Inji Aflatun & Egyptian Feminism

Ok...up late reading "We Egyptian Women" by Inji Aflatun in the Feminist Theory Reader (FTR) instead of going to see Girl Trouble open for Blowfly or Joey Casio at the Red House.

So I'm sitting here concentrating on this short essay that argues for women's suffrage and full political participation and realize that the FTR is giving me no context whatsoever other than that it was written in 1949. This is the second entry after the intro. Not a good sign.

No history of Egypt, no economic analysis of colonialism, no discussion of Egypt in WW2 etc

So, I got out all these books and started re-reading "Women in Egypt" by Angela Davis in Women, Culture and Politics (which is just such a great essay by the way), looking for my Nawal El Sadaawi Reader (can't find it), skimming the chapter on Egypt in The Darker Nations by Vijay Prashad (so good), checking the index of Leila Ahmed's Women and Gender in Islam (I really need to read this whole book someday), glancing at Harem Years by Huda Shaarawi (which I forgot I even had)...then I come in and start googling "feminism in Egypt" and now it's really late and I am feeling invigorated yet overwhelmed by how much I don't know and how much I want to learn.

Well, this is my idea of fun, but I don't have too much to report just yet....other than that it seems like a gross oversight to start a feminist anthology with this essay without any kind of socio-economic or cultural/political context. Huh.

Feminist Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives

Feminist Theory Reader: Local & Global Perspectives, 2nd Edition

Edited by Carole R. McCann and Seung-kyung Kim

Routledge Press, 2010

This came in the mail today, it was kind of pricey, but I was lucky to find a used copy.

I saw it on a syllabus for a recent feminist theory class that was taught at Evergreen. I wish I had taken the class, so I decided to order the book and read along. They started with bell hooks Feminism is for Everybody, so I re-visited that over the weekend. I have read it a few times already. I guess I'll post about that some more later. I'm excited to read the intro to the Feminist Theory Reader tonight.

In addition to selections from this book, the class was assigned readings from a packet and Feminist Thought by Stephanie Tong, which I have also ordered.

I figure it will take me awhile to work my way through this stuff, but I've read much of it before and was in a class recently (2006-7) that covered similar ground, so it shouldn't be too overwhelming.

Lately I've been thinking about ways I could try and help make feminist theory more accessible to a wider audience. Getting to study it in college was a privilege and I would like to be able to share what I have learned. I'm not sure how best to approach this, but since I am reading this stuff anyhow and decided to keep a journal, I might as well share some of my thoughts here.

Ideally, feminist theory should not be read in isolation, but in a group setting with discussion. In the past I have tried to organize a feminist theory study group outside of school, but people get busy and it's hard to keep it going for longer than a few months at a time. It would be cool to find an online study group, but so far no luck. Comments are turned on, so please read along if you feel like it.