Books

Pub Date2007
ISBN0520251547
Pages302
Link to Publisher

Egypt as a Woman: Culture, Politics, and Nationalists

Beth Baron
University of California Press

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. In Egypt 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.

About the Author

Beth Baron is 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 of The Women’s Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press (1994) and the coeditor of Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender (1991) and Iran and Beyond: Essays in Middle Eastern History in Honor of Nikki R. Keddie (2000).