Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics

1. Slavery, Ethnicity, and Family

chapter one Slavery, Ethnicity, and Family The origins of nations have been intensely debated by scholars. A consensus has emerged among most historians that nations are “constructed,” “invented,” or “imagined” in the modern period.1 Yet they are not invented from thin air. Rather, nationalists are bound by the cultural materials at hand, the ethnicities on the ground, and socioeconomic circumstances . Some “ethnies” develop into nations, others are absorbed into a larger national project, and still others languish or disappear.2 Gender analysis challenges some of the presumptions about the construction of nations and argues that gender is crucial in the production and reproduction of ethnic and national identities. The primary site of this production and reproduction is the family. At the turn of the twentieth century, the “Woman Question”—a debate about gender roles in the family and society—preoccupied Egyptian nationalists. These same nationalists deployed an array of family metaphors to smooth over ethnic and other differences and build a sense of collective identity. This chapter looks for the roots of the turn-of-thecentury debate on the “Woman Question” in social changes of the long nineteenth century, a century that began in Egypt with the French occupation (1798 to 1801) and ended at the outset of World War I (1914), when Egypt became a British protectorate.3 It connects the transformations in elite households, particularly those caused by the end of harem slavery, with the making of the nation and nationalist discourses. The perceived crisis of the family at the turn of the century, it argues, must 17 be seen in the context of changing Ottoman-Egyptian households, as well as an emerging bourgeoisie. Many of the female nationalists whom we shall later encounter were products of these multi-ethnic OttomanEgyptian households. Yet the Ottoman-Egyptian past and its ethnic diversity were effectively repressed from the collective memory and historical accounts. Family and ethnicity played crucial roles in the making of the nation in multiple ways. Obviously, other factors proved critical in this process, including new economic opportunities (such as the prominence of cotton as a cash crop), the rise of rural notables, the secularization of law and education, the development of new professional classes, and the growth of a modern state apparatus that was increasingly autonomous from Istanbul. As these factors have been dealt with elsewhere at great length, they will not be pursued here.4 the transformation of elite households One key to understanding the origins of the modern Egyptian nation lies in the structural changes of the elite. In nineteenth-century Egypt, the members of this elite were Turkish speakers who had polyglot slaves in their households. During the nineteenth century, the upper-class OttomanEgyptian household—one of the most important social formations— unraveled.5 Elite households, which were smaller-scaled versions of the Ottoman sultan’s household, were composed of a patriarch, his children, single or multiple wives and concubines, eunuchs, domestic slaves, and other retainers and relatives. A multi-ethnic unit, members of the household came from different parts of the Ottoman Empire or beyond—Central Asia or sub-Saharan Africa. A major factor contributing to the transformation of elite households was the demise of harem slavery. Although some Egyptian nationalists continued to defend African slavery (mostly of domestic laborers) until the end of the nineteenth century, the end of harem slavery (concubinage of Circassians, Georgians, and others) coincided with the emergence of nationalism. In short, foreignborn slave mothers could not be entrusted with raising good patriots. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Albanian-born Mehmed Ali (Muhammad ‘Ali) became recognized as the Ottoman governor (vali) of Egypt in the struggle that followed the French withdrawal from Egypt. He eventually won the right to bequeath the position to his sons. The local Ottoman elite over which he presided remained bound by their loyalty to his house, their commitment to serve in Egypt, and a sense of 18 Images of the Nation belonging to an imperial Ottoman tradition. Ottoman was not an ethnic but rather a cultural and supra-ethnic identity. Composed of multiple ethnicities—Albanians, Bosnians, Circassians, Ethiopians, Georgians, Greeks, Sudanese, Turks, and others—and coming from diverse Ottoman territories, this elite spoke Turkish—and thus were often identified as Turks rather than Ottomans—while the Egyptian population they ruled spoke Arabic. The Ottoman-Egyptian ruling elite numbered about ten thousand men and women, and its men monopolized...