The Role of Women in Islam: Education, Press and Industries

The first reforms involved EDUCATION, but at the beginning, they did not take care of the WOMEN. There were not schools for women, who studied at home. This is why the women of these areas who had studied were only aristocratic women whose families could pay a private teacher.
They studied Arab (the language of the Qur’an), Kurd and Turkish (if they had such origins) and an occidental language (French or English) ➔ the women could accede to Western culture studying Western languages: they were able to read books from the West even if they could not go out alone.

PRESS was not introduced in the Middle East at that time: there was a negative attitude for religious reasons. However, their culture improved a lot after the introduction of the printing of newspapers.

Books and study were very important for women in the Middle East, especially if they were read in the original language. Women could read political journal, so they knew about the struggles of Western workers and women.

The main feature of Western feminist movement was that in Europe there were industries and women soon began to work and to acquire a social position, differently from the Middle East.
In the Middle East women were used to go out of home, but only for agriculture. The women living in the cities used to live into the house, and it was an obstacle for the rise of a feminist movement: such a struggle needed an urban environment, but in the cities the women didn’t go outside.