A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF MUSLIM AND CHRISTIAN REFORM DISCOURSES RELATING TO WOMEN WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO EGYPT AND ENGLAND IN THE 19TH AND EARLY 20TH CENTURIES

Abstract

This study investigated the views and achievements of Christian and Muslim reformers in relation to women’s social status during the 19th and early 20th centuries in Egypt and England. It argued that liberal feminists were not the only ones who worked for the benefit of women because Christian and Muslim reformers also participated in the debate over the development of women’s social status in these two regions. This investigation of reform discourses within the arena of women’s issues revealed that Muslim and Christian reformers were influenced by two coherent and systematic, but different schools of thought; the Anglo-Catholic revival in England and the Islamic revival in Egypt. The historical approach of this study focused on the views and achievements of religious reformers and represented their participations within a systematic construction of a religious reform discourse. In this context, this study aimed to compare the reform discourses of conservative Muslims and Christians on women’s issues in order to find points of similarity and difference. The findings of this study indicated that Muslim and Christian reformers aimed to reform women’s social status and they had offered women real benefits in the two regions. This study also defined the significance of reform and the attributes of conservative reformers within the arena of women’s issues. The comparison of Muslim and Christian reformers’ discourses on women’s issues revealed that although English and Muslim women had had different beliefs, religious practices and history, both of them indicated that the message of reform is to morally guide their societies within a religious context. Finally, this study concluded that when religion is practised, different beliefs can be respected, and thus encourage fruitful communication between different cultures.