**1.2 The emergence of the social work profession in Egypt and the Arab world1**

Egypt was one of the first countries in the Middle East to authorize the practice of social work. The field of social work emerged in the 1930s due to cultural friction between Egyptian students who were studying in Western European countries and the United States of America. Accepting the profession in Egyptian society strengthened the presence of many foreign communities in Egypt during that period, where practicing social work started with the people of the French community in Egypt. The first school of social work was established in Alexandria in 1934, and most of its students were foreigners. Teaching in it was based on the French language. In 1937 a

<sup>1</sup> The Arab world is made up of 22 countries. Egypt is the largest of these countries. Egypt has spread social work education to the majority of Arab countries, including the Sultanate of Oman.

group of Egyptian educated from studying outside, especially from the United States and Western Europe, established the Egyptian Association for Social Studies (EASS). In the same year, the EASS established the school for social work in Cairo; in 1939, the Ministry of Social Affairs was established. In 1940, the first batch of Egyptian social workers graduated, as the state began to take the lead in working to solve social and individual problems [9]. According to some observers of the history of the social work profession, Professional social work in Egypt started only in 1936 when the first school of social work was established, "but charity and social welfare services have been offered and known in Egypt since the Pharaohs ruled" [10]. Others believed that the profession of social work appeared in Egypt when Western-educated social workers brought professional social work education to the Middle East. Specifically Egypt, in 1936 when "two foreign-born social workers (one trained in the United States and the other in Switzerland) and a professor from the American University in Cairo initiated the idea and were able to muster support" to establish the Cairo School of Social Work [11].

Following the establishment of Schools of Social Work in Egypt, the first social work pioneers were used to encourage them to do research, write, publish, and continue to promote professional education in social work. Fatima Al-Harouni, Ahmed Al-Sanhouri, and Saleh Al-Shobokshi, writers of the first Arabic publications on social casework were among these Egyptian pioneers. In addition, the initiation of postgraduate programs, the awarding of master's and doctoral degrees in social work, and the expansion of sending students abroad all had a significant impact on increasing scientific knowledge, learning about modern curricula and theories, and attempting to integrate them into Egyptian society [12].

The social work profession in Egypt has been consistently developed. However, development at academic institutions has outpaced development at professional practice organizations. For example, the Cairo School of Social Work was founded in 1937, and the first batch of social workers graduated in 1940 (17 students); the school's name was changed to the Higher Institute of Social Work in Cairo in 1972. In 1947, the Higher Institute of Social Work for Girls was founded in Cairo's "Garden City," and it eventually became the social work faculty of Helwan University in 1975. This faculty began awarding bachelor's degrees in social work, and graduate programs at the master's and doctorate levels began a few years later [13]. The faculty of Social Work at Fayoum University was established in 1983. Studies began in the academic year 1984/85 at bachelor's and master's levels simultaneously. The college has since become one of the forefront educational institutes of social work in Egypt and the Arab world. As a result, several high and medium faculties and institutes in social work were established in Egypt, increasing the number of university faculties to six, the number of higher institutions giving a bachelor's degree in social work to twelve, and five medium institutes grant a diploma degree in social work. Despite remarkable advances in the social sciences in general and social work in particular, all Arab countries continue to encounter several challenges that hinder the development of the social work profession. "Soliman and Abd Elmegied" believe that Social work curricula in Egypt need to be rigorously and consistently updated to be able to cater to problems such as illegal migration, refugees, refugee students, drug addiction, increased marginalization, slum living conditions, and children living in the streets [14].

Furthermore, an observer of the development of professional practice organizations of social work in the Arab world might detect the severe slowness of this development. From our point of view, many factors prevent this development from

#### *Private Practice Social Work in the Arab World: Sultanate of Oman as a Model DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.106284*

proceeding in its natural course and at the same speed as it is moving in the advanced Western countries. Among the most important of these factors is that social work education is focusing on quantity rather than quality (accepting large numbers of students without paying attention to the level of education and training), in addition to concentrating on teaching traditional approaches and neglecting modern approaches in social work. On the other hand, the circumstances of professional practice organizations do not encourage their development because they continue to serve their clients using old models. Therefore, any attempts by academics to bring about the product through teaching and training social work students on modern approaches were hopeless as long as the primary practice organizations in the field have not adopted these current approaches in dealing with their clients. The natural and logical evolution of the social work profession in the Arab world is hampered by several factors. The author will not talk about them, but I will mention a few of them as entry points for the vision of change and progress in professional practice.

### **1.3 The social work profession in the Gulf societies**

After the social work profession established itself in Egypt, it expanded and spread in the regional environment, including 22 Arab countries; the spread was rapid in the Arab Gulf counties. The Egyptian pioneers of social work carried on the responsibility of spreading and settling the profession in Gulf countries. Although the Gulf societies received this modern profession, the Islamic culture of these societies prevented the adoption of the trend of secularization of social work. As one of the previous studies explained, this trend toward secularization of the social work profession has been prevalent in many regions of the world. Still, it has not been the case in Arabian Gulf and other Middle Eastern countries. Resistance to this trend has been influenced by the role of religion in Muslim-majority countries and the impact of the Islamic worldview on people, their problems, their relationships with each other, and obligations to the broader society [11].

Since most of the universally agreed-upon human and ethical values are Islamic religious values, all human rights newly recognized by the international organizations concerned with human rights have been validated by the Islamic religion for more than 1440 years. The global statement of human rights in Islam clarified that the Islamic religion guarantees all human rights and includes them for the human being regardless of his faith, color, race, gender, or any other discriminatory differences. It guarantees him the right to life; freedom; equality; justice; protection from torture; Asylum; thinking, belief, and expression; religious liberty; economic freedom; sufficiency of the necessities of life; the right to marry; privacy; travel; movement; children's rights; wife's rights; Laborers' rights, and other human rights [15]. However, like most of the world's major religions, many of the core values and purposes of Islam are mainly consistent with the social work profession's mission, vision, and core values. It is important to note that Islam is not only a belief system but also a way of life that unites the metaphysical and material dimensions [11].

It was entirely dependent on Egyptian academics to develop social work programs in all Gulf countries. However, some of these countries have been developing social work education programs by providing them fully in English, despite field practice that will take place in an Arab environment. Therefore, the need for the assistance of some academics from Western countries was imposed due to the lack of national competencies in those countries, and they thought that the development process requires obtaining the profession from its own origin countries.
