Hegemony and the veil in 20th century Egypt

Abstract

The twentieth century witnessed two opposite trends concerning womens position in society in the Arab World. The first in the beginning of the century called for the liberation and unveiling of Muslim women whereas the second worked for veiling the Muslim women as part of a hegemonic project for the "Islamization" of Arab societies. Given that the veil was used as an indicative of the progress of a certain hegemonic project over another, this thesis addresses this topic through the historical analyses of the three different hegemonic projects that dominated the political scene in Egypt in the twentieth century and how they dealt with the question of womens rights and what was the role of women themselves in the making of the political discourse related to their rights in the hegemonic project. Nationalism, Nasserism and Muslim Brotherhood Islamic discourse were the three main hegemonic projects that dominated the scene throughout the 20th century in Egypt. Accordingly, this research work analyzes the discourses of these different hegemonic projects related to women and their role of women in the making of these discourses.