Confused, Rebellious and Depressed: Liberated Women in Egyptian Cinema

In 1961, the Egyptian constitution granted women many social, economic and political rights, which led to a generation of liberated women who were depicted in cinema. ‘Liberated women’ are those who challenge social norms in their search for their independence. This chapter explores the portrayal of liberated women in Egyptian cinema between 1960 and 1990, or from the time between women gaining constitutional rights to a decade after Egypt signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDWA) in 1980. The chapter relies on a narrative analysis of a sample of 20 female characters that appeared in Egyptian films produced in the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. It concludes that the liberated women represented in Egyptian cinema during these three decades were often introduced as confused. They had internal conflicts and lack guidance to solve them, rebelled against social norms and were sometimes also depressed. Notably, from the ‘70s onward, most of the liberated women in films were mature adults rather than young girls, professional and married characters whose conflict was with discriminatory laws or social culture. The portrayal of liberated women added to the binary image of women cinematic characters in the past as either virtuous or playful. It introduced a new, in-between type of woman who was rebellious but not perverted, confused but not lost.