In 1999 a woman residing in Cairo had to return to Damietta to take care of her bed ridden mother, started private religious lessons at her home. She used to go to religious lessons in Cairo, so she held it as a private religious meeting, to occupy her then it turned to a serious religious education. Others were soon to follow and religious lessons spread quickly in upper-class houses of Damietta, after the departure of children to school and men to work. In a matter of 2 years time, religious lessons spread in most of the upper and middle class houses, as a women’s morning activity. While initially supported by men as a meaningful activity to bring women nearer to God, i.e. more pure, more pious, more obedient, after two years private religious lessons stopped at the request of men, as Aida, an elderly woman confessed. Men according to Aida, found out that the morning meetings turned to an outing more than a religious lesson, hence religious lessons were moved to religious centers and mosques.
The increasing identification with the da’wa movement of the manufacturing capital elites transformed much of the social spaces in Damietta. This paper explores the impact of da’wa movement on upper class social spaces and within the life-worlds of elite families in Damietta in 2011-2012. It engages the following questions: What are the desires and expectations that draw women to these new faith based spaces? Are women attracted to piety movements to exit the private sphere, to network socially in the possibilities offered in the contemporary moment, to attain higher social status, economically, socially or politically? The paper examines women’s mobility in the social space, their consent to the power structures and the reason behind their consent.
