Between Egyptian "National Purity" and "Local Flexibility

Prostitution in Al-Mahalla Al-Kubra in the First Half of the 20th Century

Bibliographic Data

ID9079754
AuthorsHany Hammad (0000-0002-7420-5653, Texas Christian University, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume44
Issue3
Pages751-783
Publication date2011-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4529 • E-ISSN: 1527-1897
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/jsh.2011.0015
PMID21850793
OpenAlexW2017631763
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited2

This article traces prostitution in al-Mahalla in the first half of the 20th century as a regulated urban practice until the trade was outlawed in Egypt in 1949. Studying prostitution during this period of exceptionally rapid growth and transformation not only provides a window on a particular type of illicit sexuality and public morality in a colonial context, it also gives us a hint as to gender relations and inter-communal relations on the invisible marginalized part of a provincial local community, and how it was socially transformed. I argue that the regulation of prostitution in Egypt in 1882 and 1905 created a sphere for a power contest between the colonial state and the local community, between nationalist discourse and the local way of life, and between public morality and private space. While nationalist discourse constructed one virtuous nation, the local community accepted the licensed prostitution quarter, and resisted secret prostitution. The people of the town actively and continually shifted boundaries on what was public and what was private, what was the state's responsibility and what was communal liability

Economics · Flexibility (engineering) · Management · Political science · Islamic Studies and History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Materials Science · Middle East Politics and Society

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