ABSTRACT

This paper argues that a new institution of motherhood was constructed through modernising reforms in law and medicine in semi-colonial Egypt. It shows that Egyptian women were characterised as ignorant of basic principles of health and hygiene and blamed for the high infant mortality rate in turn-of-the-century Egypt, which coincided with an ongoing reorientation of the Egyptian family in popular and religious literature, wherein the woman was being recast as the central figure in shaping the child and tending the home. At the intersection of these phenomena, new discussions emerged about the significance of women as mothers and the proper way to perform motherhood as an Egyptian woman. A new institution of motherhood was then constructed, concretised, and enforced through medical and legal discourse and interventions that were opposable against women across Egypt. This article shows that British and Egyptian lawmakers privileged the role of women as mothers in debates surrounding the drafting of new labour legislation and that they sought to ensure the maturity of mothers and the mental and physical health of the Egyptian family in a series of controversial personal status law reforms throughout the semi-colonial period. Through a socio-legal history of the institution of motherhood, it examines how colonialism, nationalism, and claims to modernity affected Egyptians’ daily lives and accessed family homes and women’s bodies. Throughout the article, a conceptualisation of modernisation as a dialectical process is emphasised. Modernisation claims to liberate individuals, women, or a nation, but, at the same time, it creates elaborate structures for their discipline. This article treats the institution of motherhood as one such structure and explores the roles of hygiene and domestic cleanliness, coloniality, and law in its construction in semi-colonial Egypt.

摘要

本文认为，在半殖民地埃及，通过现代化的法律和医学改革，构建了一种新的母性制度。它表明，埃及妇女被描述为对健康和卫生的基本原则一无所知，并被指责为世纪之交埃及婴儿死亡率高的罪魁祸首，这与埃及家庭在流行和宗教文学中的持续重新定位相吻合，其中，女人被重新塑造为塑造孩子和照料家庭的核心人物。在这些现象的交汇处，出现了关于女性作为母亲的重要性以及作为埃及女性履行母亲职责的正确方式的新讨论。一个新的母性制度随后被构建，具体化，并通过在埃及反对妇女的医学和法律话语和干预措施强制执行。本文表明，英国和埃及立法者在围绕起草新劳动立法的辩论中优先考虑女性作为母亲的角色，并在一系列有争议的个人问题中寻求确保母亲的成熟和埃及家庭的身心健康。整个半殖民地时期的地位法改革。通过母性制度的社会法律史，它考察了殖民主义、民族主义和对现代性的要求如何影响埃及人的日常生活，以及如何进入家庭住宅和女性身体。整篇文章都强调将现代化概念化为一个辩证的过程。现代化声称要解放个人、妇女或国家，但是，同时，它为他们的学科创造了复杂的结构。本文将母性制度视为这样一种结构，并探讨了卫生和家庭清洁、殖民主义和法律在半殖民地埃及建设中的作用。