What is the importance of Egypt in the book, When God Was a Woman?

The ancient civilization of northeastern Africa, Egypt is identified with the Goddess Isis and her weaker brother/husband Osiris. In prehistoric times, Egypt is divided into Upper (southern) and Lower (northern) kingdoms, worshiping the Goddess under different names and using different symbols. Indo-Europeans invade ca. 3000 BCE, uniting the kingdoms for the first time. By the late fourth millennium BCE, the "Followers of Horus" rule Egypt as a "master race", with Memphis as their capital. Around the time of the Second Dynasty, Heliopolis (Annu) becomes home to a school of priest-scribes who worship a sun god, Ra. By the Fifth Dynasty, Ra and Horus are equated. Egyptian and Hittite armies often clash for control of Canaan and there is considerable intermarriage during the eighteenth Dynasty.

Canaan, however, goes to the Hebrews, who come to Egypt to avoid starvation when Joseph receives authority there, thanks to his ability to interpret dreams. Thereafter, the Hebrews become slaves, and Moses as a baby is adopted as an infant by the pharaoh's daughter. Moses leads them across the Sinai Peninsula and seizes Canaan from the various inhabitants. In the time of the Hebrew reformer-priest Ezekiel, Egypt becomes a symbol of debauchery and lewdness. In a Hebrew colony in Egypt, émigré women claim to have prospered at home until they give up offering incense and libations to the Queen of Heaven; now they are destitute; they do not plan on stopping the offerings again—and they have their husbands' approval.