Evening star., 1916-01-02
WOMEN OF EGYPT AND JAPAN
TAKE UP SUFFRAG ideas

60HE woman suffrage movement In
many countries waits upon the
close of the war. When peace
returns and some of the ravages of
war have been repaired. the movement
announcement has been made by the
British suffragettes.
In far and widely separated parts of
the world the movement arrested by
the outbreak of the war will be taken
up with renewed energy and Increased
vigor. One of these lands will be
Egypt. The country of the Nile is the
land where many persons would look
last for progress in the cause of wom-
an suffrage, yet before the war the
movement had developed there, and re-
ports Indicate the movement is grow
ing there even while the fires of war
rage. Egypt is a land where the status
of woman in relation to that of man
is perhaps lower than it was among
the people of England centuries ago,
and it is perhaps safe to write that
the status of woman in political
sense is lower in Egypt than it ever
was in England, low as that was Yet
the suffragette has appeared in Egypt,
and just before the outbreak of the
war it was reported that a native wom-
an of wealth and of such importance
as woman might arrive at in Egypt.
sought appointment to the position of
governor of the village of Damallo.
The daring and boldness of this wom-
an shocked the men of the ancient
Nile-drained land, but Egyptian women
of the classes which have learned of
the way things are going in the great
world outside were uttering mild huz-
Zahs behind the wells which custom
forces them to wear when outside their
homes. The battle had begun and
mary persons in Egypt thought that
the sphinx might speak. The war. of
course. diverted peoples thoughts.
American and European ideas for a
generation have been gaining sure and
secure lodgment in the minds of
the higher classes of Egyptian
women. Many of them have trav-
eled in other lands with their hus-
bands and their fathers. Some have
become the wives of Europeans. In the
foreign lands where they have trav-
eled they followed the customs pre-
vailing there, going into the street,
the theater, the shops and other pub
lie places without wells and wearing
gowns of European fashion. Numerous
ture have been travelling abroad where
the ladies of the family enjoy a per-
sonal freedom scarcely thought of in
Egypt, and If thought of at all would
be considered improper. Some Egyp-
tian fathers have allowed their daugh-
ters to get their finishing education in
Europe. But all these women, on re-
turning to their native Egypt, revert
to the mode of living there, not
through choice, but through the force
of public opinion backed by the CEN
turtles.
Native women who have tasted and
enjoyed the freer western ways and in
many cases have become accustomed
and attached to them return to Egypt
put on wells whenever they step out
side the portal of their homes, and
in their homes never have an inter-
change of word or thought with other
men than those of their own house
hold. Yet their minds are stocked
with western ideas and western con-
ceptions of feminine propriety They
know better than the customs they OBJ
serve, but the force of those customs
is so strong that they do not venture
loss of social standing by ignoring
them. The hint comes from Egypt
that some time. and perhaps soon, they
will breaN the bonds. The story comes
out of Egypt that the women are
nearly ready for a concerted move
ment against the customs which they
feel they have outgrown.
The upper class Egyptian maiden II
the darling of the household, just as Is