Shaarawi Discussion Questions

For our next discussion, think about the following issues and themes and how they are developed in the book:

1) Class and Power and their effect on gendered identities, private and public:

• How is class and social status determined in Huda's society and time? 
• What are the variables that affect class and power? 
• What is the role of education in determining people's social roles and expectations? 
• What effect does education have on gender roles?  How does language and its use play into it? 
• Does the concept of honor have any bearing on this discussion?

2) Role of Islam:

• What part does adherence to Islamic principles contribute to the women's movement in general and the rise of a feminist consciousness? 
• How does it contribute to the legitimization of the feminist agenda? 
• What was the feminist agenda? 
• What is the potential for this feminist movement to forge links with women of all classes and, therefore, claim to be a truly representative women's movement?

3) Finally, we are not done with nationalism yet! 

• What is the relationship between feminism and nationalism? 
• How does nationalism affect the women's movement and people's perceptions of it?  What is Huda's own views of nationalism and its impact upon feminism?   Refer also to the article by Badran Competing Agenda: Feminists, Islam and the State in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Egypt.

SUMMATION:  What is the historical value of this work in assessing the rise and importance of the feminist movement in Egypt?   Is there any advantage to having this historical report of a movement cast in the form of a memoir?