Quasim Amin and John Stuart Mill: the reasons for female slavery

• Main Author: Encarnación Ruiz Callejón
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad de Alicante 2015-12-01
• Series: Feminismo/s
• Subjects: filosofía del siglo xix; liberación de las mujeres; reformismo árabe contemporáneo
• Online Access: https://feminismos.ua.es/article/view/2015-n26-qasim-amin-y-john-stuart-mill-las-razones-de-la-esclavitud-femenina

Qasim Amin (1863/5-1908) was not the first Arab author in the context of contemporary Islam who wrote and campaigned for the liberation of women, but has been considered the first theorist and the antecedent par excellence in the history of the Egyptian feminist movement. The aim of this paper is to characterize the author feminism in relation to its assessment of the crisis in the Arab world. In particular, I focus on the following issues: Amin’s thesis on female slavery and the relationship between its causes and reformism of the author, according to the criteria he himself points out: freedom and common interest. To further characterize his position, I also consider Amin’s thesis in relation to some of the criticisms and proposals of Stuart Mill on the subjugation of women, one of his sources of inspiration.