31. Waiting for the Revolution: Women’s Perceptions from Upper and Lower Rural Egypt

Abstract

A common perception of the Egyptian revolution is that women from rural areas played a passive role in the entire process. Lorenzo Kamel and Maha Ezzat Elkholy argue that these impressions are rather a simplistic way of approaching the local reality. By providing a comparative outlook on women in Upper and Lower Egypt, they show that Egypt’s rural women do not represent in any way a homogeneous group, but their growing activism has a common goal: to ignite a cultural and social revolution. In this context, they show that women’s activism and engagement in resistance and reform is not a phenomenon that should be assessed only on the basis of public campaigns, or the presence of women in public places. The “reform process” is taking place first and foremost inside the houses of millions of Egyptian women, including, and perhaps especially, the ones residing in rural Egypt.