THE MODERN EGYPTIAN WOMAN
The conservative woman of Egypt prides herself that she never leaves her
home. I know several ladies well advanced in years who say they have
never been outside their homes since they were brought there as brides.
An Eastern household is composed of many people, and this seclusion of
the women does not cause such loneliness as would be felt by a Western
woman if thus closely confined always to the home. In the East the
patriarchal life prevails, and the financially fortunate member of the
family finds himself supporting an immense army of poor relations, who
act in all capacities, from maids in the kitchen to the servants at the
door. They expect little or nothing as wages, but they _do_ expect that
the prosperous member of their clan or family will provide clothing,
food, and a roof beneath which they may live.
In all Egyptian homes of the better class there are many servants. They
are not the competent, trained servants to which we are accustomed, and
it takes many of them to accomplish what one well-trained servant will
do in England or America. They have no system, each servant doing his
task in his own appointed time and in his own way. Within the harim the
servants are generally women, and they are on much more familiar terms
with the inmates than are servants in the West. They take on a feeling
of equality with their mistresses, taking part in the conversation when
guests are present, entering doors without knocking, and generally
considering themselves as part of the family. Mohammed taught that all
true believers are free and equal—the servant the equal of his master.
This is one of the reasons that the traveller is often surprised by
having the donkey-boy offer his hand when saying good-bye. He does not
intend it as an impertinence; he simply wishes to bid his patron “God
speed” in the Western manner.
The women of the harims take much time to dress, and spend long hours in
the public baths, if they do not possess that luxury at home. They take
great care of their skin, using all the arts to keep it soft and
unwrinkled. They have not yet learned the charm of beautiful hands, and
the manicurist has not yet penetrated the harim, but it is only a
question of time when she will arrive, as the Egyptian woman seizes with
avidity every means of improving her personal appearance.
Many of them tint their straight black locks with henna, by making a
paste which is allowed to dry on the hair for twenty-four hours, then
removed. This, when used not too freely, gives a charming glint of
reddish gold to the thick hair, and utterly obliterates any trace of
age. The henna-tinted locks are not seen as much as formerly, as the
custom is passing out with the advent of the newer generation, and is
mainly to be seen on the older women or the women of the desert. In
former times the nails of the hands were tinted a deep orange, but this
also is being relegated to the “things that were,” as the young girls
are beginning to see that instead of a beautifier, it makes the hands
appear most untidy. I have seen an old lady with her fingers stained a
deep brownish yellow to the first joint, the palms of her hands, the
toes, and even the bottoms of the feet coloured with the henna paste.
The house dress of the Egyptian woman is a long _négligé_ made in an
empire form or what we used to call a “Mother Hubbard,” with the
fullness of the cloth gathered to a much-trimmed yoke, and ending in a
train that sweeps the floor. The wearer may follow her fancy in the
choice of goods with which these dresses are made. The ordinary dress
worn every day is of some material easily laundered, but the gown for
gala occasions is often most elaborate, made of rich silks, satins, or
brocades with great figures in gold or silver. Many of them appear as if
made of cloth originally intended for furniture covering. If she has a
wide range from which to select the material for her dresses, she also
is not restricted in the choice of colours, as each woman indulges in
whatever shades she most admires, and a party of women with their red,
blue, yellow, and mauve creations look like a party of animated dolls
dressed for a fancy bazaar.
The hair is braided in one or two braids and allowed to hang down the
back, sometimes tied with strings on which dangle gold coins or balls. A
veil is always worn over the head, hanging down to the waist line. It is
very graceful and adds to the dignity of the Egyptian woman. With the
poor this head covering is a large piece of cotton with a gay-coloured
border, and even ladies wear in the morning a cotton veil, but on dress
occasions it is of chiffon or net elaborately bordered with gold or
silver, or in some cases sewn with sequins, very similar to the shawls
offered by the vendors in front of the big hotels.
The feet are slipped into toe slippers that can easily be removed when
entering the living-rooms or when sitting upon the divans. In the matter
of footwear there is a wide range from which to choose. From the wooden
bath clog to the tiny heelless covering for the toes, embroidered in
gold or silver or even tiny seed pearls, the Egyptian woman’s slipper is
a thing of beauty and dainty femininity. Stockings are considered a
superfluity while in the house, except by those influenced by the
customs of foreign lands.
If the lady wishes to make a call she dons a black silk or satin skirt
with a long train, and over it ties a piece of black goods shaped like a
large apron hanging down the back instead of the front. The lower end is
brought up over the head and tied under the chin, acting as hat and
shoulder covering, completely disguising the form. Over the face below
the eyes is tied a piece of white chiffon. This is really an addition to
the woman’s charming appearance, as the present-day Egyptian woman is
wearing the veil so thin that the shape of the features can be dimly
seen, softened and refined by the delicate chiffon, until even a plain
woman takes on an appearance of beauty that perhaps vanishes when the
veil is removed. She is allowed to show her chief attraction, her great
black eyes, which peer at one curiously over the folds of white. They
are not so large as are the Indian woman’s eyes, but they are very
expressive, shaded by long straight lashes, which are generally touched
up by kohl, since even with the advent of modernism the Egyptian woman
cannot be persuaded to relegate her kohl-pot to the lumber-room.
The woman of the labouring class, seen on the street, is dressed in a
long gown hanging straight from the shoulders, over which, when she
leaves her home, she drapes a large black shawl covering her from head
to feet. The veil of this class of woman is of black cloth, so thick
that it is impossible to distinguish the features beneath it, and often
weighted at the bottom with gold or silver coins. Covering the nose is
the disfiguring piece of wood which holds the veil in place. The picture
of this sombre-clad woman, with her ugly veil and grotesque nosepiece,
is taken by the average tourist as representing the Egyptian woman,
while, in fact, she represents only the lower class, such as the wife of
the labourer, the small artisan, or the petty merchant. These women may
be seen on the streets walking with the stately grace that is given to
the woman who carries a burden on the head, or five or six of them may
be seen sitting on a flat-bottomed cart drawn by a much decorated donkey
_en route_ to visit relatives or watch the festivities connected with a
marriage, or going to the cemeteries. This last seems to be a favourite
excuse for an outing with women of this class, as it gives them a chance
to have a good gossip on the way, and opportunity of strolling in the
open air, which must be a great boon to the poor in the large cities, as
their homes are small, dark, dirty, and most unsanitary. Yet as one
lives in the Orient and sees the conditions under which the great
majority of the population live, one grows to believe that there are no
such things as microbes, else all these people would have been dead long
ago.
[Illustration:
THE TAILOR.
To face p. 44.]
Even in modern Cairo one rarely sees a lady except as she passes in a
closed carriage or limousine. Women do not go to the mosques, as
Mohammed said that women in places of public worship distracted men from
the real business which brought them there. They are also never found in
restaurants, hotels, nor coffeehouses. In fact, an Egyptian woman never
goes to a place where she might be looked upon by men other than those
of her immediate family. Even the most modern product of the present
system of education would hardly dare to be seen in any place that was
not harim. At the bazaars held for charity and other public functions a
day is set apart when the women may visit them without danger of being
looked upon by men. An Egyptian woman told me that these men must be
educated and elevated before Egyptian women will dare to go freely upon
the street. Even a foreign woman dreads passing the outdoor cafés, where
the men turn noisily in their chairs and stare rudely at the woman who
has the courage to pass them. In the case of an Egyptian lady, I was
told that these men do not confine their rudeness to stares, but that
the low remarks made to her confirm the belief that the time is not yet
ripe for the Egyptian woman to try to enter the world, so long closed to
her.
These harim women are just beginning to learn the joys of shopping.
Formerly the husbands or fathers bought the goods for their dresses, or
the shopkeepers sent their assistants, who laid the gay stuffs and
jewels on mats within the courtyards, where the women could make their
choice. But now in some of the larger shops parties of veiled ladies may
be seen fingering the soft silks and satins, looking with curious eyes
at the hats, and selecting the jewels with which they love to adorn
themselves. Cairo is the happy hunting ground of the Parisian jeweller,
as Egyptian women are noted for their love of bracelets, ear-rings,
necklaces, and pins. The old-time heavy gold chains and hoops are losing
their charm, and now the lady whose husband has a purse easy to open
buys long pendant ear-rings set with many diamonds, bracelets of pearls
and rubies, rings of turquoise and sapphires, and necklaces of emeralds.
Quantity, not quality, she desires, and the colour and purity of a stone
are not so much to be desired as the size or number. The women who make
no claim to modernism are still seen in the goldsmiths’ shops in the
native streets, sitting in front of the tiny cupboard-like holes in the
wall, weighing, pricing, trying on the great barbaric hoops of gold for
the ears, or the chains with large hammered pendants, made in the same
form and with the same design as those worn by their mothers and their
grandmothers. The merchant does not need to originate new designs to
attract the conservative Egyptian woman who still clings to her native
jewelry. It has been the same shape and design from time immemorial.
Another product of the West has penetrated the harims of Cairo—the
French dressmakers. Many of the rich merchants’ wives and the wives of
the officials who cannot get their gowns direct from Paris, and who are
discarding the straight empire pattern for clothes more _à la mode_, get
their dresses fashioned by these clever French women, who come to the
women’s courtyards loaded down with fashion books, tape measures, and a
running stream of flattering talk, leaving with many orders written in
their little books. It must be admitted that the Egyptian woman looks
best when dressed in her native costume, which mercifully disguises the
over-abundant flesh with which most women who spend their lives within
the harims are blessed. Sweets, a sedentary life, and many sweetened
drinks conspire to make the lady of Egypt extremely fat, after the first
flush of youth is past. This is not a sorrow to her as it would be to
her Western sister, and when she has arrived at the age of thirty, and
the pounds that she feels should come with the advancing years have not
been added to her figure, she sends to the chemist for a mixture to
convert her into the present ideal of Egyptian beauty. This ideal in the
olden time, if we may judge of the pictures seen upon the walls of the
tombs and temples, was that of a slight, willowy figure. But that ideal
has changed. The woman now seems to strive to be as wide as she is long,
and because of this fact and also because stays are not looked upon with
joy by the Egyptian woman, who has always been allowed an uncompressed
figure, the modern dress is not adapted to her style of beauty.
Women are not prisoners in any sense of the word, nor are they pining
behind their latticed windows as we are sometimes led to believe by
writers of fiction. They visit freely amongst each other, and their
visits are not confined to the passing of a few senseless platitudes
that generally mark conversation of Western women making afternoon calls
upon each other. They do not “call,” they go for a visit of several
hours or even days.
When a lady enters the home of her friend, she takes off the veil and
the cape-like covering of her head, steps out of the long black skirt,
and stands arrayed like Solomon in all his glory. They dress as
elaborately for their women friends as if to meet admirers of the
opposite sex, and they spend hours drinking the delicious coffee,
sipping sherbets, eating fruits or confectionery, and chatting over the
gossip of the day. When time for serving the meal arrives, a large tray
is brought into the room and placed upon a low stand, around which the
women group themselves in comfortable attitudes on rugs. From these
trays they help themselves to the deliciously cooked mutton or chicken,
the vegetables and desserts with which it is laden. Pork is never
served, as it was forbidden by Mohammed. They eat with their fingers,
using only the right hand, as the left hand is ceremonially unclean, and
after the meal a servant pours water over their hands from a
long-spouted brass ewer, the water falling into a brass basin. Many of
the ladies smoke, but it is not a universal habit. If they indulge in
the habit with which we always associate the Eastern woman, it is by
using a large water pipe with an extraordinarily long, supple stem, the
smoke passing through perfumed water and becoming cool before reaching
the user’s lips.
The Eastern woman loves perfumes and prefers them much stronger than we
of the Western world think agreeable. A hostess will pass around the
little wooden scent-bottles, and each guest may add as much as she
wishes to her already over-perfumed body. The mixture is not always
pleasant to sensitive nostrils. Incense and sweet-smelling woods are
often burned in little braziers and add to the congeries of odours.
Many of the old-time Egyptian women cannot read; indeed, it is stated
that only three out of a thousand women could read ten years ago; their
conversation is therefore confined to the gossip of the neighbourhood:
who is married, who is engaged; the social and financial standing of the
families involved; the presents and the trousseaux. Society is divided
into cliques, as in any other part of the world, and there is a decided
“Who’s Who,” especially in Cairo and in the larger towns.
The woman’s life seems to centre around her children, since it is this
evidence of Allah’s blessing that makes her greatest happiness. A great
part of their talk is involved in the discussion of their children’s
ailments, the remedies, their children’s education and life in general.
There are no nurseries in Egypt, and both boys and girls live within the
harim until they are seven years old, when the boy, if he does not go to
school, has a tutor and lives in the selam-lik. When, as at present,
Government schools are established in every small town and village in
Egypt, both boys and girls go to school. The girl is kept strictly harim
even in the school, and the teachers are women, who guard carefully from
men’s eyes the girls who are entrusted to them for the day.
Besides visiting with their friends or relatives, the Egyptian women go
to weddings, where they look upon the dancing and hear the singing from
their places behind the screens, or they make pilgrimages to the tombs
of saints or holy men, where they pray for the health of their children;
or, if they have not been so fortunate as to have children, they pray
for that blessing. They do not pray _to_ the saints, as even Mohammed
himself cannot answer prayers, but they believe that the austere lives
passed by these holy men will intercede for them with the Great and One
God.
An Egyptian friend of mine, telling me of the efficacy of one of the
places of pilgrimage in the cure of eye troubles, said:—
“Yes, I believe in these charms obtained at the tomb of some of the
marabouts, and I have been on several pilgrimages, although it is not
much encouraged in our family. You saw my brother’s wife to-day. She has
visited the tomb of every saint in the vicinity of Cairo, but it is just
because she is restless and wants to get out. She cares no more about
the saints than you do, but it gives her an opportunity to get away from
my mother. My life, that you think so restricted, is wildly exciting to
what it was when I was a girl at home. Mother is most conservative, and
will not even allow a man-servant near the harim. Her cook has never
seen her, although he has been in the family since I was a baby. Here in
the country I have men-servants who see me unveiled, but they are the
descendants of slaves who were in the family of my husband for
generations, and that is permitted if we are not too orthodox.”
I noticed while visiting friends in the country with this progressive,
educated Egyptian woman that if we passed an ordinary fellah, or
workman, she did not take care to cover her face. If we met an overseer
or a man above the farmer class, she very carefully drew her veil across
her face, leaving only the eyes visible.
The women are very superstitious, and believe in the efficacy of charms
and amulets for every known disease. Nearly every woman wears around her
neck, lost to sight amidst the innumerable chains with which she covers
the upper part of her body, an amulet or charm of some kind. Perhaps it
is a silver box containing a few words of the Koran, or a small piece of
parchment with mystic letters written on it, guaranteed to guard her
household from harm. All Egyptian women know of charms and lotions and
shrines or mystic words to give the wife who has not presented a son
unto her lord. One of the first questions asked by Egyptian women is,
“How many children have you?” If the answer is “None!” they cannot keep
the looks of pity from their eyes, nor the sympathetic words of
condolence from their lips. They are also most generous in giving
talismans to remedy this defect, and will wax enthusiastic over the
beneficial effects of some favourite pilgrimage, amulet, or prayer.
I have a piece of sheepskin with the ninety-nine names of Allah written
upon it in gold, intended to insure, not only the advent of a son, but
also, if bound upon his arm, to guard him from all danger throughout his
lifetime.
At the opera in cosmopolitan Cairo one may hear rustlings and low
laughter from behind the closely screened boxes, and know that an
Egyptian Bey or wealthy merchant is there with his family, allowing them
to enjoy the play and watch the people in the house, themselves unseen.
But this joy is given usually only to the women of Cairo, as the smaller
towns have not as yet become sufficiently modernized that the women may
go to the public theatres. In the conservative homes, if a hostess
wishes to entertain her guests with professionals, she sends for the
singing girls or dancing women to come to her home, and there they
perform before the ladies, who watch them from the divans, and talk and
laugh with their entertainers, getting far more amusement from them than
by simply looking at them on the stage.
Fortune-tellers are often brought into the women’s quarters, and blind
men who chant the words of their sacred book, the Koran. This latter is
a popular form of entertainment, and even to Western ears the sad, minor
music has a charm, although after a time it becomes monotonous to one
who cannot understand the Arabic in which the Koran is written.
Even the conservative Egyptian mother is now beginning to see that she
must educate her daughter as well as her son, if she wishes her to make
a good marriage. The modern Egyptian youth does not care for an ignorant
wife who can only entertain him with household gossip when he comes from
office or shop.
There is ample opportunity given the Egyptian girl to obtain an
education, as the Government has established schools in every city,
town, and village. One sees also a great number of private schools for
girls, supervised by every imaginable type of mistress. The Italian,
Spanish, French, and English woman is taking advantage of this craving
on the part of young Egypt for education. Many of these schoolmistresses
are unfitted for their work, but as yet her pupils are not able to judge
of the quality of information they are so eagerly absorbing. The mission
schools, next to those provided by the Government, are perhaps the best
equipped with trained teachers from England and America. These latter
schools are filled with bright-faced young girls, who are taking the
newer ideas to their secluded mothers, who shake their heads dolefully
over the new spirit of independence so swiftly creeping into the lives
of their children, and which they fear, but to which they must accede.
Egypt, in common with the entire world, is experiencing vital changes,
and her younger women, although walled in by custom, tradition, and
habit, are eager to get into step with their advancing sons and
husbands. It is only the older woman who is the implacable foe of
progress, as she fears a change may mean the destruction of her little
world. Yet she is fast losing the power as well as the wish to resist
it, and the number of schools for girls shows that a real awakening to
Egypt’s greatest need is being felt and met. At first the mother feared
her daughter would be led astray from the true Faith, but the English
Government bore this well in mind when establishing the educational
system. The Koran and the practical observances of its tenets are taught
by faithful followers of the prophet in the schools, and this has
induced mothers to look with complacent eyes upon the new learning.
Infinitely better daughters and prospective mothers come each year from
the Government and mission schools, if for no other reason than that
they are intelligently trained in domestic economy and in the laws of
hygiene. The frightful waste of infant life which heretofore has been
caused by the ignorance of mothers will stop. The present training of
the young girl strikes directly at this huge infant mortality and in the
coming mother, educated and equipped for her duties, lies the hope of
Egypt.