British officials framed Egyptian slaveholding as preserving Arab family privacy

Evidence

These pictographic ideas circulated unabated in 1894, particularly during the pashas’ trial, when Herbert Kitchener, the sirdär (commander) of Egypt, suggested that Alï Pasha Sharïf's harem be searched for three other slaves, "white women being identified by their hands and allowed to pass without being examined." In the eyes of these British officials, the black hands and black skin of any woman living in an Egyptian household automatically signified a slave: thus black women in Egyptian homes could only have been brought there illegally, in a state of criminally imposed bondage. Zanüba identified herself as a slave, uncoached and unencumbered by fear, unlike so many other slave women encountered. With her testimony being in itself an iconoclasm, she made perfect sense to a man like Frith Bey. — <cite>Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 706</cite> (#corroborates`, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: British observers eroticized and reviled Egyptian slave integration into families; British officials read black skin in Egyptian households as automatic proof of slavery. — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 706

Related

• British officials read black skin in Egyptian households as automatic proof of slavery. (similarity 0.95)
• British officials presumed any black woman in an Egyptian household was a slave (similarity 0.89)
• European observers eroticized and condemned Egyptian domestic slavery in one gaze (similarity 0.79)
• British observers eroticized and reviled Egyptian slave integration into families (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• British observers eroticized and reviled Egyptian slave integration into families #complicates (0.60)
• British officials read black skin in Egyptian households as automatic proof of slavery. #corroborates (0.50) — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 706