Women in Egypt - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Women in Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

From the earliest preserved archaeological records, women in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

have been thought to be considered nearly equal to men in Egyptian society, regardless of marital status

Marital status

A person's marital status indicates whether the person is married. Questions about marital status appear on many polls and forms, including censuses and credit card applications.In the simplest sense, the only possible answers are "single" or "married"...

. Women were stated lower than men when it came to a higher leader in the Egyptian hierarchy counting his peasants. This hierarchy

Hierarchy

A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...

was similar to the way the peasants were treated in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. Despite this equality, women were expected to avoid contact with men who were not kin

Kin

-Places:* Kin, Okinawa, a town in Okinawa, Japan* Kin, Pakistan, a village along the Indus in Pakistan* Kin, Mogok, a village in Mogok Township, Burma * Kin, Ye, a village in Ye Township, Burma...

and to veil themselves in public. As children, females were raised to be solely dependent upon their fathers and older brothers. An early married life for women meant a time of extreme subordination

Subordination

Subordination may refer to one of the following.*Subordination in a hierarchy ** Insubordination, obedience*Subordination *Subordination...

and insecurity. When women married, they depended on their husbands to make all decisions, while the women themselves were depended upon to carry out household chores. Married Egyptian women were expected by their husband’s families to bear children, but particularly males. It was common for married couples to continue to reproduce until bearing at least two sons. Barrenness was considered a severe misfortune for Egyptian women, as well as the inability to produce male offspring. Women who had only bore females were given derogatory names, such as “mothers of brides”. A family with well-grown sons were considered to have decent security. An Egyptian woman was thought to be at the peak of power when her sons had married because she automatically acquired the control over the newly growing families of her sons.

Women have traditionally been preoccupied with household tasks and child rearing and have rarely had opportunities for contact with men outside the family. Unlike most traditional Egyptian women, Cleopatra and Nefertiti

Nefertiti

Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they started to worship one god only...

were among the few who had a major impact as rulers in Egyptian society. Cleopatra was known to have ruled with Marc Antony around 31 BC, despite her gender and other social issues, and she was also the Coregent of her two husband-brothers and her son. Nefertiti was the chief wife of an Egyptian pharaoh, Amenhotep IV. Nefertiti was known to be an active Egyptian woman in society, as well as her children. In addition to female Egyptian rulers, Queen Hatshepsut had reigned in Egypt from about 1503 to 1480 B.C. and had based most of Egypt’s economy on commerce.

Though not many women have acted as rulers in Egyptian society, they have been considered to be equal among men in status as well as legalistic opportunities. Egyptian women may have also sometimes be seen as more superior to men in society. Women were shown to be allowed the opportunity to take part in the economy, such as their role as merchants, as it happened later in the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, specially among the lower classes. Women had also taken part in religious activities, such as those who were priestesses. In the Sixth Dynasty Nebet

Nebet

Nebet was created vizier during the late Old Kingdom of Egypt by Pharaoh Pepi I of the Sixth dynasty, her son-in-law. She is the first recorded female vizier in Ancient Egyptian history, the next one was in the 26th Dynasty....

became a Vizier

Vizier

A vizier or in Arabic script ; ; sometimes spelled vazir, vizir, vasir, wazir, vesir, or vezir) is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in a Muslim government....

and thus the first woman in History to fulfill such an office. Women could also own property, divorce their husbands, live alone and occupy main positions, mostly religious, in similarity with Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...

n women. Only the children from the Great Royal Wife

Great Royal Wife

Great Royal Wife or Chief King's Wife is the term used to refer to the chief wife of the pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. While most Ancient Egyptians were monogamous, the pharaoh would have had other, lesser wives and concubines in addition to the Great Royal Wife...

could expect to succeed to the throne, and if there were no son but daughters by her, then a son by another wife or concubine could only get the throne by marrying the heir daughter, and whoever did so would become the new King. Either through political and / or religious power, some women managed to become, de facto or de jure, the highest office holders in the kingdom, and share a status of co-rulers with men, even being depicted in monuments with the same height as their husbands or otherwise and even as the other Gods of Egypt. Such were the cases of Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut also Hatchepsut; meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies;1508–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt...

, Nefertiti

Nefertiti

Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they started to worship one god only...

, Nefertari

Nefertari

Nefertari also known as Nefertari Merytmut was one of the Great Royal Wives of Ramesses the Great. Nefertari means 'Beautiful Companion' and Meritmut means 'Beloved of [the Goddess] Mut'. She is one of the best known Egyptian queens, next to Cleopatra, Nefertiti and Hatshepsut...

and the Nubian Egyptian Queens. The further Nubian Queens were able to maintain this status. The most important religious offices of that kind were those of God's Wife

God's Wife

God's Wife is a term which was often allocated to royal women during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. The term indicates an inherited sacral role, in which the role of God's Wife passed from mother to daughter...

and God's Wife of Amun

God's Wife of Amun

God's Wife of Amun was the highest ranking priestess of the Amun cult, an important Ancient Egyptian religious institution centered in Thebes during the Egyptian 25th and 26th dynasties...

. Politically, they often managed to become Interregnum queen

Interregnum queen

Some more recent research has other findings, but according to early twentieth century writers in 1932, an interregnum queen, is a Great Royal Wife of a previous pharaoh who rules as a regent in the place of her heir-son, who has not yet reached the age to solely assume the role of pharaoh of Egypt...

s. In the Ptolemaic Dynasty

Ptolemaic dynasty

The Ptolemaic dynasty, was a Macedonian Greek royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt during the Hellenistic period. Their rule lasted for 275 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC...

this rise to power was sublimated with the establishment of a coregency system, in which Queens had the same position as Kings and were even powerful enough to obtain in dispute that coregency for themselves.

Modern status

To limit women’s contact with men as tradition, practices such as veiling and gender segregation at schools, work, and recreation have become common. Furthermore, lower-class families, especially in Upper-Egypt, have tended to withdraw females from school as they reached puberty to minimize their interaction with males. Lower-class men frequently preferred marriage to women who had been secluded rather than to those who had worked or attended secondary school.

The rule of Gamal Abdul Nasser was characterized by his policy of stridently advocating women's rights through welfare-state policies, labeled as state feminism

State feminism

State feminism is feminism created or approved by the government of a state or nation. It usually specifies a particular program. The government may, at the same time, prohibit non-governmental organizations from advocating for any other feminist program....

. Women were guaranteed the right to vote and equality of opportunity was explicitly stated in the 1956 Egyptian constitution, forbidding gender-based discrimination. Labor laws were changed to ensure women's standing in the work force and maternity leave was legally protected. At the same time, the state repressed independent feminist organizations, leaving a dearth of female political representation.

The economic liberalization plan

Infitah

The Infitah was Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's policy of "opening the door" to private investment in Egypt in the years following the 1973 October War with Israel...

of the Sadat

Sadat

- See also :* Anwar Sadat, former President of Egypt* Sadat * Saadat* Sadat. Term also used for the descendents of Holy Prophet Muhammad through Imam Ali and Bibi Fatima progeny....

regime would result in the collapse of this system and the resurgence of Islamist-influenced policy. While the Nasserist years allowed a wide range of study for women, Sadat's policies would narrow the opportunities available to women. Unemployment for women changed from 5.8% 1960 to 40.7% in 1986. In place of policies to economically support women during pregnancy, women were encouraged to leave work entirely or work part time.

The Mubarak years were marked by further erosion of the role of women. Preserved parliamentary seats for women and the 1979 personal status law were repealed in 1987, a new watered-down law taking its place that allowed less power for women in cases of divorce.

The migration of a large number of Egyptians, mostly men, has also had an impact on the status of Egyptian women. A study by the International Organization for Migration

International Organization for Migration

The International Organization for Migration is an intergovernmental organization. It was initially established in 1951 as the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration to help resettle people displaced by World War II....

found that two thirds of migrant household interviewed were headed by a woman in the absence of the male migrant (husband/father). For these households, remittances represented an important source of income, accounting for 43% of their total income. 52% of wives of the migrants independently decided how to spend the money received. In the remaining cases, the head of the household enjoyed a fair deal of autonomy as the decision on how to use the remittance money was reached through mutual consultation between the migrant and the head of the household and only in a few cases (11 %) did the migrant decide alone.
today

Polls taken in 2010 and 2011 show that 39% considered gender equality "very important" to Egypt's future post-revolution and 54% of Egyptians supported sex segregation in the workplace. 98 percent of foreign women and 80 percent of native women claim that they have been sexually harassed in Egypt; two-thirds of men say that they have harassed women.

Marriage and Divorce

Marriage was considered a very important part in ancient Egyptian society. Marriage was an almost completely private affair, and as a result, not many records of marriage were kept. Furthermore, not all Egyptian marriages were arranged

Arranged marriage

An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...

, rather, most daughters had persuaded their families for their approval towards their future spouses.

Egyptian women who were married were highly acknowledged. It was common for females to marry after the age of menstruation

Menstruation

Menstruation is the shedding of the uterine lining . It occurs on a regular basis in sexually reproductive-age females of certain mammal species. This article focuses on human menstruation.-Overview:...

, such as age 14. They were usually considered married after they had left the protection of their father’s house. It had also been acknowledged that though the woman became under her spouse’s care, her husband did not become her legal guardian and the woman remained independent while controlling her own assets.

Egypt's laws pertaining to marriage and divorce have changed over the years, however they have generally favored the social position of men, although reform continues. Egypt retained the inclusion of Islamic law

Sharia

Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...

in dealings of family law

Family law

Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including:*the nature of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships;...

, following on from its judicial and administrative independence from the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

in 1874. Muslim husbands were traditionally allowed to have up to four wives at a time in accordance with Islamic religious custom, but a woman could have only one husband at a time. Quranic texts suggest that this practice was a concession to social conditions, stating that doing so might be 'best for the orphans'. A Muslim man could divorce his wife with ease by saying "I divorce thee" on three separate occasions in the presence of witnesses. However, for example in the more strict Hanafi

Hanafi

The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...

school of family law, a woman could only divorce from her husband in the case of his impotence or by choosing the 'option of puberty'. The first reforms that changed this state of affairs came in the 1920s with Law No.25 of 1920 and 1929. These reforms included the following specifics regarding legitimate grounds for a woman requesting a divorce:

If her husband failed to provide maintenance. (nafaqah)
If her husband was found to have a dangerous or contagious disease.
If she was deserted by her husband.
If she was maltreated by her husband.

These reforms were possible through the Maliki

Maliki

The ' madhhab is one of the schools of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam. It is the second-largest of the four schools, followed by approximately 25% of Muslims, mostly in North Africa, West Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia...

school of thought, which was more liberal. As suggested by Rifa'a el-Tahtawi

Rifa'a el-Tahtawi

Rifa'a al-Tahtawi was an Egyptian writer, teacher, translator, Egyptologist and renaissance intellectual...

, a more progressive attitude towards the rights of women could be achieved whilst remaining within an Islamic framework, by looking to another of the Sunni schools. In 1971 further reforms were made and these even began to include debates about whether or not Shariah law should be included in the new constitution. Dr. Aisha Ratib became Minister of Social Affairs and in November the following revisions were suggested:

That the age for legal marriage should be raised to 18 for women and 21 for men
That the permission of a judge was required for polygamy
That divorces could not take place without a judge being present
That the mother should be allowed a greater period of guardianship, but also that guardianship in the case of divorce should go to the parent deemed most suitable to provide it
That judges should have more involvement in family law cases, and that female judges should be considered to deal with family law cases.

The government amended the laws relating to personal status in 1979. The amendments, which became known as the "women's rights law," were in the form of a presidential decree and subsequently approved by the People's Assembly

People's Assembly

People's Assembly refers to various legislative bodies:Ancient:* People's Assembly or Plebeian Council of Ancient Rome* Other Ancient Roman assembliesModern:* People's Assembly of Abkhazia...

. The leading orthodox Islamic clergy endorsed these amendments, but Islamist groups opposed them as state infringements of religious precepts and campaigned for their repeal. The amendments stated that polygymy was legally harmful to a first wife and entitled her to sue for divorce within a year after learning of her husband's second marriage. The amendments also entitled the first wife to compensation. A husband retained the right to divorce his wife without recourse to the courts, but he was required to file for his divorce before witnesses at a registrar's office and officially and immediately to inform his wife. The divorced wife was entitled to alimony equivalent to one year's maintenance in addition to compensation equivalent to two years' maintenance; a court could increase these amounts under extenuating circumstances such as the dissolution of a long marriage. The divorced wife automatically retained custody of sons under the age of ten and daughters under twelve; courts could extend the mother's custody of minors until their eighteenth birthdays.
In 1985 Egyptian authorities ruled that the amendments of 1979 were unconstitutional because they had been enacted through a presidential decree while the People's Assembly was not in session. A new law reversed many of the rights accorded to women in 1979. A woman lost her automatic right to divorce her husband if he married a second wife. She could still petition a court to consider her case, but a judge would grant a divorce only if it were in the interests of the family. If a divorce were granted, the judge would also determine what was an appropriate residence for the divorced woman and her children.

The changes in divorce legislation in 1979 and 1985 did not significantly alter the divorce rate, which has been relatively high since the early 1950s. About one in five marriages ended in divorce in the 1980s. Remarriage was common, and most divorced men and women expected to wed again. Seven out of ten divorces took place within the first five years of marriage, and one out of three in the first year. The divorce rate depended on residence and level of education. The highest divorce rates were among the urban lower class, the lowest rates among the villagers of Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt

Upper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...

. Throughout the country, as much as 95 percent of all divorces occurred among couples who were illiterate.

Sources

Beatty, Chester. 1998. egyptology.com (accessed April 12, 2009)
Brunner, Emma. 1979. Birth of Hatshepsut web.archive.org accessed April 12, 2009).
Dunham, D. 1917. Naga-ed-Der Stelae of the First Intermediate Period. fordham.edu (accessed April 12, 2009).
Piccione, Peter A. 1995. The Status of Women in Ancient Egyptian Society. web.archive.org (accessed April 12, 2009).
Tappan, Eva March. 1914. The World's Story: A History of the World in Story, Song and Art. fordham.edu (accessed April 12, 2009)
The Statues of Women in Egyptian Society. library.cornell.edu (accessed April 12, 2009)
Ward, William. The Egyptian Economy and Non-royal Women: Their Status in Public Life. stoa.org (accessed April 12, 2009)

External links

Ancient Egyptian Women

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