The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-09-10
EGYPTIAN WOMEN.
Are Beginning to Protest Against
the Age

While a very few Egyptian women
are married to men who have imbib-
ed Western education for them
selves, and have out of their own
country the right to go shopping and
to theaters and other public places
unveiled, according to Cairo corre-
spondence Washington Post, even
these in their own land are cut off
from all intercourse with men save
those Of their own household and
never appear out of their homes un-
less closely yelled.
Many of these women are highly
educated, and pass examinations
similar to those passed by their
brothers and fathers; but their
education is of little use to them
after they have left their schools or
their governesses beyond making
many of them bitterly discontented
with their lot.
For Mans Pleasure Alone
An Eastern man, however educat-
ed, never regards woman as an
equal. She is there, she is created
for his needs, his pleasure. If it
amuses her in her youth to learn
French and English, to know some
thing of science and history. we'll and
good; but she belongs to another
world from himself.
Against this attitude of man the
Egyptian woman is beginning to
make her first feeble protest and re-
volt. Those who have learned of his
tory and art in their youth are form
ing little societies among themselves
for mutual help and instruction, even
arranging for lectures and papers to
be read to them by Western women.
Woman a Household Drudge
Among the lower classes it is the
women who do the greater part OF
the work, while the men spend their
days in idleness. For not only do
women do the work of the houses,
fetching the water from long dis
tances, carrying their huge conical-
based water jars on their heads, but
they also work long hours in the
fields, wedding, hoeing and planting.
There is no one place where can be
typically seen side by side the COM
mencing struggle of women for
emancipation and their utter sub
servience to mans dominance so we'll
as in the great hospitals of Cairo.
In Cairo Hospitals
Many young Egyptian women are
being trained as hakima, or nurses.
They are drawn mostly from the
lawyer or doctor class, and while
many Of them are very pretty and
very intelligent, they are utterly un-
reliable, and do not know the mean
ing of truth. They lie about things
that do not matter, and while they
are kind to their patients, cheerfully
make utterly false reports and state
ments about them- obIiyious or in
different to the fact that the doctor
may be mystified or utterly misled
Their dress in hospitals is pretty
and graceful, of blue cotton, with
white aprons and cuffs, and dainty
white wells bound about their heads,
leaving their smiling young faces un-
covered.
Afraid of Evil Spirits.
They are mostly very superstitious,
being deadly afraid of ''afreets'
(evil spirits), and in their dormitor-
les herd closely together, as if in this
way they believe the dreaded
"afreets'' are more easily repelled.
They have to be closely locked into
their rooms. while their windows are
barred, as brought up strictly "pur-
dab" though they are, they are not
to be trusted for an instant. and
would escape for an adventure if
given the least opportunity.
But they are at the beginning of
things, and in so far as they have
made the first step toward emancl-
patton and making career for them
selves, they may be regarded as pio-
neers for their sex.
On the other side Of the picture is
the woman patient, who exempliies
her relation to man by her utter pas
sivity and indifference under suffer
ing.
Bear Pain StoicalIy.
Many of them come into the hos
pital for the birth of their children,
and as many of them have been kick
ed and beaten into deformity, their
sufferings are horrible. But never
does a word of complaint cross their