Mary Kahil

Mary Kahil
Born(1889-01-28)28 January 1889
Damietta, Egypt
Died28 June 1979(1979-06-28) (aged 90)
Zamalek, Egypt
OccupationActivist
Known forCo-founding the Egyptian Feminist Union and Badaliya sodality

Mary Kahil (28 January 1889 – 28 June 1979) was an Egyptian feminist and Christian mystic. She was a member of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, a founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union along with Huda Sha'arawi, and promoted Christian-Muslim dialogue in Egypt. She was also an intimate associate of Louis Massignon, with whom she founded the Badaliya movement.

Life

Mary Kahil was born in Damietta on 28 January 1889 to a bourgeois Melkite Greek Catholic family. She was of Syrian and German descent; her father's family had migrated from Syria to Egypt in 1775 and risen to prominence under the viceregency of Muhammad Ali and her mother was German.[1] She was educated in convent schools in Cairo and Beirut and spent the period of World War I with her mother's family in Europe, before returning to Cairo in 1920.[2]

After returning to Cairo in 1920, Kahil became a cofounder with Huda Sha'arawi of the Egyptian Feminist Union, one of the first organized women's movements in the Arab world, and served as a secretary and codirector of the Islamic charity Mabarrat Muhammad 'Ali.[3][4][5]

Significantly, the feminist movement in Egypt was inclusive of both Muslim and Christian women. The main priorities of this movement were to reform the legal rights of women, to outlaw child marriage, and to guarantee equal access to education for women. In addition, they opposed British imperialism, colonialism, and Zionism. Kahil played a leading role in the union's activities, and was during this time associated with Out el Kouloub, Umm Kulthum, and the family of Taha Hussein.[6] Kahil was celibate.[2]

Mary Kahil was a leader in interreligious dialogue in twentieth century Egypt.[7] Kahil purchased a decommissioned Anglican church in Cairo which was refounded as a Melkite Greek Catholic parish under the name Our Lady of Peace. In a house adjacent to Our Lady of Peace, Kahil founded the Dar-es-Salaam Centre. The institution promoted interreligious dialogue, Arab Christian culture, and Egyptology, hosting annual conferences featuring Christian scholars of Islam until Kahil's death.[8]

Mary Kahil died on 28 June 1979 at her home in Zamalek.[9]

Relationship with Louis Massignon

Mary Kahil first met Louis Massignon in 1912, but did not meet him again until 1934.[2]

In 1934, Kahil and Massignon met again in Cairo, and traveled to Damietta to pray at an abandoned church. When praying at this church, they vowed to live a life of intercession on behalf of Muslims; this was the founding of the Badaliya prayer movement. The two began an intimate correspondence. The correspondence between Massignon and Kahil has been partially published, though Kahil destroyed many of her letters and others are kept in an archive in the Vatican with no public access.[10]

In addition to their shared religious activity Kahil was the main influence on Massignon's turn to radical political activism on behalf of Algerian Muslims and others. Massignon in turn found in his relationship with Kahil a means for the fulfillment of spiritual aspirations which he felt had been frustrated by his marriage and professional life. The two came to understand their friendship in mystical terms, and addressed each other by the Arabic names Ibrahim, Massignon's religious name as a Franciscan tertiary and Maryam, the Arabic form of Kahil's name, extensively quoting Sufi poetry in their letters.[11] Despite their intimacy and collaboration, the friendship was also a source of deep suffering for Kahil. After Massignon's death, Kahil wrote in her journal that she had a vision of Jean-Mohammed Abd-el-Jalil who assured her that Massignon had also suffered in their relationship, which brought her peace while grieving his death.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ Keryell, Jacques (2010). Mary Kahîl: une grande dame d'Égypte: 1889-1979. Paris: Geuthner. p. 10-11. ISBN 9782705338275.
  2. ^ a b c Keryell 2010, p. 12.
  3. ^ Keryell 2010, p. 12: "En 1920, elle rentre au Caire et participe activement à la fondation du Mouvement de l'Union féministe égyptienne avec Houda Chaaraoui. Elle travaille comme secrétaire et animatrice dans l'œuvre musulmane de bienfaisance 'Mohammed Ali'."
  4. ^ Rasheed, Baheega; Asfahani, Taheya; Mourad, Samia (1973). The Egyptian Feminist Union, now the Hoda Shaʾarawi Association : written on the occasion of its golden jubilee, 1923-1973. Cairo: Anglo-Egyptian Bookshop. p. 9. Four years after the March of the Veiled Women look place, Hoda Sha'arawi called together a group of women to meet in her home. Many of those who attended were former companions who had participated in the famous demonstration. A number of women had continued to take an active lead in the national movement for the independence of Egypt. All however were equally enthusiastic over Hoda Sha'arawi's plans to form an organized association. Thus, The Egyptian Feminist Union, the first organized women's association of its kind in the Arab world, came into existence on that memorable day of March 16, 1923.
  5. ^ Lanfranchi, Sania Sharawi (2012). King, John Keith (ed.). Casting Off the Veil: The Life of Huda Shaarawi, Egypt's First Feminist. New York London: I. B. Tauris. p. 94-95. ISBN 9781848857193. On 16 March 1923, Huda invited her colleagues from the Wafdist Women's Central Committee, from the Muhammad Ali dispensary (the Mabarra) and from the New Woman group to a meeting in the great reception room at 2 Qasr al-Nil Street to set up the Permanent Committee of Egyptian Women, which would be charged with framing a constitution for a women's organisation to be known as the Egyptian Feminist Union. Huda was elected chair, with Sherifa Riad as her deputy, Attia Fuad as treasurer, and Ihsan Ahmad as secretary. Other women elected to serve on the committee included Céza Nabarawi and Nabawiya Musa, a prominent intellectual and noted feminist activist.
  6. ^ Keryell 2010, p. 53-56, 59-66.
  7. ^ Wilkins, Agnes (July 2017). "Mary Kahil and the Encounter Between Christianity and Islam". The Downside Review. 135 (3): 131–132. doi:10.1177/0012580617716820.
  8. ^ Wilkins 2017, p. 139.
  9. ^ Keryell 2010, p. 155.
  10. ^ Moore, Brenna (2021). "The Passionate Friendships of Louis Massignon". Kindred Spirits: Friendship and Resistance at the Edges of Modern Catholicism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 94. ISBN 9780226787015.
  11. ^ Moore 2021, p. 95-98.
  12. ^ Moore 2021, p. 112.
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