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Transcript of Palace Walk Old
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This essay aims to explain how the Egyptian people are afected by British
colonial. And how patriarchy maintains its power amongst amilies and
communities. Additionally it will look at how patriarchy maniests itsel in the
book Palace Walkand the efects o its culture on two characters and the
impact that power relations have in the characters ability to selactualise. !t will
look at secular and religious challenges to patriarchy by !slamic intellectuals"
activists and reormers.
#erner $%&'() describes patriarchy as a historic creation by men and women
taking almost *+,, years to complete and gender being something that was
created. By using women or their sexual and reproductive reasons women
became a valuable commodity to man as much as land did. They became traded
or bought and used or sexual services with their children conse-uently
becoming owned by their master. omen o con-uered tribes became enslaved
/rst and the men killed and by doing this men then also learned how to enslave
the men rom these groups and later on men and women rom their own
societies. 0Thus the enslavement of women, combining both racism and sexism
preceded the formation of classes and class oppression. By the time o the
second millennium young daughters o poor amilies became sold into marriage
or prostitution. The men that had a greater wealth commanded a higher price or
their daughter1s" which then brought more /nancial gains to the amily. here
debts could not be paid a husbands wie or children became used to pay of
debtors. arriors rom this time used their powers over women to con-uer tribes
and by doing this they set precedence or uture warriors in separating
diferences between the con-uered and the con-uerors. They learned how to use
power over people rom the /rst exchange o women. 2rom this came class
dominance exploiting men or work and women or work but also women or
sexual services and or child bearing. omen rom higher classes were still
controlled by men sexually and reproductively but would gain other privileges.
3en and women became dominated by whoever owned the means o
production or example land" businesses and property" namely men. These men
then received services $sexual and reproductive) rom women o their own class
and also those o a lower class. 4hildren of the women rom the lower classes
became owned by these men and were used as slaves" sold of or traded.omen only had access to resources or class through men and namely their
athers and their husbands" breaking rules meant they could be declassed. 3ost
single women were dependent on a male in some way" although some women
went to convents or other places. 2rom the 5econd 3illennium B.4 men who
were exploited and dominated by other men by the state then held dominance
over their amilies. 0Male famil heads allocated the resources of societ to their
families the wa the state allocated the resources of societ to them
The sexual behaviour o people in all societies was a orm o social control rom
*,,,B4. The amily became a replica o the state and constantly reinorced. 2or
patriarchy to survive it needs the cooperation o women. A lack o education"
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withholding knowledge o women1s history to women and by making access to
resources hard to reach or women are ways o ensuring their cooperation .
6ther actors to be considered are by using women1s sexual activities to cause a
division rom one another and class privileges given to women who conorm.
omen have lived mainly unknowingly under patriarchy or nearly 7,,, years.
omen were given protection and economic help and in return became
subordinates in all areas or example8 sex services and ree domestic
services.Their unknowingness o their history is one o the biggest ways o
women being controlled by men. #erner $%&'().
9atriarchy is something which exists but difers between all societies. By looking
at patriarchy in a political light it can be seen how the oppression o women is
upheld by power o government. !deological conditioning is one way o how this
power is upheld. 5ociali:ation o male and emales which is suited to avour
males is how the conditioning is gained to keep patriarchy running smoothly.
The amily is the unit in which its members are ruled by power o government" by
the sociali:ation o sexes rom birth the amily actually helps to patriarchy keep
its position by helping its young to conorm to what is expected o them. The
amily" the larger society and the state are all connected and are the main three
patriarchal institutions and where patriarchy through the state keeps control o
its people through the head o the amily so the amily becomes a replica o the
larger society" 3illet $%&;%).
awad is the husband and ather o the
patriarchal household who use rules and ear to hold power over the entire
amily" whilst also contradicting himsel by breaking his own rules or his own
bene/t. Amina is the wie and would have to obey her husband on every matter.
#iving most o her lie in isolation Amina had been orbidden to leave the house
or a ull twenty /ve years. aking early each morning to help her husband
dress" she would then go about preparing breakast to be served on the top ?oor
o the house8 this ?oor was to be used predominantly by the males in the
household. Amina would stand on duty awaiting instruction by her husband. This
experience or the male children was always a tense and nerve wracking and theonly part o the day in which the sons were together with their ather. Their
ather would strictly examine each o them looking or some ault" where they
would then be seriously reprimanded. 6nce the ather let the house or work the
atmosphere would dramatically change" this would be met with relie" leaving
each o them to be able to talk" laugh" sing or play ree rom ear. This would be
the start o a typical day in the household" the male sons would then head out to
work or school leaving Amina and her daughters doing daily chores.
The daughters would then become ruled by the mother" who would divide the
chores that needed to be completed or the day" although the mother would
show love and kindness more than anything else. Aminas day would /nally end
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when she would greet and serve her husband ater his nightly trips out
socialising and drinking with riends unaware o his involvement with other
women.Amina had showed an ob@ection to these nites out early on in the
marriage with al sayyidsresponse being to grab her by the ears and say 0 !m a
man. ! am the one who commands and forbids. ! will not accept an criticism of
m behaviour. "ll ! ask of ou is to obe me. #ont force me to discipline ou.
9atriarchy would also show its orm in much other stronger ways. The ather
would have control over any marriage or his children. Both daughters unable to
show themselves to any other male would have their choice o partner made or
them. A marriage proposal would come rom the amily o any uture husband
and the decision o whether to accept or decline would be made by the ather.
6nce the daughters were married they then escaped the control o their ather
but would then become under the control o their husband and their new inlaws.
3ahmmod $%&(*) researched six women1smos-ues across Egypt anddid an
overview o three o them. 5he ound that all though they all had diferences
such as the ages o women who attended" dress codes and their social
background they all shared the view o a worry o an increase in seculari:ation o
Egyptian society. The women attending these mos-ues mainly viewed
seculari:ation as something that had happened to where !slam has become
nothing more than a set o belies that has no actual impact on the way in which
people conduct their lives. !n the process o this happening some viewed !slam
as becoming more westernised caused by modern government policies. The
women1s mos-ue movement came about to help women wishing to return to
living their lives in all areas according to !slamic principles and keeping their
cultural identity.a@@a 5amira a religious woman teacher expresses her concerns
in this way $%urrentl, religion seems to have become separated from the texts
or scriptures &nusus', especiall in issues of mu amalat &commercial and social
transactions'. The challenge that we face as Muslims right now is how to
understand and follow the example of the Prophet, how to act according to the
(uaran and the hadith in our dail lives&biimilbil)hadith wil)*urani++a'. "ll of
us Muslims know the basics of religion &al)din', such as praing, fasting, and
other acts of worship &ibadat'. ut the di-cult *uestion is how to make our dail
lives congruent with our religion while at the same time moving with the world
&muharrikina a id)dina', especiall given that the present period is one of great
change and transformation. or me, proselti+ation &da wa' means doing it from
within ordinar acts and practicalities &amaliat', and translating worship
&ibada' into everda practices so that these are alwas directed toward /od
&fahmil)ibadakulluittagihilallah'.3ahmood also describes o how mos-ue
activities have grown ast over the last twenty years and that the government
have tried to regulate these activities out o a ear o them being used to
promote critical views o the state whilst putting an end to militant !slamic
threat.
Badram $*,,&" describes eminism in !slam as something which has causedconusion to many in the est who have denied its existence or used 3uslims
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women1s oppression as something which @usti/es colonial or neocolonial
intrusion. 5ome 3uslims see eminism as another way o becoming esternised
and is viewed as an attack on their culture and not in line with their religion.
research has been shown though to prove that eminism which has been called
5ecular or !slamic eminism is something in which 3uslim women have
themselves created and not something that is estern. 5ecular eminism is
something that came about more as a social movement looking more at human
rights regardless o religion" and ocusing on education" work issue and amily
roles. 5ecular eminism though did not take on board the construction o the
patriarchal amily when looking at amily law to be reormed. !slamic eminism
was based more on !slamic interpretation and o analysis o the Curan and have
argued that the patriarchal amily is not in line with womens e-uality and human
rights that are main Curanic values.
!brahim $*,,;) a leading spokesman or democracy and human rights in the Arab
world says to understand !slamic thinking today an historical approach must be
used by understanding three main things. By understanding !slam as something
that came to very old societies it became mixed with other cultures over the
course o a century which then in turn changed again which has lasted right up
until now. The second thing is that understanding that every child rom every
generation learns through history books that this /rst century o !slam was the
most glorious time and a revival o that era o civilisation to return are how the
3uslim Brothers" e:bollah" amas and Al Cuada have come about. The third
thing is the -uestion that 3uslims have struggled to agree an answer on is the
-uestion o why the est has progressed so much whilst they haven1t. They
have been presented with three answers. 6ne answer is that they must go right
back to pure religion" a second answer is that they didn1t keep up with the est
and were then con-uered so they must try to be like the est. The third answer
is that they don1t need to do either but they could combine the best o both as in
using both modernity and the best o their early heritage" culture and tradition.
The !slam Deormation pro@ect is something that was started by !braham ater
&%%. 6ne thesis that has been put across is the theory that although the Foran is
based upon reedom" democracy" gender e-uality and human rights !slamic
thought has not been updated or changed or one thousand years. The reason
or this being that religious authority1s shutdown !@tihad which is the
reinterpretation o the text and said it was the oreign pressure upon !slam was
the reason. !t is thought that by reinterpreting the text it would then be elt as
being controlled by the est. The !slamic reormation pro@ect has asked !slamic
thinkers rom across the world to think about this statement 09lease" as you read
the Foran and the basic heritage o !slam" develop *%stcentury !slamic answers
that will help keep our youngsters to be aithul to their religion and their
heritage but also help them to live in the *%stcentury as ull partners" not as
enemies and not as warriors.
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Bibliography
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%ome 0eptember K Arundhati Doy" #ensic 9erorming Arts 4enter.