Egypt as a Woman Nationalism, Gender, and Politics [Paperback]

This original and historically rich book examines the influence of gender in shaping the Egyptian nation from the nineteenth century through the revolution of 1919 and into the 1940s. InEgypt as a Woman,Beth Baron divides her narrative into two strands: the first analyzes the gendered language and images of the nation, and the second considers the political activities of women nationalists. She shows that, even though women were largely excluded from participation in the state, the visual imagery of nationalism was replete with female figures. Baron juxtaposes the idealization of the family and the feminine in nationalist rhetoric with transformations in elite households and the work of women activists striving for national independence.

Beth Baronis Professor of History at the City College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Co-Director of the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center at the Graduate Center of CUNY. She is the author ofThe Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press(1994) and the coeditor ofWomen in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender(1991) andIran and Beyond: Essays in Middle Eastern History in Honor of Nikki R. Keddie(2000).

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction

PART 1: IMAGES OF THE NATION
1. Slavery, Ethnicity, and Family
2. Constructing Egyptian Honor
3. Nationalist Iconography
4. Photography and the Press

PART 2: THE POLITICS OF WOMEN NATIONALISTS
5. The Ladies Demonstrations
6. Mother of the Egyptians
7. Partisans of the Wafd
8. An Islamic Activist

Conclusion
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index

Can anything new be said about modern Egyptian nationalism? Beth Baron's bookEgypt as a Woman,one of the best modern Egyptian history books to appear in several years, lã^