The women of Cairo University over the years.

Cairo University 1959. - Women are dressed in a western style, they don't wear head scarves,
Women are wearing short sleeves, form fitting tops that show off their figure, and are wearing skirts that show some bare skin on the legs. Apparently they managed to pose for a picture dressed like this without causing a riot.


Cairo University 1978 - Nasser has been deposed, arab nationalism has been crushed and the soviet socialist influence on Egypt has been suppressed, women continue to dress in a western manner with some diversity. (This is the year the camp david accords were signed.) The state is run by the military with the cooperation and "aid" of the United States.


Well well what happened between 1978 and 1995, holy shit! something big. While American women were in the midst of a sexual/womens rights revolution. The heretofore progressive women of Egypt are taking a trip to the middle ages.

Now roughly 50% of the women are "pious" muslims who dress conservatively. Keep in mind the majority of the 1959 women identified themselves as muslim, the religion didn't change how they practice it did.

Now a much more extremist conservatism is forcing itself on the women of Egypt.


By 2004 the disenfranchisement of women in Egypt is complete. Gone are the short sleeves, the leg baring skirts and tight fitting tops. Women are covered from head to toe in loose clothing.

The evolution of these pictures shows these "traditions" are not native cultural practices. These are fashions imposed by extremists promoting extreme versions of Islam.

The enslavement of Egyptian women by conservative Islam is a recent phenomena.

The same process of dismepowerment has been underway in "liberated" Libya over the last three years.