ABSTRACT
Abaza, Mona. 1987. “Feminist Debates and ‘Traditional Feminism’ of the
Fellaha in Rural Egypt.” Bielefeld, Germany: University of Bielefeld, Sociology of Development Research Centre. Mimeo, 26 pp. Abaza concentrates on three areas: the transformation of social relations, patterns of sexual division of labor, and cultural representation of sex roles in a small village. The study was carried out in a small village in the region of Mansoura, governorate of Dakhahlia. It attempts to describe women’s strengths by depicting their daily activities in a rural setting. This strength is imbedded in peasant culture which, historically, has always been threatened by the state, as well as by recent open-door policies of ‘modernization’. Migration to the oilproducing countries, proliferation of the informal sector, monetization of social relations, acquisition of better education and jobs in state administration, and the frequenting of mosques and thus access to formal channels of religion are all new opportunities offered to males, leaving women in the shadows and often undermining their former base of power.
