Qasim Amin - Controversy

Controversy

Critics of Amin’s philosophies are quick to point out that Amin had no association with women other than aristocratic woman or prostitutes and they therefore question his stance of condemning all Egyptian women. Furthermore, Leila Ahmad, a novelist and reformer, suggests in her book, Women and Gender in Islam, that Amin’s attempt to discredit the veil as a reason for Egyptian weakness is clearly a Western view. She illustrates how Westerners tend to use the veil as a reason to colonize Islamic nations by correlating the veil with inferiority. In addition, Ahmad points out that Amin’s Egyptian woman, would not have control over her own body but instead it would be used to build up the nation. To her, this is hypocrisy because the Egyptian woman would still be the slave of her husband, her family, and her nation. In addition, history professor, Mona Russell further challenge Amin’s description of the new woman saying that it was “one of the fruits of modern society.” She argues that she is not “new”, does not care to be “synonymous” with Western woman, and is her own being. Amin, they believe, was influenced by his foreign education and upper middle class position which looked to foreign colonialism as superior rule. It was his way of integrating into foreign colonialism that held power of Egypt. His quote in which he says “We today enjoy a justice and a freedom the like of which I do not think Egypt has ever witnessed at anytime in the past is proof to this admiration. They, therefore, feel his opinions were based on bias rather than truth.