Title: Cross-Glocalization: Syrian Women Immigrants and the Founding of Women's Magazines in Egypt
Abstract: AbstractDespite the presence of women's migration from Syria to Egypt, until recently the extent of their contribution and influence has received insufficient attention. This paper aims to feminize the narrative of migration from Syria to Egypt by positioning women more centrally in this narrative through their cultural activities, especially the establishment of women's magazines. The Syrian/Lebanese and Egyptian phases of these women's lives are treated as a continuum and it is shown that their home life experience in Syria shaped their later life in Egypt. Conceptually, the paper envisions the diffusion of ideas resulting from the migration of Syrian women to Egypt towards the end of the nineteenth century as a process of regionalization, which is termed cross-glocalization. Notes1. E.W. Said, The World, the Text, and the Critic (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983), p.226.2. There is ample research on Syrian immigration to America. See for example, A. Naff, Becoming American: The Early Arab Immigrants’ Experience (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press, 1985); M.W. Suleiman, ‘The Mokarzels’ Contributions to the Arabic-Speaking Community in the United States’, Arab Studies Quarterly, Vol.21, No.2 (1999), pp.71–88. On the immigration of women to America see S.M.A. Gualtieri, Between Arab and White: Race and Ethnicity in the Early Syrian American Diaspora (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2009), pp.40–51; S.M.A. Gualtieri, ‘Gendering the Chain Migration Thesis: Women and Syrian Transatlantic Migration, 1878–1924’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, Vol.24, No.11 (2004), pp.69–81; A.F. Khater, Inventing Home: Emigration, Gender and the Middle Class in Lebanon, 1870–1920 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).3. See for example T. Philipp, The Syrians in Egypt 1725–1975 (Stuttgart: Steiner-Verlag, 1985); T. Philipp, ‘Feminism and Nationalist Politics in Egypt’, in L. Beck and N. Keddie (eds.), Women in the Muslim World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978), pp.277–94; M. Booth, ‘Constructions of Syrian Identity in the Women's Press’, in A. Beshara (ed.), The Origins of Syrian Nationhood: Histories, Pioneers and Identity (London and New York: Routledge, 2011), pp.223–52; B. Baron, The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 1994); B. Baron, ‘Readers and the Women's Press in Egypt’, Poetic Today, Vol.15, No.2 (1994), pp.217–40; M. Booth, May Her Likes Be Multiplied: Biography and Gender Politics in Egypt (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001). See also L.L. Levy, ‘Jewish Writers in the Arab East: Literature, History, and the Politics of Enlightenment, 1863–1914’ (PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 2007).4. On the process of globalization in the nahda period, see I.K. Makdasi, The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860–1914 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010).5. Kraidy proposed a conceptualization of hybridity as glocalization. See M.M. Kraidy, ‘The Global, the Local, and the Hybrid: A Native Ethnography of Glocalization’, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Vol.16 (1999), pp.456–76; A.D. King, Culture Globalization and the World System: Contemporary Conditions for the Representations of Identity (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000).6. R. Robertson, ‘Glocalization: Time Space and Homogeneity-Heterogeneity’, in M. Featherstone, S. Lash and R. Robertson (eds.), Global Modernities (London: Sage, 1995), pp.25–44.7. Immigration is one of a number of channels which influence glocalization and in this case cross-glocalization as well. Other examples are merchant activities, and the mobility of literature.8. For more on this attitude, especially regarding modernity, see B. Latour, We Have Never Been Modern, trans. C. Porter (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996).9. The lives of these Syrian women are not normally studied in continuum since historiography is more often than not a national one and confined to national borders. However, taking mobility/immigration as a point of departure enables us to trace continuities which are otherwise overlooked.10. For more on this issue, see Said, The World, The Text, and the Critic, pp.226–47.11. On the issue of women and migration see S. Pedraza, ‘Women and Migration: The Social Consequences of Gender’, Annual Review of Sociology, Vol.17 (1991), pp.303–25.12. Philipp, The Syrians in Egypt, 118; most Syrians and Lebanese acquired Egyptian nationality. The nationality law of 1892 defined Egyptians as being those Ottoman subjects who had been born in Egypt or had lived there for at least 15 years. A. Hourani, ‘Lebanese and Syrians in Egypt’, in A. Hourani and N. Shehadi (eds.), The Lebanese in the World: A Century of Emigration (London: The Centre for Lebanese Studies in association with I.B. Tauris, 1992), p.501.13. Philipp, The Syrians in Egypt, p.96.14. Economic and political circumstances encouraged Syrians to immigrate to Egypt. Two years after the Balta Liman agreement in 1838, the monopoly economy of Muhammad ‘Ali in Egypt was dismantled. This step opened Egypt up once again to entrepreneurial trade, a process that continued between 1840 and 1860. The Tanzimat period, which, among other things, gave Christians a status equal to that of other Ottoman subjects, led to general opposition by Druze and Muslim elements, which culminated in the civil war in Lebanon in 1860 and the massacre of Christians in Damascus in the same year. These events also fuelled emigration to Egypt. T. Philipp, ‘Demographic Patterns of Syrian Immigration to Egypt in the 19th Century’ (unpublished article in the International Conference on the Economic History of the Middle East, 1800–1914: A Comparative Approach, Haifa University, 14-19 December 1980.), pp.8–10; Philipp, The Syrians in Egypt, pp.78–9.15. It is important to note that the Ottomans established schools from the 1880s. See S.A. Somel, The Modernization of Public Education in the Ottoman Empire 1839–1908: Islamization, Autocracy and Discipline (Leiden: Brill, 2001).16. Philipp, The Syrians in Egypt, p.98. The Syrian immigrants were probably more highly represented in the field of journalism than in any other field. Between 1800 and 1914 a total of 790 newspapers and magazines were founded in Egypt. Of these, 150 were owned by men whose names were recognizably Syrian – i.e. roughly one-fifth of all the pre-World War I periodicals in Egypt were owned by Syrians. The Syrian domination of the press was only seriously challenged in the 1890s, with the founding of several leading newspapers by Egyptians. From 1873 to 1907, 648 new periodicals appeared on the market, 97 of which were started by Syrians. The involvement of Syrians in the Egyptian press is particularly striking when compared to the overall population of Syrians in Egypt. According to the Egyptian census of 1907 there were 33,947 Ottoman Syrians out of a total population of 11.19 million – i.e. not even a third of 1 per cent were Syrians. Philipp, The Syrians in Egypt, pp.96–7.17. F. Zachs and S. Halevi, ‘From Difa’ al-Nisa’ to Mas’alat al-Nisa’ in Greater Syria: Readers and Writers Debate Women and their Rights, 1858–1900’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol.41 (2009), pp.615–34.18. See for more details, B. Fortna, Imperial Classroom: Islam, the State, and Education in the Late Ottoman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp.113–25.19. Khater, Inventing Home, p.137.20. Ibid., p.138, see also, pp.136–7.21. Zachs and Halevi, ‘From Difa’ al-Nisa’ to Mas’alat al-Nisa’ in Greater Syria’.22. See Al-Muqtataf, Vol.12 (April 1888), pp.435–6.23. Y. Sarruf, ‘Maryam Makariyus, firaq al-Rifaq’, al-Muqtataf, Vol.12 (1888), p.436. Dates differ for the establishment of this society. See N.N. al-Jurdi, Nisa’ min Biladi (Beirut: al-Mu’assasa al-’Arabiyya lil-Dirasat wal-Nashr, 1987), p.242; Al-Qiyadi states that Bakurat Suriyya was established in 1878. S.I. Al-Qiyadi, al-Katiba al-’Arabiyya fi ‘Asr al-Nahda hatta 1914 (Malta: Manshurat Elga, 1999), p.107; S. Khairallah, The Sisters of Men (Beirut: Institute For Women's Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese American University, 1996), p.165; G. Kallas, Ta’rikh al-Sihafa al-Nasawiyya: Nash’atuha wa-Tatawwuruha 1892–1932 (Beirut: Dar al-Jil, 1996), p.212.24. No information regarding these figures is available.25. See, for more details on the goals of the society of Bakurat Suriyya, H. Bar Wadi, ‘Al-Akhlaq wal-’Awa’id’, al-Muqtataf, Vol.7 (1883), pp.367–9.26. W. Sakakini, Mayy Ziyada fi Hayatiha wa-Athariha (Cairo: Dar al-Ma’arif fi Misr, 1969), p.39.27. Eventually, at the age of 22, Mayy migrated to Egypt. Like other educated women, she worked as a French teacher. She also became one of the leading intellectuals in Egypt. Sakakini, Mayy Ziyada fi Hayatiha wa-Athariha, pp.39–40.28. Both husbands published newspapers in Egypt. Yaqut was the wife of Ya’qub Sarruf, the publisher of the newspaper al-Muqtataf, and Maryam Makariyus was the wife of Shahin Makariyus, the publisher of the newspaper Lata’if.29. Booth, May Her Likes Be Multiplied, p.181; Y. Sarruf, ‘Al-Sayyida Nasra Iliyas’, Muqtataf, Vol.13, No.4 (Jan. 1881), pp.549–50.30. M. Booth, ‘“She Herself was the Ultimate Rule”: Arabic Biographies of Missionary Teachers and their Pupils’, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, Vol.13, No.4 (2002), p.439.31. Sakakini, Mayy Ziyada fi Hayatiha wa-Athariha, p.66; Sarruf, ‘al-Sayyida Nasra Iliyas’, pp.549–50.32. Toward the end of the nineteenth century most of the women's magazines published in Egypt were run by women who had either Syrian or Turkish backgrounds. The native Egyptian Jamila Hafiz published al-Rayhana starting in 1907. At the same time in the region of Syria, in 1910 Mary Agami founded al-’Arus the first Syrian magazine published by a woman. J.N. Baz, al-Nisai’yat (Beirut: al-Matba’a al-’Abasiyya, 1919), p.61.33. According to Khairallah she moved to Egypt when she was 14 years old. Khairallah, The Sisters of Men, p.179.34. B. Baron, Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), p.32.35. For more details on representatives of other newspapers in the Syrian region see A. Ayalon, ‘The Syrian Educated Elite and the Literary Nahda’, in I. Weismann and F. Zachs (eds.), Ottoman Reform and Muslim Regeneration (London: I.B. Tauris, 2005), pp.127–48.36. Al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.1, 20 Nov. 1892, p.3.37. Al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.5, April 1893, p. 240.38. H. Elsadda, ‘Gendered Citizenship: Discourses on Domesticity in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century’, Hawwa, Vol.4, No.1 (2006), pp.8–9.39. Khairallah, The Sisters of Men, pp.178–9.40. Anonymous, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.1, 20 Nov. 1892, pp.1–15.41. M. Badran and M. Cooke, Opening the Gates (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004), p.218; Anonymous, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.4, 1 March 1893, p.166.42. Anonymous, ‘Fa’ida Adabiyya’, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.10, 15 Feb. 1894, pp.446–8.43. Elsadda, ‘Gendered Citizenship’, p.12.44. See for example, Anonymous, ‘al-Anisa Ilizabit Dawis al-Amirikiyya’, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.2, 1 Jan. 1893, p.57.45. Anonymous, ‘Fil-Mar’a wa-Wajibatiha wa-Huquqiha: Madha Taghrab al-Zawja min Zawjiha’, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.1, 1 Jan. 1893, pp.60–64.46. The magazine even introduced women to books such as J.S. Mill's The Subjection of Women, which was published in 1869, and argued in favour of equality between the sexes. In it, Mill criticizes the social and legal inequalities commonly imposed upon women by a patriarchal culture. See, Anonymous, ‘Makan al-Nisa’ al-Ijtima’i wal-Siyasi min al-Qanun al-Hadith’, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.4, 1 March 1893, pp.172–5. This article/letter was sent to Khalil Mutran and he delivered it to al-Fatat.47. Unfortunately, I could only work on the issues of Anis al-Jalis published between 1898 and 1903. Hence, later developments in the magazine are difficult to determine.48. I.F. Ibrahim, Adibat Lubnaniyat (Beirut: Dar al-Rayhani lil-Taba’a wal-Nashr, no date), pp.57–64.49. R. Ashour, F.J. Ghazoul and H. Reda-Mekdashi (eds.), Arab Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide 1873–1999, trans. M. McClure (Cairo: The American University Press, 2008), pp.361–2; N. Al-Bughayni, Shuhafiyat Lubnaniyat Ra’idat Wa-Adibat Mubdi’at (Beirut: Nawfal Group, 2007), pp.28–40; Ibrahim, Adibat Lubnaniyat, pp.57–64.50. Anonymous, ‘al-Fatat al-Sharqiyya’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.2, No.1, 31 Jan. 1899, pp.17–31; M.H. Al-Sakhawi (Nazir al-Madrasa al-Hamdiyya bil Raml), ‘al-Fatat al-Sharqiyya’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.2, No.5, 31 May 1899, pp.182–7.51. According to the 1897 census 8 per cent of Egyptian men and 0.2 per cent of Egyptian women were literate. Over the next ten years Egyptian female literacy rose by 50 per cent compared to a 6.25 per cent increase in male literacy. By 1917, the figures for women had climbed again, with the number of literate Muslim women having more than tripled and that of literate Coptic women having increased at even a higher rate. Baron, ‘Readers and the Women's Press in Egypt’, p.220.52. Ibid.53. Avierino believed that hijab got in the way of education.54. This article stressed the impact of advertisements in America and Europe at that time, the vast amounts of space reserved for ads in newspapers, and the amount of money they brought in. The article ended with the hope that advertising would find its place in local society: ‘we hope that this article will be constructive for the people of this country and that they will accept ads in the magazine [once they understand how it works] so that eventually advertising will be an acceptable custom in our country’. Anonymous, ‘al-Fawa’id al-Muhmala’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.6, No.12, 31 Dec. 1903, p.1639. See also pp.1636–9. The ads in Avierino's magazine were designed especially for women and included schools for girls, Singer sewing machines (with illustrations), and clothes for children and adults, including corsets and dresses. There were also advertisements for jewellery, home appliances, medicine and musical instruments, especially pianos. See for example, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.3, No.8, 31 Aug. 1900, p.320; Anis al-Jalis, Vol.3, No.11, 30 Nov. 1900, pp.436–40: Anis al-Jalis, Vol.3, No.10, 31 Oct. 1900, pp.398–400.55. M. Ibrahim, ‘al-Mar’a fil-Rif’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.3, No.1, 31 Jan. 1900, pp.17–22; Z, ‘al-Mar’a fil-Rif’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.3, No.2, 21 Feb. 1900, pp.46–51.56. L.M. Al-Hashim, ‘Kalima fil-Rajul’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.4, No.5, 31 May 1901, pp.647–53.57. For more details on attitudes toward Syrian women journalists in Egypt see, Philipp, ‘Feminism and Nationalist Politics in Egypt’, pp.279–83.58. Booth, ‘Constructions of Syrian Identity in the Women's Press’, p.225.59. Sakakini, Mayy Ziyada fi Hayatiha wa-Athariha, p.53. See also pp.54–62.60. M. Ziyada, ‘Warda al-Yaziji’, al-Muqtataf, Vol.65 (1924), pp.1–7, 137–46, 257–62.61. Ibid., p.261; W. al-Yazaji herself published an article on the eastern women in her father's newspaper al-Diya’. See W. al-Yazaji, ‘al-Mar’a al-Sharqiyya’, al-Diya’, Vol.8, No.12 (1906), pp.357–60, 392–6, 422–5; al-Diya’, Vol.8, No.15, pp.453–7.62. I referred to Booth's translation. M. Booth, ‘Constructions of Syrian Identity in the Women's Press’, p.246; Baron, ‘Readers and the Women's Press in Egypt’, p.244.63. Baron, ‘Readers and the Women's Press in Egypt’, p.244.64. Anonymous, ‘al-Fatat al-Sharqiyya’; al-Sakhawi, ‘al-Fatat al-Sharqiyya’, 31 May 1899.65. Booth, ‘Constructions of Syrian Identity in the Women's Press’, p.230.66. Anonymous, ‘al-Mar’a wa-Ta’thiruha ‘ala al-Rajul, ‘al-Fatat al-Sharqiyya’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.1, No.10, 31 Oct. 1898, pp.318–21; Anonymous, ‘Ta‘lim al-Banat’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.2, No.2, 28 Feb. 1899, pp.57–63.67. M.H. Al-Sakhawi, ‘al- Fatat al-Sharqiyya’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.1, No.9, 30 July 1898, pp.273–7; M.H. Al-Sakhawi, ‘al-Fatat al-Sharqiyya’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.1, No.10, 31 Oct. 1898, pp.321–4; M.H. Al-Sakhawi, ‘al-Fatat al-Sharqiyya’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.1, No.11, 30 Nov. 1898, pp.352–6.68. Texts by Islamic scholars such as al-Farabi (c.872–950/1) and Ibn Khaldun's (1332–1406) Muqaddima deal with the organization of the household and the roles of the various individuals within the household. L. Baeck, ‘The Economic Thought of Classical Islam’, Diogenes, Vol.30 (1991), pp.99–115.69. W. Heffening, ‘Tadbir’, Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition, ed. P.J. Bearman, T. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. Van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs (Leiden: Brill, 2010), Brill online: http://www.brillonline.nl/subscriber/entry?entry=islam_COM-1139 (accessed 1 June 2011); A.A. Islahi, ‘The Myth of Bryson and Economic Thought in Islam’, Islamic Economics, Vol.21, No.1 (2008), pp.73–9.70. See for example K. Ghanim, Kitab al-Iqtisad al-Siayasi aw Tadbir al-Manzil (Alexandria: Matba’at Jaridat Misr, 1879).71. For some examples of lectures which were delivered by members of Bakurat Suriyya see F. Hubayqa, ‘al-Dhawq fil-Libas wal-jamal’, al-Muqtataf, Vol.7 (1882), pp.112–15; R. Shukri, ‘Farsh al-Buyut wa-Tartibuha’, al-Muqtataf, Vol.9 (1885), pp.743–5.72. Elsadda, ‘Gendered Citizenship’; Hoda Elsadda, ‘Imagining the “New Man”: Gender and Nation in Arab Literary Narratives in the Early Twentieth Century’, Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, Vol.3, No.2 (2007), pp.31–3. See also A. Najmabadi, ‘Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran’, in L. Abu-Lughod (ed.), Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998), pp.91–125.73. It is difficult to determine which book Nawfal translated but it is likely to have been the book by Qusah. See J. Qusah, Kitab Tadbir al-Manzil (Egypt: Matba’at al-Adab, 1889).74. See Anonymous, ‘Fi Tadbir al-Manzil fil-Mar’a wa-Wajibatiha wa Huquqiha’, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.5, 1 April 1893, pp.212–15; Anonymous, ‘Fi Tadbir al-Manzil fil-Mar’a wa Wajibatiha wa Huquqiha’, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.6, 1 May 1893, pp.281–5.75. M.A., ‘Sa’adat al-Zawjayn li-Ihda ‘Aqa’il al-Suriyyin fil-Istina al-’Ulya’, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.7, 1 June 1893, p.294, see also pp.291–5.76. Anonymous, ‘Tadbir al-Manzil’, al-Fatat, Vol.1, No.4, 1 March 1893, p.166; Anonymous, ‘Bab Tadbir al-Manzil, Dakhiliyat al-Manzil, Kutub al-Shahr wa-Jara’iduhu, al-Fatat al-Sharqiyya’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.2, No.5, 31 May 1899, pp.195–9.77. Anonymous, ‘Tadbir al-Manzil’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.2, No.4, 30 April 1899, pp.155–7.78. Anonymous, ‘Dawlat al-Mar’a’, Anis al-Jalis, Vol.1, No.6, 20 April 1898, pp.179–82.79. M. Beetham, ‘Periodicals and the New Media: Women and Imagined Communities’, Women's Studies International Forum, Vol.29 (2006), pp.231–40.
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-04-22
Language: en
Type: article
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