of the harem continued to linger in many Arab societies. Women of the urban middle and upper classes were confined to the domestic sphere, and the vast majority remained unseen and unheard in public life. Necessity afforded female members of the lower and rural classes slightly more 'freedom', as they were needed to work the land in order to support their families. Women's issues began to emerge from the background - albeit slowly - in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with the likes of Qāsim Amin (1863–1908)<ref>'Imarah, Muhammad "Qāsim Amin wa-tahrir al-mar'ah". al-Mu'assasah alArabiyyah lil-Dirasat wa-al-Nashr, 1980</ref> calling the seclusion of women an 'injustice' and advocating partial empowerment of women. However, the majority of prominent feminist writers were men, and the presence of women activists in the public sphere was virtually non-existent. The salon and its male participants, many of whom were well-known intellectuals, provided them with a means in which to express their ideas and opinions in private, whilst accessing the male-dominant public sphere through their lively discussions and debates. In her thesis entitled 'Arab Women Going Public: Mayy Ziyadah and her Literary Salon in a Comparative Context', Boutheina Khaldi remarks that women of the salons overcame the obstacle of gender inequality "by bringing public men into their private salons and hence creating a public sphere from the very heart of the private one." The essays and letters produced by hostesses and participants of the salons on the topics discussed also had a considerable impact on society at the time, and in particular, the nurturing of the Arab Renaissance and women's emancipation. The publication of letters by is interpreted by Jürgen Habermas in his writing on the public sphere as bridging the gap between the private sphere in which women gathered, and the public sphere that they sought to shape and conquer. Women and the Arab cultural renaissance The Arab Renaissance (al-Nahda or ) was an endeavour to reach a compromise between contemporary practices similar to those in Europe and a shared Arab heritage, in the hope of shaping a new vision for an Arab society in transition. The relationship between women's literary salons and the Arab Awakening, as it was also referred to, is of paramount importance. Not only were meetings of literary figures an integral part of the Renaissance, but from the beginning of the Arab Renaissance in the nineteenth century, women came to realise