#lord cromer

[gcintheme-blog]

Imperialist “Feminism” Has a Long History

Imperialist of the Day: Evelyn Baring, 1st Earl of Cromer (sometimes known as Lord Cromer) who acted on behalf of the British colonialist administration in Egypt from 1878 to 1907.

According to his Wikipedia page, “Baring held a ‘traditional Orientalist’ perspective in relation to the East, Egypt in particular, believing Westerners to be inherently superior in every way when compared to Egyptians. According to Baring, the ‘Orient’ and its inhabitants were meant to be subdued and disciplined by the West, resulting in the West’s show of strength through subjugation of the East.”

Baring claimed to be a proponent of Egyptian women’s liberation, arguing against the veil and segregation by gender. Yet, at the same time, he deliberately limited employment opportunities for Egyptians (and specifically Egyptian women) and argued that non-European people have inferior minds and bodies.

At home in England, Baring was a founder and first president of the Men’s League for Opposing Woman Suffrage, which fought against women’s right to vote in the United Kingdom.

Baring is one of many men throughout history who have disguised themselves as women’s liberators in order to push an imperialist agenda. It is clear from his policies in Egypt and in England he did not actually favor women’s rights, and believed women (and especially women of color) to be inferior.

There are certainly struggles yet to win regarding women’s liberation in the Middle East and North Africa, and it is not incorrect to observe that women in Egypt face problems specific to their country and culture. But, we must keep a sharp eye out for imperialism undercover as women’s liberation. Historically, colonialism and imperialism has contributed to women’s oppression through war and violence, capitalism and economic subjugation, and the promotion of extremist ideologies in order to counter secular nationalism which opposes foreign meddling.

We don’t have to rely on foreign men for critiques of women’s conditions in post-colonial societies when there are plenty of Egyptian feminists like Latifa Al Zayyat (d. 1996), Nawal Al Saadawi [here is a great interview with her in English, Arabic, and German] and Huda Shaarawi (d. 1947) who was fighting for Egypt’s liberation FROM Baring’s oppressive administration. These are the voices we should listen to regarding Egyptian women’s liberation.

[teamramses]

Thinking himself near death in 1905, Evelyn Baring, the first Lord Cromer, began a series of "Biographical Notes," written partly that...

[teamramses]

“You telegraphed Lord Cromer?” I exclaimed. “Emerson, he is the most important man in Egypt!”

“Precisely,” said Emerson. “It is a waste of time to deal with underlings. I cannot imagine what else he wants from me; I sent him all the relevant information.”

Seeing a Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters

[alovelyvaguery]

Feminism on the home front and feminism directed against white men was to be resisted and suppressed; but taken abroad and directed against the cultures of colonized peoples, it could be promoted in ways that admirably served and furthered the project of the dominance of the white man. Others besides the official servants of empire promoted these kinds of ideas: missionaries, for example. For them, too, the degradation of women in Islam legitimized the attack on native culture. A speaker at a missionary conference held in London in 1888 observed that Muhammad had been exemplary as a young man but took many wives in later life and set out to preach a religion whose object was "to extinguish women altogether"; and he introduced the veil, which "has had the most terrible and injurious effect upon the mental, moral and spiritual history of all Mohammedan races." Missionary women delivered themselves of the same views. One wrote that Muslim women needed to be rescued by their Christian sisters from the "ignorance and degradation" in which they existed, and converted to Christianity. Their plight was a consequence of the nature of their religion, which gave license to "lewdness." Marriage in Islam was "not founded on love but on sensuality," and a Muslim wife, "buried alive behind the veil," was regarded as "prisoner and slave rather than … companion and helpmeet." Missionary-school teachers actively attacked the custom of veiling by seeking to persuade girls to defy their families and not wear one. For the missionaries, as for Cromer, women were the key to converting backward Muslim societies into civilized Christian societies. One missionary openly advocated targeting women, because women molded children. Islam should be undermined subtly and indirectly among the young, and when children grew older, "the evils of Islam could be spelled out more directly." Thus a trail of "gunpowder" would be laid "into the heart of Islam." Others besides officials and missionaries similarly promoted these ideas, individuals resident in Egypt, for example. Well-meaning European feminists, such as Eugenie Le Brun (who took the young Huda Sha'rawi under her wing), earnestly inducted young Muslim women into the European understanding of the meaning of the veil and the need to cast it off as the essential first step in the struggle for female liberation. Whether such proselytizers from the West were colonial patriarchs, then, or missionaries or feminists, all essentially insisted that Muslims had to give up their native religion, customs, and dress, or at least reform their religion and habits along the recommended lines, and for all of them the veil and customs regarding women were the prime matters requiring reform. And all assumed their right to denounce native ways, and in particular the veil, and to set about undermining the culture in the name of whatever cause they claimed to be serving— civilizing the society, or Christianizing it, or saving women from the odious culture and religion in which they had the misfortune to find themselves. Whether in the hands of patriarchal men or feminists, the ideas of Western feminism essentially functioned to morally justify the attack on native societies and to support the notion of the comprehensive superiority of Europe. Evidently, then, whatever the disagreements of feminism with white male domination within Western societies, outside their borders feminism turned from being the critic of the system of white male dominance to being its docile servant. Anthropology, it has often been said, served as a handmaid to colonialism. Perhaps it must also be said that feminism, or the ideas of feminism, served as its other handmaid.

Let that sink in.

Leila Ahmed. Women and Gender in Islam.