could perform before unrelated men as musicians and dancers. A man could have sexual relations with as many slave concubines as he pleased, in addition to marrying as many as four wives.

Islamic law granted women greater status than did Christian or Jewish law. Muslim women inherited property and retained it in marriage. They had a right to remarry, and they received a cash payment upon divorce. Although a man could divorce his wife without stating a cause, a woman could initiate divorce under specified conditions. Women could practice birth control. They could testify in court, although their testimony counted as half that of a man. They could go on pilgrimage. Nevertheless, a misogynistic tone sometimes appears in Islamic writings. One saying attributed to the Prophet observed: ‘I was raised up to heaven and saw that most of its denizens were poor people; I was raised into the hellfire and saw that most of its denizens were women.’

What are the main points of the passage?

The Article:Women’s Rights at Odds in Egypt’s Constitution Wars; Time Magazine, December 9, 2012

“President Mohamed Morsi’s autocratic actions in his efforts to rush through his draft constitution, but the anxiety of those on the street are equally based on the content of that constitution. One of the most bitterly divisive disputes is over the question of women’s rights in a post-Mubarak Egypt, and its resolution could have profound consequences not only for tens of millions of Egyptian women but also for the rights of women in post-revolution Tunisia and Libya. Thousands of women were at the forefront of the protest marches that poured into Tahrir Square in January 2011, and many expressed the view that in joining the struggle to bring down Mubarak, they were fighting also for their personal liberty.

But whether that goal is achieved could depend on how Egyptians vote on Dec. 15, and after that, on how judges interpret the resulting constitution. Many activists deem women’s rights a political litmus test that determines whether leaders are willing to put civil rights above religious edicts when the two are in conflict. For Egyptian women, the outcome of the constitutional dispute between Islamists and secularists could affect their ability to inherit property, to pass on citizenship to their children, to earn equal pay for equal work and even to make decisions independently of male family members. ‘The role of women in society has been a contentious issue since the start of the transition,’ Isobel Coleman, director of the women-and-foreign-policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote on Dec. 4. The draft constitution, she argued, ‘does not proactively provide for equality.’

That, perhaps, is no surprise; nor does the U.S. constitution explicitly guarantee women’s equality. And only four women sit on Egypt’s 85-member constitutional committee, which has spent months locked in debate over the draft document. Of its 236 articles or paragraphs, Article 2 cites Islamic law as ‘the principle source of legislation,’ while Article 4 gives the role of interpreting that law not to the courts, but to Islamic scholars at Cairo’s al-Azhar University. Those scholars are not mentioned in Egypt’s 1971 constitution, which is now being replaced, although the old document does state that ‘the principles of Shari’a are the main source of legislation.’

Women’s organizations have for months pressed to have an article that guaranteed women’s equality only insofar as it did not clash with Islamic values deleted from Egypt’s draft constitution. Now that sentence is gone – but any specific assurance of women’s equality has also beenexcised. In its place is a clause guaranteeing government-funded maternal and child health care (something most Americans don’t have), but those benefits are offered specifically in order ‘to preserve the genuine character of the Egyptian family’ and to balance ‘the duties of a woman towards her family and her work.’ That, says Coleman, is ‘a not-so-subtle code for keeping women in a traditional role.’ In response to the article, Human Rights Watch accused Morsi’s government of trying to control women’s decisions, saying, ‘The state’s role should be confined to ensuring equality and nondiscrimination, without interfering with a woman’s choices about her life.’

What are the main points of the passage?

Egypt’s constitutional battle is being watched closely not only by Egyptians but also by those whose fates may be influenced by its outcome: women in Tunisia and Libya. As in Egypt,Tunisia’s Islamist post-revolution government and Libya’s largely secular one are also charged with writing new constitutions. And in both cases, women’s rights have emerged as one of most contentious issues.

In Tunisia, huge protests erupted after Selma Mabrouk, a secular member of the constitutional-drafting committee, revealed on her Facebook page that the draft constitution categorized women as a ‘complement with the man in the family, and an associate to the man in the development of the country.’ Those sentences were subsequently deleted, thanks to the furor. But since the parliament has yet to vote on the draft constitution, they could still sneak back in, Mabrouk told TIME on Friday. ‘There are many references to religion, which could constitute a problem for us,’ she said by phone from Tunis. Islamic fervor has risen sharply since the revolution, she says, with several Tunisian kindergartens now having veiled girls as young as 3 or 4 years old. She says she expects a strong push by Islamists to insert religion into the constitution, adding, ‘We are remaining very, very alert.’

So, too, are women in Libya, where constitution writing has not yet begun. The country’s first-ever elected government was installed only last month and is still trying to wrest control over the country’s security from the armed militia groups.

Despite that, Libyan women’s organizations have already begun organizing around the future constitution, fearing they could face similar battles to Egypt and Tunisia. ‘We want equality and for our civilian and political rights to be recognized,’ Alaa Murabit, head of the Voice of Libyan Women, a group in Tripoli, told TIME by phone. She says her organization has held discussions with women across the country, polling them for what they want in a new constitution.

Yet although women want equal rights, Murabit says Islam will certainly occupy a key role – especially since Islamists, who were jailed through decades of Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship, have finally won political freedom. ‘Islam is not going anywhere, and the West needs to come to terms with the fact,’ Murabit says. ‘If everybody keeps labeling the use of Islam as wrong, people will shut down and not have a dialog.’ Instead, she says that Libyan women are pushing to have bothan Islamic country andwomen’s equality when the country’s new constitution is finally debated. Until then, they will sit transfixed at the political protests just across the border, in Egypt.

What are the main points of the passage?

Analyze the following images: