Moderne, ma non troppo: le donne secondo alcuni resoconti di viaggio tra XIX e XX secolo, in Medioevo e Moderno. Fenomenologia delle rappresentazioni dell'alterità fra Oriente e Occidente: Esplorazioni, visioni, tempi, spazi, a cura di L. Bottini, M. Cassarino, A. Chraibi, E. Creazzo, M. Marchetti

This contribution centers on the adab al-rihla which offers an important springboard for investigating the norms whereby the idea of a modern society was being constructed. In particular it concentrates on the question of women as seen by certain intellectuals who traveled in the XIX and XX centuries from Egypt to Europe. In their encounter with Europe and in particular with the world of women, the writer-travelers dealt with here highlight and comment on the profound differences between the two civilizations which, on the contrary, they tend to minimize when dealing with other aspects of social life. These travelogues, for all their differences in approach, concur in envisaging a new perspective for the woman who, once schooled and educated with all due respect to ‘oriental’ values, will fulfill the role of wives and mothers of the children of the new Arab Nation