International Women Stage Directors

Egypt

Egypt Dalia Basiouny1 The first Egyptian woman to direct for the stage was Fatma Roushdy in 1930. Though her seven plays as a director were successful, the work of this actor-turneddirector did not encourage many women to follow in her footsteps. The directorial efforts of women in the theatre were sporadic throughout most of the twentieth century, and, with a few exceptions, they did not reflect a clear vision or commitment to the craft until the rise of contemporary Egyptian women directors in the last decade of the century. In the 1990s a few women artists started carving names for themselves in the independent theatre world in Egypt. A handful of women directors established their own theatre companies with clear missions and visions and started competing with male directors for the limited funding and performance spaces available in Cairo. Outside the Egyptian capital, women directors are still a rare phenomenon in the regional theatres. The journey from Roushdy’s first attempt at directingTolstoy’s Anna Karenina in 1930 to director Laila Soliman’s productions revealing the atrocities of the Military Council against the rebels of the Egyptian Revolution in 2011 distills the journey of Egyptian women theatre artists searching for their voice and mission in the public sphere, and honing that voice and their artistic skills to create their unique aesthetics. Women’s Rights: Historical Context The Egyptian feminist movement started in the late nineteenth century and gained much strength and momentum at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was closely connected to the nationalist struggle for independence and shaping the country’s future. In her article “Egyptian Feminism in a Nationalist Century,” Margo Badran sums up that connection: “The first half of the century was marked by a fierce anti-colonial struggle; the second half in constructing a new, more independent nation. During the course of the century, women have given shape to a newer, modern identity—a new way of thinking, a new mode of analysis and a new guide for everyday and collective political activism. Women articulated feminism within the discourses of both Islamic modernism and secular nationalism” (Badran).2 The revolution of 1919 is often seen as the true beginning of women’s open involvement in the public arena: marching against the colonial British occupation, organizing the first public protests demanding the country’s independence, and dying to defend their right to live in a free country. The period between 1919 and 1922 was an important period of transformation from the invisible social feminism to a highly public and organized collective feminism. The second decade of the twentieth century witnessed public women’s activities on a number of fronts. The first group of female students officially enrolled in degree programs at Cairo University in 1927. Women producers and directors participated in the birthing of the new industry of Egyptian filmmaking. On another front, women owned and published women’s magazines. Retired stage actor Rosa Al Youssef established a magazine carrying her name in 1925 that is still in print, and Roushdy established a magazine in 1928, which was short lived. Women also wrote for the theatre for the first time. May Zeyada wrote two plays that were not performed, while actor Dawlat Abyad wrote two one-act plays tackling women’s problems. Badran notes that with the 1952 revolution, women’s independent public militancy was about to come to an end. The new state granted women the vote in 1956, thirtytwo years after feminists had made their first demands for suffrage. That same year the government forced the closure of the Egyptian Feminist Union, as it did all independent organizations. It was allowed to reconstitute itself as a social service organization under a new name, the Huda Sha’rawi Association. The last decades of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century bore the fruit of women’s activism throughout the century, represented in major advancements in family laws to protect women and their children, and new divorce laws that guarantee women’s rights. As of 2012, the number of women exceeds men in higher education, and there is a large number of women in the workforce, from manual and office work to high executive positions and ministerial offices. Yet there are some serious backlashes to the status of women in society due to the irrational religious waves. Even though the breadwinner in one out of every four Egyptian households is a woman, there are extremist religious calls for women to...