Historically, the honor-modesty system was circum-Mediterranean, with important features of it extending well beyond the Mediterranean’s shores. Ethnographers often describe it as having two complementary axes: one emphasizing hostility and performative bravado toward outsider men and the other emphasizing protection and seclusion of insider women.

The geographic distribution of Islam does not coincide with that of the honor-modesty system, which antedated it throughout MENA. As the fastest growing world religion, it has spread into large areas of sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, though in India it gives way to Hinduism and Buddhism, which not only map out very different spiritual quests but provide different systems
of caring for the mind and body. Thus the honor-modesty system clearly can thrive without Islam, and Islam can thrive in societies that do not so strongly embrace the honor-modesty system. It is their conjunction in MENA that gives the region much of its cultural—and psychological—character.

Muslim women are the battleground of so many of our conversations and debates about what is right and proper and halal.

What should be stressed is that throughout history, Egyptian women activists have been discredited by different constituencies by being labelled western agents of colonialism or imperialism. The debate over the intellectual origins of the Egyptian women’s movement constitutes an ongoing controversy among contemporary Egyptian feminists. The debate entails several questions, which are significant for self-definitions and struggles for legitimacy among present-day activists. Most women activists today are not very much concerned with the question of whether the intellectual origins of the Egyptian women’s movement have to be traced back to male reformers or women journalists. What is much more at stake today is the issue of whether the intellectual roots have to be traced back to “western” or “indigenous” sources. The charge of emulating “western thought” and thereby betraying “authentic culture” has constituted a continuous challenge to Egyptian feminists. From its very beginnings until the present day various constituencies opposed to the struggle for women’s rights (Islamists as well as nationalist-leftists) have engaged in an evaluation of women activists with regard to their level of “authenticity”or “westernness”. As elaborated in greater detail elsewhere, it is these forces which continuously and successfully use the argument of “our indigenous culture” vs “western culture” every time gender relations and women’s rights are addressed. The “culturalization” of political issues has become so naturalized in contemporary Egypt as in many other parts of the Arab world, that it seems very difficult to doubt the legitimacy of this practice and question its grounds.