مسئله‌مندی زنان مصری در اندیشه قاسم امین از منظر دیالکتیک ذهن- جامعه ون‌دایک (مورد مطالعه: کتاب‌های تحریر المرأة و المرأة الجدیدة)

Title

The problematization of Egyptian women in Qasim Amin's thought from the perspective of van Dijk's mind-society dialectic

(Case study: Tahrir al-Maraa, Al-Maraa al-Jadeedah(



Introduction

Amin's views and thoughts have been accompanied by ups and downs throughout his life. In his first book "Al-Masryun" (1894 AD), he defended the Egyptian people and Islam in response to the French Duke Darcourt, who, with an Orientalist view, considered the backwardness inherent in Egyptians, and then in the book "Tahrir al-Maraa't" (1899 AD) By changing his point of view, by challenging the existing inequalities between women and men in Egyptian society, he has called for social reforms based on the re-reading of some verses of the Qur'an regarding women. Therefore, his view faced severe criticism. On the other hand, Qasim Amin not only did not shrink from his position in defending the individual, family and social rights of women in Egyptian society, but in response to his opponents, he wrote the book al-Maraa al-jadidat), and explained the roots of the backwardness and intellectual stagnation of the people.

Methodology

This research has been analyzed and investigated based on the critical analysis of the discourse and according to Van Dijk ‘s social-cognitive theory. In the present study, an attempt has been made to critically analyze the personal life of Qasim Amin and how to develop his event memory and mental-thought model in parallel with his lived experience, and then by analyzing the content of the meaningful propositions of his two mentioned works in accordance with the historical situations of these propositions. A methodological and critical analysis from Amin’s ontological and epistemological point of view will be presented under the title of social discourse and practice.



Results and Discussion

By creating a connection between the meaningful components of the text and reinterpretation of the hypertext and textual and formic elements, Amin presents an active and constructed narrative of various issues of women in Egyptian society, from education to traditional hijab. A reading that, despite the opposing cultural and epistemological backgrounds, has occupied the minds of cultural activists for a long time and calls half of the Egyptian society, women, to activism as the main actors in this field. In this approach, Amin is not trying to reject and abandon the rules and principles of Islam, but he wants to discover and restore the true and correct rules of Islam regarding women’s hijab. Amin offers a practical solution, i.e. abandoning the hijab, to improve the current situation of women. It should be kept in mind that he is talking about hijab in the common sense of his time, i.e. covering a woman’s face with a niqab and veil. According to Van Dijk’s theory, this change of position is not subjective, but based on the change of the dominant ideology of Maten, that is, Amin, and these propositions reveal Amin’s bias and her ideological beliefs. It should be noted that in the case of women’s hijab, the discussion of women’s hands and face being open to non-mahrams has always been discussed in jurisprudence, and Amin’s speech was also a jurisprudential discussion along that line, but it was accompanied by a new articulation of the elements of hijab. Egypt’s new discourses on women’s issues borrowed their epistemological foundations from the methods and arguments of Western civilization, and modernists like Amin also changed their methods of citing verses and hadiths and were looking for new arguments that would be convincing to the audience. In his insistence on women’s education, Amin uses children’s education as an excuse. He was also one of the modernists who proposed the mixing of men and women in the society for better and more efficient education. It was in this time and context that Asadabadi, Abdo and others proposed the independent identity of the Islamic and Arab world. Amin also authored the book Al-Masriyun according to his own words in accordance with his national and religious duty, which proves Amin’s nationalism. In this book, he clearly stated that the intellectual, cultural and civilizational backwardness of Egypt is due to tyranny and lack of independence, both of which are manifested in the issue of humiliation and domination over women. Amin is also one of the first people who wants to grant the right of divorce to women in the society and forbids men from using the absolute right of divorce excessively, and with these descriptions, Amin calls for the implementation of restrictions for divorce and even requests that divorce be within the jurisdiction of the judiciary. And proposes a legal draft to the government in this regard.

Conclusion

The propositions of Amin’s works about women influenced by Western civilization and under the influence of the dogmatic and patriarchal society of that time in Egypt somehow instills his ideological knowledge to the audience. It can be said that one should avoid looking at Amin’s thoughts in a one-dimensional way and should examine his works with an all-round view, and also analyze the conditions and atmosphere governing the Egyptian society, the time of Qasim Amin, as well as the condition of women of that period. Because the restrictions that Amin tried to liberate women from were not Islamic restrictions, but Islam itself entered the arena with all the standards and by everyone’s admission to free women from all the restrictions that had shackled them throughout the long history. Has been The horizons and boundaries that Amin wanted women to reach are not necessarily the same as those drawn by western civilized societies for women. Rather, it should be kept in mind that the Eastern spirit and Islamic horizons have always been present in Amin’s thoughts in trying to navigate this rough and difficult path. But this adoption of Amin’s explicit position is not far from the effects of the invasion of the waves of cultural westernization and the development of postmodern philosophy.

Key words: Qasim Amin, Egyptian women, Tahrir al-Maraa, al-Maraa al-jadidat, Van Dijk , critical analysis.