Qasim Amin

Qasim Amin (, ; 1 December 1863 – 12 April 1908) was an Egyptian jurist, Islamic Modernist and one of the founders of the Egyptian national movement and Cairo University. Qasim Amin has been historically viewed as one of the Arab world's "first feminists", although he joined the discourse on women's rights quite late in its development, and his "feminism" has been the subject of scholarly controversy. Amin was a philosopher, a reformer, and a judge, besides being a member of Egypt's aristocratic class, and a central figure in the Nahda movement. His advocacy of greater rights for women catalyzed debate over women's issues in the Arab world. He criticized veiling, seclusion, early marriage, and lack of education of Muslim women. More recent scholarship has argued that he internalized a colonialist discourse on women's issues in the Islamic world, regarded Egyptian women as objects serving to achieve national aspirations, and in practice advocated reforms that diminished the legal rights of women in marriage contracts.

Greatly influenced by the works of Darwin, Amin is quoted as saying: "If Egyptians did not modernize along European lines and if they were unable to compete successfully in the struggle for survival they would be eliminated". He was also influenced by the works of Herbert Spencer and John Stuart Mill who argued for equality of the sexes. Amin believed that heightening women's status in society must greatly improve the nation. His friendships with Muhammad Abduh and Saad Zaghloul also influenced this thinking. Amin blamed traditional Moslems for Egyptian women's oppression, saying that the Quran does not teach this subjugation but rather supports women's rights. His beliefs were often supported by Quranic verses.

Amin was born into an aristocratic family. His father was a governor of Diyarbekir Elayet, and his mother was the daughter of an Egyptian aristocrat. Amin finished law school when he was seventeen and was one of 37 to receive a government scholarship to study at the University of Montpellier in France. He is said to have been influenced by Western culture, especially its treatment of women, and this became a role model in his struggle to liberate Egyptian women. His crusade began in 1894 when he wrote "Les Egyptiens. Response a M. Le duc d'Harcourt", a rebuttal to Duke d'Harcourt's work (1893), which downgraded Egyptian culture and its women. Amin, not satisfied with his own rebuttal, wrote "Tahrir al mara'a" (The Liberation of Women) in 1899, in which he blamed Egyptian women's "veiling", their lack of education, and their "slavery" to Egyptian men as the cause of Egypt's weakness. He believed that Egyptian women were the backbone of a strong nationalistic people and, therefore, their roles in society should drastically change to better the nation. Amin is known throughout Egypt as a member of the intellectual society who drew connections between education and nationalism leading to the development of Cairo University and the National Movement during the early 1900s. Provided by Wikipedia