Changing Roles of Women in Egypt's Newly Reclaimed Lands

Abstract

Moslem women are seldom portrayed in Western nations as active participants in the development of their communities. An image of secluded, veiled women who only take part in private domain decisions dominates perceptions that Moslem societies limit women's participation in the public domain. However, one also finds Moslem women who play important and often pioneering roles that require active and serious participation in community development efforts. This paper describes the role Moslem Egyptian women play in building communities in the desert of Egypt. In the mid-seventies, the Egyptian government's interest in land reclamation increased, and the green revolution, as it was called by former President Sadat, was discussed extensively in the Egyptian media. Local newspapers launched an intensive campaign urging Egyptians to take part in the government's efforts to bring desert into the agricultural margin. Despite the fact that land reclamation seemed to be a major concern of the government, very little was known about the socio-economic impact of moving people to the new lands reclaimed from the desert,2 as opposed to the old lands that are directly under gravity flow of the Nile and have silt soils. Moreover, publications on women's par