The airport anecdote of my previous chapter is of broader relevance to my research: rather than merely being a metaphor for contradictions in post-colonial Egypt and states of liminality inherent in identity constructions, the airport is also the gatekeeper of the nation state. Procedures of regulating arrivals and departures, visa requirements and stamped passports, scrutinizing and questioning by airport officials and computerized personal files are all manifestations of government regulations and state power. But how do women activists in Egypt ‘travel’ within and through ‘networks of contested power relations’ (Rai & Lievesley, 1996: 1), usually referred to as ‘the state’? To what extent have women's groups and organizations maintained their independence from the state? And, conversely: to what extent did the Egyptian state (and various constituencies within it) manage to co-opt the women's movement?

These questions need to be tackled historically since the role of the Egyptian state and its relationship to women's activism has varied a great deal during the periods of Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak. In this chapter I would like to explore the relationship between changing state policies and women's activism. I will focus particularly on the way women activists today interpret various historical phases and transformations of the women's movement in relation to the state.