ABSTRACT
Arab women are either doomed to an unchanging oppression, or recent changes are attributed to the transfer of Western ideas. Egypt is particularly interesting because of the various Islamist movements that mushroomed in the 1970s, which also paralleled the formation of Islamist women’s groups as part of the broader social movement. Islamist groups grew stronger and more widespread in the 1970s and have continued to gain ground since. During the 1970s, Egypt witnessed more than one group advocating an ‘Islamic alternative’. Women’s groups affiliated to the Muslim Brothers were more engaged in direct politics than women of the other semi-action oriented groups. Islamist women are also invading the mosques, previously a male domain. Through veiling women’s protests can be voiced and perhaps ameliorated in at least three dimensions of inequality: in relations of gender, class, and global position. The veil allies modest middle-class women and differentiates them from lower-class women.
