(The Egyptian Woman). Although the new Constitution of 1924 had made some changes to the position of women such as raising the age of marriage for girls to sixteen, the question of women's political rights was ignored as was the right to divorce and abolition of polygamy. In 1935 Hoda Shaarawi lectured at the American University of Cairo on the status of women and called for the abolition of polygamy. Her speech was met with protest from two Sheiks from the Al-Azhar University. However, according to Kumari Jayawordena the audience sided with Shaarawi which was symbolic of the changing educated opinion. Her speech was in fact met with such enthusiasm that it was printed in a leading newspaper and thus widely circulated through the Arabic speaking world. The rise of feminism was however stunted in Egypt by its remaining elitist nature and class bias. Its limited appeal was not fairly representative of the situation of most women in Egypt. It is claimed that to some extent the movement "followed the political practices of most parties in Egypt during the 1920s – 1930s, which regarded politics as the prerogative of the educated elite". Feminist activism began to slow down particularly due to the climate of political opinion and criticism as a result of the movement increased. Examples of criticism faced by the early feminism movement Change concerning the position women in Egypt was felt by many as a "final invasion in the last sphere they could control against aggressive infidels, once sovereignty and much of the economy had been taken by the west". Talaat Harb, a prominent Nationalist of his time, in "Tarbiyat al-mar'a wa-al-hijab" 1905 argued that "the emancipation of women was just another plot to weaken the Egyptian nation and disseminate immorality and decadence in its society. He criticised Egyptians who desired to ape the west and claimed that there was a European imperialist design to project a negative image of the position of Muslim women." Not all critics were completely opposed to the idea of the emancipation of women. Ahmad as-Sayyid reassured his Nationalist leaders that despite events which were unfolding in Europe in which "women had satisfied their demands for individual rights and begun now to compete with men in politics "Our issue is not that of equality of men with women with regard to voting and positions. Our women, God bless them, do not put up