Egyptian jurist Qasim Amin, the author of the 1899 pioneering book "Women's Liberation" ("Tahrir al-Mar'a"), is often described as the father of the Egyptian feminist movement. In his work, Amin criticized some of the practices prevalent in his society at the time, such as polygyny, the veil, and "purdah", i.e. sex segregation in Islam. He condemned them as un-Islamic and contradictory to the true spirit of Islam. His work had an enormous influence on women's political movements throughout the Islamic and Arab world, and is read and cited today.