Creating the New Egyptian Woman Consumerism, Education, and National Identity, 1863-1922 by Mona L. Russell (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004. 237 pages.)

Abstract

In this tome, Russell examines four principal foci in her historiographic
work on Egypt: “the rise of capitalism, the development of an indigenous
bureaucracy, the creation of a modern educational system, and the evolution
of the nationalist movement” (p. 5). The author compares and contrasts consumption
rates between lower-, middle-, and upper-class Egyptian women
and investigates how western patterns of capitalism paralleled and diverged
from indigenous urban templates of consumerism. Against this backdrop,
she frames women’s education “in a larger struggle for cultural and intellectual
hegemony” (p. 7). Her engaging work is sprinkled with examples and
analyses of Egypt’s societal “contact and confrontation with European
thought and culture” (p. 8).
Russell’s volume is intended to be accessible to non-specialists as well
as helpful to specialists in the field. Its sources include archival documents
from the Dar al-Kutub, L’Institut d’Egypte, the Egyptian National Archives,
the libraries of the American University in Cairo and the Presbyterian
Historical Society in Philadelphia, and other primary materials. An earlier
version of this manuscript stemmed from the author’s doctoral research
under the tutelage of Judith Tucker. Russell’s work is a noteworthy contribution
to the fields of Middle East and women’s studies, communication,
education, economics, and other related areas of inquiry.
The author’s introduction addresses Qasim Amin’s concept of the “New
Woman.” Russell places the disparate views of Egyptian women in the context
of growing consumerism and educational opportunities in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. Chapter 2 discusses Khedive Ismail’s
nation-building, chapter 3 studies urban patterns of consumption and economic
development, and chapter 4 deftly analyzes the rise of consumer culture
and advertising in the West in contrast to the development of robust
consumerism in Egypt. Chapter 5 addresses “The New Egyptian Woman
and Her Western Sisters,” and chapters 6 and 7 focus on female education.
The politics of textbooks is reviewed in chapter 8, which is followed by the
author’s “Conclusion,” detailed notes, and a helpful index.
An intriguing passage (p. 20) references the types of education received
by male and female slaves in the royal harem. Russell explains that potential ...