CAIRO: Radwa Aboulazm, 27, removed the veil after 13 years of donning it. The American University in Cairo (AUC) graduate explains how she has come to think about religion in a broader way. "It increasingly feels like the time of our mothers, when the hijab was for women of the lower classes, Aboulazm says, arguing that she has come to believe that her relationship with God does not depend only on how she dresses. Aboulazm describes how Muslim women are surrounded today by many "temptations. But she is not alone in finding it difficult to continue practicing what is considered by many people an Islamic duty as a growing number of Egyptian young women are abandoning the hijab. According to some views, the "dehijabization phenomenon that has been discussed on a limited scale is a reflection of a larger trend among Egypt's upper and middle class youth. As more young Egyptians are drifting away from what some consider a conservative understanding of religion, it seems that the religious zeal of a decade ago is not in the air anymore. Although the Islamic revival in Egypt can be traced back to the 1970s and 1980s, the early 2000s was the time when Egypt's upper and middle class youth caught the religious fervor. The brand of Islamism that dominated the scene in the 1970s and 1980s was characterized by the modest social background of its young supporters. And most of those who joined the militant groups that fought the bloody battle against the government in the 1990s belonged either to the country's poor, urban youth or marginalized young upper Egyptians. Therefore, many analysts pointed at poverty, despair and marginalization as the reasons behind the violence of the 1990s. "Religiosity was predominant among the lower-middle class, particularly university students, in the 1970s and 1980s because it offered its members a sense of community, says Manal Badawy, associate professor of sociology at AUC. Abdallah Shalaby, author of "Religion, Society, and the State in Egypt in the Last Quarter of the 20th Century, argues that the state, particularly during Sadat's era, participated in "reorienting the public perception of identity, encouraging people to identify themselves with religion. Yet, the early 2000s witnessed the emergence of a more "elegant form of Islamism that appealed to Egypt's well-off youth. "Liberal Islamism Breaking away from the traditional discourse of old generation of Islamists and reactionary scholars, the new trend's prominent faces advocated a more "liberal version of Islamism that opened the door to hundreds of young Egyptians to integrate religion into their modern lifestyles. "When I entered university, it was difficult to find religious students on campus. But by around 1999, the religiosity phenomenon started gaining momentum, says Mostafa Khalil, 30, who entered AUC in 1997. Khalil describes how he adopted a more conservative understanding of religion back then, attributing it to a number of different reasons, including the campus atmosphere. The most outstanding figure of that time was Amr Khaled, the Egyptian televangelist who ranked 62nd on the Time's list of the 100 most influential people in 2007. "Many people were able to relate to him (Amr Khaled) because of the way he introduced the concepts. The idea that he is an independent preacher, who does not come from Al-Azhar made many people relate to him more, says Sherine Ramzy, an Egyptian sociologist. The man, who was described by some media outlets as a "phenomenon, fueled Islamic fervor among social groups that were traditionally regarded as the most liberal segments of society. Many young women donned the hijab, and many young men adopted a more Islamic lifestyle. According to Badawy, the trend could be regarded as a form of resistance to globalization. "Our globalized world puts one's identity in question, and one way of expressing one's cultural uniqueness is emphasizing religious beliefs, she told Daily News Egypt. However, in 2010, it seems that the Islamic revival of the last decade is losing impetus. So, what happened to Egypt's "new-born youth? Dwindling religiosity? Many people attribute the growing trend to the government's crackdown on most of the influential Islamic preachers. Despite the lack of official statements, it is widely perceived that some preachers were forced to leave the country while others were barred from delivering religious sermons. Although Khalil argues that his perception of religion was not shaped by those usually described by the media as the "New Preachers (Al-Doa'ah Al-Godod), for a large number of Egyptian youth, the modern-looking televangelists have been the primary sources of religious information. Their audience, according to Ramzy, looks "for a role model who is close to them in age, not someone who is old and giving them authoritative instructions on how to think. Some people, however, blame the preachers themselves for the recent change in young people's attitude towards religiosity. "The rumors about the personal lives of some preachers shocked me, Aboulazm told Daily News Egypt, explaining how she has become disillusioned with some of the figures she deeply respected. Khalil believes that the "New Preachers are still influential, but he criticizes the message they offer, which he describes as "superficial. Emad El-Din Ayesha of AUC also thinks that Islamic preachers still have a strong presence because they use "non-traditional means of communication to reach out to an "impressionable audience. But is their receptive audience still the same size? Ever since Amr Khaled stopped delivering religious sermons a few years ago, hardly any other preacher has been able to attract as big of an audience, and the crowds that pour into mosques in Ramadan abandon them the rest of the year. Menna Yusuf, 25, who graduated in 2007 from a private university, says: "I don't attend religious sermons the way I used to during my university years. A software engineer, she argues that her busy lifestyle prevents her from taking part in religious activities. Part 2 of this article will be published on March 1.
