Abstrak
Qasim Amin (1863-1908), an Egyptian lawyer, is best known for his advocacy of women's emancipation in Egypt, through The Liberation of Women and other works. Starting from the premise that the liberation of women was an essential prerequisite for the liberation of Egyptian society from foreign domination, he used arguments based on Islam to call for an improvement in the status of women. His criticisms were aimed at the veil and the social seclusion of women, arranged marriages, polygamy, and divorce practices, and he insisted on education for women as the primary means to enable them to play a constructive role in society. It was The Liberation of Women which promoted the debate on the status of omen from a side issue to a major national concern. Although published almost a century ago, The Liberation of Women continues to be a source controversy and debate in the Arab world and is still a key work for understanding the feminist movement there.