Barbaric Women

Race and the Colonization of Gender in Interwar Egypt

Bibliographic Data

ID8969125
AuthorsNefertiti Takla (0000-0002-7789-7165, Manhattan College, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume53
Issue3
Pages387-405
Publication date2021-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743821000349
OpenAlexW3199959101
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited6

This article analyzes the sensationalized media coverage of a serial murder case during the Egyptian revolution of the early interwar era. Despite conflicting evidence, the media blamed the murders on two sisters from southern Egypt named Raya and Sakina. Through a close reading of Egyptian editorials and news reports, I argue that middle-class nationalists constructed Raya and Sakina as barbaric women who threatened to pull the nation back in time in order to legitimize their claim to power. Borrowing from Ann Stoler's analysis of the relationship between race and sexuality and Maria Lugones's concept of the modern/colonial gender system, this article maintains that race was as central to nationalist conceptions of female barbarism as gender, sexuality, and class. The enduring depiction of Raya and Sakina as the quintessential barbaric Egyptian women symbolizes the way in which the modern woman was constructed at the intersection of race and sexuality

Ancient history · Archaeology · Barbarism · Civilization · Colonialism · Human sexuality · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Race (biology · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · North African History and Literature

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