Shaarawi Study Guide
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As you read Shaarawi's Harem Years, focus upon the following points.
- Max Weber's definition of class in The Theory of Social and
Economic Organization (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1947),
424.
- A "class" is any group of persons occupying the same class status.
- The term 'class status' will be applied to the typical probability
of a given state of:
- provision with goods,
- external conditions of life, and
- subjective satisfaction or frustration will be possessed by an individual or a group.
A. Class and Education:
- p. 73: Able to initiate divorce by Atiyya Hanim Saqqaf, make stipulations in the marriage contract for Huda
- p. 19 -20: Charitable activities help bridge private and public
- p. 74: Reverence for the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad
- Sharifa—baraka and class
B. Education and Social Authority
- p. 40: Grammar
- p. 41: Turkish grammar
- p. 41: Another reason to love her father: he loved literature and surrounded himself with poets and learned men.
- p. 42: But Sayyida Khadija knew grammar - itinerant poet; shared her love of poetry
- p. 62: Failure at learning Arabic grammar again; but mastery of French
- p. 89: In Istanbul, met a girl, the sister of Hilmi Pasha, impressed by the fact that she had mastered Arabic grammar
- p. 59: Learning shields from failed relationships
"I began to carry a book around with me --" - p. 78: Education: "Mme Rushdi not only guarded my reputation, but
also nourished my mind and spirit."
- p. 81: Mme Rushdi attended Shari`a courts; "I was aghast to see the blatant tyranny of men over women."
- pp. 33-34: Umm Kabira—learns to read the Koran
- pp. 68-69: class-based respect: shopping expedition to Chalon
COMING OF AGE:
- p. 80: Mme Rushdi and the Saturday salon
HONOR:
- p. 21: Notion of honor (also grounded in Islam)
ROLE OF LANGUAGE:
- Language of the Feminist Union: French (at once a marker of the educated upper class)
- p. 134: However, as the movement matured, the women's funds supported two monthly journals (in French and Arabic).
C. Influence of
Islam:
- p. 66: hadith and its role
- Empowerment of women through critiquing the sources: Muhammad cAbduh, Qasim Amin
- p. 13: Shaykh al-Tahtawi reminded people that Islam extolled education for men and women alike. Education for girls became the slogan of the day.
- p. 14: Discourses about how social custom but not Islam held women back occurred in upper-class harems.
D. Nationalism/national betrayal/exile
- p. 25: grandfather had betrayed his country
- Exile: a theme
- p. 26: Refused to accept my mother
- p. 29: Accusation of national betrayal directed at her father
- p. 94: Early signs of nationalism: would not take part in an enterprise headed by an Englishwoman
- p. 111: Nationalism brought Huda and her husband closer
- p. 130: Separation from Wafd—abandonment of nationalism, but not of feminism
Copyright 2012,
by the Contributing Authors.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons License
Cite/attribute Resource.
Afsaruddin, A. (2007, May 03). Shaarawi Study Guide. Retrieved February 12, 2012, from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.nd.edu/arabic-and-middle-east-studies/women-in-islamic-societies/lecture-and-study-materials/shaarawi-study-guide.
