Sophia Lane Poole

Sophia Lane Poole was the author of "The Englishwoman in Egypt: Letters from Cairo, written during a residence there in 1842, 3 & 4, with E.W. Lane Esq., Author of “The Modern Egyptians.” " She was the estranged wife of Edward Poole and sister of the famous Orientalist Edward William Lane, who suggested that she and her sons should join him in Egypt so that she could report on the female side of Egypt's gender-segregated society. Lane Poole wrote that "The opportunities I might enjoy of obtaining an insight into the mode of life of the higher classes of the ladies in this country, and of seeing many things highly interesting in themselves, and rendered more so by their being accessible only to a lady, suggested to him the idea that I might both gratify my own curiosity and collect much information of a novel and interesting nature, which he proposed I should embody in a series of familiar letters to a friend." [Lane Poole, Sophia The Englishwoman in Egypt: Letters from Cairo, written during a residence there in 1842, 3 & 4, with E.W. Lane Esq., Author of “The Modern Egyptians.”, 1846] Like her brother, Lane Poole adopted local customs and dress in order to gain acceptance in Egyptian social circles. An Egyptian acquaintance of Edward Lane wrote that his household consisted of his mother and sister and that "Both always wore the Egyptian dress, and never left the house except heavily swathed and veiled. The Sheykh al-Dessouki, who frequented Lane’s house regularly, never saw their faces." [Leila Ahmed "Edward W Lane", Longstaff, London, 1978] However, Lane Poole herself hated veiling, and writes that she veiled only in order to gain access to harems, bathhouses, and other "women-only" areas.

References

*Leila Ahmed "Edward W Lane", Longstaff, London, 1978