Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women

In September 1906, Atiya Fyzee (1877-1967) from India and Zeyneb Hanoum (1883-1923) from Turkey embarked on European tours and described their experiences in a chronological order in Zamana-e-Tahsil (A Time of Education [1921]) and A Turkish Woman’s European Impressions (1913), respectively. Fyzee v...

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Main Author:	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English
Published:	2019
Subjects:	HQ1101 Women. Feminism BP88 Individual authors, A-Z PI Oriental languages and literatures PR English literature
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/73171/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/73171/1/73171_Travels%20to%20metropolitan%20London_complete.pdf

id	iium-73171
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-731712019-07-16T03:30:43Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/73171/ Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women Hasan, Md. Mahmudul HQ1101 Women. Feminism BP88 Individual authors, A-Z PI Oriental languages and literatures PR English literature In September 1906, Atiya Fyzee (1877-1967) from India and Zeyneb Hanoum (1883-1923) from Turkey embarked on European tours and described their experiences in a chronological order in Zamana-e-Tahsil (A Time of Education [1921]) and A Turkish Woman’s European Impressions (1913), respectively. Fyzee visited England and Germany and Hanoum, France, Switzerland and England. In my comparative analysis of their travel experiences, I will focus on their representations of London and its people. Although they began their journeys from two separate locations, there are striking similarities in their birth and upbringing. Both were born in Istanbul. Although Fyzee lived in Bombay and died in Karachi, she was born in Istanbul and had family connection with the city. Both received western education and were passionate about women’s education and rights. Both seemed fascinated with London in their works though they were reluctant to call it “home”. However, there were also conspicuous differences in their circumstances and experiences. Fyzee was awarded a scholarship by the colonial British government to go to Britain to study Education (teacher training) at Maria Grey College in London, the first of its kind for women in England. Conversely, Hanoum along with her sister Melek Hanoum fled Turkey in order to escape restrictive conditions imposed on women in Sultan Abdul Hamid’s (r. 1876-1909) Turkey. Given these backgrounds and positionalities, I will discuss how Muslim women encountered Britain’s multicultural past and contributed to the intersection of host and diasporic communities in early twentieth-century London, the largest city in the world in the 1900s. I will contest the notions of harem and purdah in the context of Muslim societies, as Islam “prescribes travel for the purpose of hajj (pilgrimage), hijra (emigration) and rihla” or a journey to seek knowledge for both Muslim men and women. This research also marks a continuation of an earlier work – “Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s encounter with and representation of Europe” (Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 2016) – where I discussed the encounter with Europe of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) who never visited the continent. In the current project, I will explore Muslim women’s experiences of Europe in Europe. 2019-06-26 Conference or Workshop Item NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/73171/1/73171_Travels%20to%20metropolitan%20London_complete.pdf Hasan, Md. Mahmudul (2019) Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women. In: “A Space of their Own: Women, Writing and Place, 1850-1950”, 26 June 2019, University Centre Shrewsbury, Shrewsbury, UK. (Unpublished)
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
topic	HQ1101 Women. Feminism BP88 Individual authors, A-Z PI Oriental languages and literatures PR English literature
spellingShingle	HQ1101 Women. Feminism BP88 Individual authors, A-Z PI Oriental languages and literatures PR English literature Hasan, Md. Mahmudul Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women
description	In September 1906, Atiya Fyzee (1877-1967) from India and Zeyneb Hanoum (1883-1923) from Turkey embarked on European tours and described their experiences in a chronological order in Zamana-e-Tahsil (A Time of Education [1921]) and A Turkish Woman’s European Impressions (1913), respectively. Fyzee visited England and Germany and Hanoum, France, Switzerland and England. In my comparative analysis of their travel experiences, I will focus on their representations of London and its people. Although they began their journeys from two separate locations, there are striking similarities in their birth and upbringing. Both were born in Istanbul. Although Fyzee lived in Bombay and died in Karachi, she was born in Istanbul and had family connection with the city. Both received western education and were passionate about women’s education and rights. Both seemed fascinated with London in their works though they were reluctant to call it “home”. However, there were also conspicuous differences in their circumstances and experiences. Fyzee was awarded a scholarship by the colonial British government to go to Britain to study Education (teacher training) at Maria Grey College in London, the first of its kind for women in England. Conversely, Hanoum along with her sister Melek Hanoum fled Turkey in order to escape restrictive conditions imposed on women in Sultan Abdul Hamid’s (r. 1876-1909) Turkey. Given these backgrounds and positionalities, I will discuss how Muslim women encountered Britain’s multicultural past and contributed to the intersection of host and diasporic communities in early twentieth-century London, the largest city in the world in the 1900s. I will contest the notions of harem and purdah in the context of Muslim societies, as Islam “prescribes travel for the purpose of hajj (pilgrimage), hijra (emigration) and rihla” or a journey to seek knowledge for both Muslim men and women. This research also marks a continuation of an earlier work – “Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s encounter with and representation of Europe” (Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 2016) – where I discussed the encounter with Europe of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) who never visited the continent. In the current project, I will explore Muslim women’s experiences of Europe in Europe.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_facet	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_sort	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
title	Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women
title_short	Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women
title_full	Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women
title_fullStr	Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women
title_full_unstemmed	Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women
title_sort	travels to metropolitan london: experiences of two early twentieth-century muslim women
publishDate	2019
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/73171/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/73171/1/73171_Travels%20to%20metropolitan%20London_complete.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T21:43:45Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T21:43:45Z
_version_	1777413312414220288

Travels to metropolitan London: experiences of two early twentieth-century Muslim women

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