Comparing Lane And Al-Tahtawi

On close reading of both Lane and al-Tahtawi it is revealed how very opinionated they are when it comes to describing women. The knowledge or assumptions that they make about women are not from direct interactions with women or their voice. Lane speaks of women from a received perspective, and Tahtawi makes judgment about women from what he sees. The way they speak about women reflects the larger picture of patriarchal society, their audience. These descriptions create a stereotype, which in effect constructs ideas about a group of people that may not reflect the truth. Moreover, these descriptions of the women also provide an insight into their own biases In an Imam in Paris, Rifat al-Tahtawi travels to France from Egypt. He is writing an academic Rihla. His writing style is different than other Rihla’s covered in the course. One of the style he uses throughout the piece is by stating something and then supporting the idea with a poem or writing an auto-ethnography. When he speaks
about women he states something and supports that assertion with a poem or saying. This style embellishes the point that he makes about women. For example, he said, “The men are slaves to the women here.” Looking at the choice of language it is evident that Tahtawi was not used to this in Egypt because it is in here that he sees that women have so much power. He t
hen goes on to describe women as “savages” “treated like furniture in the East” and “ treated like spoiled children in the West.” One of the first things that come to mind about these descriptions is
how women are treated differntly in different parts of the world. Al-Tahtawi does not say that any of the treatment of the women is better or worse than any other directly, he embellishes a general way women should be treated and in some ways criticizes the way men treat their women in France. When he states “ women are treated like spoiled children” he is making a point that men in the West give into the women when they desire something like spoiled children. In the same section with the help of the poem he states “men will not prevail if they hand women their halters.” With this statement he is criticizing the Western men from prevailing due to their women. He is blaming women for the weaknesses of men. Furthermore, all these descriptions and support that al-Tahtawi provides is creating stereotypes about women from the West and at the same time making stereotypes about other women from the East.
These stereotypes also show the biases within al-Tahtawi. From the way he supports his points with poems we learn that he believes that the right way to treat women is to be disobedient to them and think of the worse about them. His articulations of the arguments are primarily based on how the acts of women affect men and not the other way. In addition, he only states the impact of women actions to men and not the other way. He is speaking on behalf of women because he does not believe that he needs to include their voice in the text, which comes from the time-period and the society he lived
in. Edward Lane travels to Egypt from England. Lane’s arguments are not very consistent. He makes a point and contradicts that point and again goes back to the point. Like, al-Tahtawi however he also degrades women of Egypt. He states that women are too free and need to be restrained; at the same time states that it is impossible for women to hold a conversation with men without the notice of the neighborhood. He gives us many reasons why women are licentious; one of which is their desire to want proper instruction. How can a men know what women want especially from a society that does not even allow foreign men to talk to the women. Making an assertion like that demonstrates the power of men over women and his biases about women. He is implying that women cannot control themselves, and they need men to be their savior. This is supporting the larger picture of patriarchy and need for men to be in power. While Lane does not have sources to support his points about the licentious character of the women in Egypt, he includes some narratives to support him. Men in Egypt typically married more than once and even had more than one wife. Moreover, they also had concubines. Women on the other hand didn’t have concubines or did not have more than one husband at a time. Both and men and women desire to have sexual relationship, and when men have more opportunity it limits women. This leads for them to sometimes have other relationships beyond their marriage. While there weren’t many of these incidents as Lane state, he still makes the generalization about the licentious character of women by sharing two stories where women has other relationships with men. While degrading women for their sexual relationships, he does not say anything about how many women men can have at the same time. These descriptions about women by both authors show the power of women in those societies and the freedom they had. It can also be surmised that either there wasn’t very many women audiences or women did not have the power to call these authors out on the way they described the character of women in both societies. Both authors are speaking on behalf of women without the voice from women and without scholarly sources, which questions the authenticity of their views. Both are creating stereotypes about women of East and West. These descriptions also provide insight into their own stereotypes about women during those times. It is important to note that the study of Orientalism was well underway prior to Lane going to Egypt. In museums and other works Egyptian women were described as licentious, so it not shocking to hear Lane also describes them in the same manner. The most intriguing part are the sources he sites, which are stories from the men who associate with the women in the harems, which do not reflect majority of women. Both Lane and al-Tahtawi also have limited information about the character of women because their women subjects were from a certain class. Since two men described the character of women, as a reader I was intrigued about how it would differ if women were to write about women?