Egyptian Women's Movement and the Right to Political Participation: 1945-1980

In order to describe Egyptian women's efforts at gaining political rights equal to men, the authors examine women's associations, publications and books and their place in the society, as well as their successes and achievements from various groups. By examining the movements that were contemporary to women's movement in this period, i.e. national and Islamic movements, the authors try to explore their relationships with the women's movement. Indeed, national movement became a suitable ground for the rise of Egyptian women's movement, though it yielded few results for them. The more successful groups of this movement in the early 20th century were secular and neutral groups, but the Islamists became more dominant in the 1970s. The reason for the success of various groups in this period included getting along with the dominant currents in the society such as battle with colonialism and confrontation with Israel on the Palestine question.