Al Fatat

Al Fatat

Categories	Women's magazine
Frequency	Monthly
Founder	Hind Nawfal
First issue	30 November 1892
Final issue	1894
Country	Egypt
Based in	Alexandria
Language	Arabic

Al Fatat (Arabic: الفتاة / ALA-LC: al Fatāt, "the young girl") was a women's magazine published in Alexandria, Egypt. The magazine was the first Arab women's magazine[1][2] and was one of the earliest publications in the country.[3] It was published from 1892 to 1894. Al Fatat is the forerunner of the women's magazines in the Arab countries.[2]

History and profile

Al Fatat was launched by Hind Nawfal, a Lebanese Christian woman, in Alexandria in 1892.[4][5][6] Nawfal's father and sister also contributed to the establishment of the magazine[7] of which the first issue appeared on 30 November 1892.[8] Elisabeth Kendall stated that Nawfal's magazine had achieved a "fiery fusion of the political and literary".[9]

Al Fatat was published by Nawfal for two years.[1][10][11] She also wrote editorials for the magazine,[11] which was published monthly in its initial stage.[1] Later Al Fatat began to be published twice a month due to its growing popularity.[1]

Being the first women's magazine in the country[8] as well as in the other Arab countries[7] Al Fatat initiated the tradition of the women's press in Egypt.[12] One of the major contributors was Esther Moyal, a Beirut-born Jewish journalist.[13] The magazine covered biographies of notable figures in addition to news concerning women.[14] It also included book reviews, poems and fashion articles.[4] Al Fatat encouraged the participation of women in public life and debates and advocated modern ideals for women.[8] Therefore, it provided secular content and was a truly feminist magazine.[12] On the other hand, politics and religion were not the focus of the magazine.[15]

Al Fatat ceased publication in 1894[14] when the founder and publisher Nawfal married and stopped dealing with the magazine.[1] The complete archive of the magazine was republished by the Women and Memory Forum in Egypt.[10]

See also

• List of magazines in Egypt

References

1. Fruma Zachs (2014). "Cross-Glocalization: Syrian Women Immigrants and the Founding of Women's Magazines in Egypt". Middle Eastern Studies. 50 (3): 353–369. doi:10.1080/00263206.2013.863757.
2. Anchi Hoh (21 March 2017). "Her Magazine, Her Voice: Foremothers of Women's Journals in Africa and the Middle East". Library of Congress. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
3. Marilyn Booth (May 2001). "Woman in Islam. Men and the "Women's Press" in Turn-of-the-20th-Century Egypt". International Journal of Middle East Studies. 23 (2): 171–201. doi:10.1017/S002074380100201X. JSTOR 259561.
4. Boutheina Khaldi (2012). Egypt Awakening in the Early Twentieth Century: Mayy Ziydah's Intellectual Circles. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-137-23530-5.
5. Mona Russell (2004). Creating the New Egyptian Woman: Consumerism, Education, and National Identity, 1863-1922. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4039-7961-2.
6. Earl L. Sullivan (1986). Women in Egyptian Public Life. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-8156-2354-0.
7. Wiebke Walther (2010). "The Situation of Women in Islamic Countries". In Werner Ende; Udo Steinbach (eds.). Islam in the World Today: A Handbook of Politics, Religion, Culture, and Society. Ithaca, NY; London: Cornell University Press. p. 639. ISBN 978-0-8014-6489-8.
8. Mervat F. Hatem (2011). Literature, Gender, and Nation-Building in Nineteenth-Century Egypt: The Life and Works of 'A'isha Taymur. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-230-11860-7.
9. Elisabeth Kendall. (2002). "Between Politics and Literature: Journals in Alexandria and Istanbul at the End of the Nineteenth Century". In: Leila Tarazi Fawaz and C. A. Bayly (Eds.) and Robert Ilbert (collaboration). Modernity and Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231114273, 9780231114271. Start: p. 330. CITED: p.340.
10. "Al Fatat Magazine". The Women and Memory Forum. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
11. Bouthaina Shaaban (May–June 1993). "The Hidden History of Arab Feminism". Ms. pp. 76–77. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013.
12. Nabila Ramdani (2013). "Women in the 1919 Egyptian Revolution: From Feminist Awakening to Nationalist Political Activism". Journal of International Women's Studies. 14 (2): 39–52.
13. Reuven Snir (2007). ""Mosaic Arabs" between Total and Conditioned Arabization: The Participation of Jews in Arabic Press and Journalism in Muslim Societies during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 27 (2): 266. doi:10.1080/13602000701536208.
14. Marilyn Booth (2001). May Her Likes be Multiplied: Biography and Gender Politics in Egypt. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-520-22420-9.
15. Sonia Dabbous (2004). "'Till I Become a Minister': Women's Rights and Women's Journalism in pre-1952 Egypt". In Naomi Sakr (ed.). Women and Media in the Middle East Power through Self-Expression. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 41. doi:10.5040/9780755604838.ch-003. ISBN 978-1-85043-545-7.