Under Nasser forced integration of women into the industrial labour force
took place. Women worked side by side with men both in the newly erected
and the older factories, all of which were run by the state. The women profited
to a certain extent from the socialist programmes alleviating their situation.
Today many of the poorer women living in Egyptian towns, especially those
working in the informal sector, carry the greatest burden of domestic work
and contribute most to household budgets without effective support from gov-
ernment programmes. Like rural women they are controlled by the patriarchal
social norms in both the private and public spheres. Owing to their role in the
family economy, some of them enjoy a relative degree of self-determination.
Traditionally the Egyptian fellahat have always been free to sell their produce
in the local markets, getting there on foot carrying their vegetables and live
fowl in baskets on their heads, usually unveiled and unaccompanied by males.
Nobody prevented them from staying in the markets for hours until they
had sold most of their goods. And since the small farmers were poor, these
women were usually their husbands’ only wives, though Islam allows polygyny.
And since most Egyptians are very fond of children, these women enjoyed
positive acceptance by their husbands as the mothers of their children. The
aforesaid does not mean, however, that the negative picture of the situation
of women living in the Egyptian villages as drawn by the Western-influenced
defenders of women’s rights (e.g. El-Sa’adawi) is wrong. The traditional role
of women can mean complete subjugation, leaving little room for women
to decide for themselves and offering ample scope for conflict, especially if
violence occurs. Differences between Muslim and Christian rural societies
were probably negligible until the resurgence of Islam thirty years ago, but
so far no research exists concerning this question.