Al-Ahram Weekly | Books Supplement (November 2002)

		21 - 27 November 2002 Issue No. 613 Books	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

The intelligent woman's guide
Madkhal Ila Qadayat Al-Mar'ah fi Sutur wa Suwar (An Introduction to Women's Issues in Words and Images), Hoda El-Sadda et al. (eds.), Cairo: Women and Memory Forum, 2002. pp277

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Through creative cartoons the book subverts entrenched ideas that discriminate against women such as treating women as commodities to be consumed by men. The editors also promote the idea that cooperation between men and women (as above) makes more sense and is the just solution
The Women and Memory Forum, a group of gender-sensitive scholars of both sexes, but mostly women, have dedicated a lot of effort to exposing the discrimination against women that is engrained in the national psyche and culture, being interested, for example, in the biases to be found in history and in mass culture.
This book, edited by a group of WMF members (Hoda El-Sadda, Omayma Abu Bakr, Rania Abdel-Rahman, Sahar Sobhi and Hala Kamal) with images by Maher Sabri and Sarah Enani, is an innovative and creative addition to feminist activism in Egypt. One of the encouraging aspects of the Forum's work, which itself is an attempt to subvert the dominant masculinist ethic, is that it has made an effort to work collectively. In this book this kind of collective work gives the impression of a multiplicity of voices and attitudes, some more playful and some more academic. Some of these voices speak in colloquial Egyptian Arabic, others in the standard, formal tongue.
The book introduces readers to main issues and arguments in the debate on women. These include issues such as women's being treated as commodities, the pre-formed moulds in which both men and women are expected to fit, the inherent contradictions in preconceived notions of gender roles and the debate on public versus private space, and so on.
Throughout, there is of course the argument that feminism is not only about women's rights, but also about a more just distribution of rights and duties and about equality, for women and for men. The book reproduces comic strips published in newspapers and magazines, as well as press articles, that express an unthinking and mundane bias against women. The authors show that this kind of material currently appears without so much as a raised eyebrow. The book also takes issue with old chestnuts used to justify discrimination against women, such as the sometimes quoted "argument from nature". Here, the authors choose examples from the natural world to refute claims of the "natural", or biologically determined, character of the sexual division of labour that is common in traditional human societies. A special section deals with pioneering Egyptian women in various fields, women who have too often been ignored by the national consciousness. This is a subject close to the Forum's heart, for its members have in the past organised a number of conferences to remember such pioneers.
One very attractive aspect of the book is its reliance on cartoons and images to underline the arguments. A boy, Nur, and a girl, Nura, are introduced, for example, to guide the reader through the various issues raised. In this way, the contributors simplify some thorny material, while dissipating some of the negative connotations that still unfortunately cling to feminism in some circles, making the issues clearer, more convincing, and fun.
However, for all that it is sometimes not entirely clear who the book's intended reader is. At some points it would seem that the book could work well as a manual for people "in the field", presenting them with quick arguments in favour of feminism. It could also work as an introduction to the subject for young adults, but in this case it is rather too long and could have been divided into a number of smaller books, each focusing on a different subject. The section on the history of education in Egypt, for example, could well have been published separately. In addition Nur and Nura could have been developed as fictional characters, or as main figures in a gender-sensitive comic for young people. A bit of colour would certainly have made the book more attractive.
Nevertheless, this book is a welcome contribution to women's studies in Arabic. One can't help feeling that it is at present a bit of an experimental venture, though, and that something more polished is yet to come out of this valuable initiative. Reviewed by Amina Elbendary

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