Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on transliteration
- List of groups, networks and organizations
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Up against conceptual frameworks: post-orientalism, occidentalism and presentations of the self
- 2 Contextualizing the Egyptian women's movement
- 3 Self and generation: formative experiences of Egyptian women activists
- 4 Secularism: challenging neo-orientalism and ‘his-stories’
- 5 From words to deeds: priorities and projects of contemporary activists
- 6 A mirror of political culture in Egypt: divisions and debates among women activists
- Conclusion: ‘standing on shifting ground’
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other books in the series
3 - Self and generation: formative experiences of Egyptian women activists
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on transliteration
- List of groups, networks and organizations
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Up against conceptual frameworks: post-orientalism, occidentalism and presentations of the self
- 2 Contextualizing the Egyptian women's movement
- 3 Self and generation: formative experiences of Egyptian women activists
- 4 Secularism: challenging neo-orientalism and ‘his-stories’
- 5 From words to deeds: priorities and projects of contemporary activists
- 6 A mirror of political culture in Egypt: divisions and debates among women activists
- Conclusion: ‘standing on shifting ground’
- Bibliography
- Index
- Other books in the series
Summary
Yes, it's painful to talk about it. Every time I do talk about it, it leaves me devastated. Every time, I had to pull myself together. Every time, I had to wonder: did this really happen to me? Is it the present me to whom all that happened? And finally: what is the real link between the ‘I now’ and my ‘I’ in the past? My ‘I now’ will tell the story, that is herstory. Not only am I telling it for your research, but also for the sake of the ‘I now’. The ‘I’ has to get rid of it, once and for all. I have to say it now, imbued with all my biases and personal drives. I don't promise you it's going to be objective; it's going to be very subjective. You'll have to struggle with it to come out with some logical conclusions and scientific results. Indeed, this is what your research requires: logicality, historicity and, most important, objectivity. They are the three rivets of the male phallocentric culture. Yes, you'll have to struggle, because it will be irrational, ahistorical and illogical.
(Samia E.)Sitting cross-legged on the bed of Samia E., sipping the Nescafé she made every time I came to visit her, smoking her cigarettes, looking at all the old newspapers stacked up and all the books lying around, I often forgot about the actual ‘purpose’ of these meetings.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Secularism, Gender and the State in the Middle EastThe Egyptian Women's Movement, pp. 86 - 127Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000