7 Egyptian Women Who Shaped History
According to Nile FM, throughout history, women all over the world have always been breaking the glass ceiling in all sorts of fields and Egyptian women are no different.
Whether in science, arts or social issues, they’ve gone above and beyond to fight for women’s rights and continue to do so.
In honour of Women’s Equality Day, we take a look at some of Egypt’s strongest women who changed the world as we know it.
1- Doria Shafik
Doria was a feminist, poet, and editor who was a key figure in Egypt’s women’s liberation movement in the mid-1940s. The Egyptian constitution granted Egyptian women the right to vote as a result of her efforts.
2- Inji Aflatoun
Inji was an Egyptian painter and activist for women’s rights. In the late 1940s and 1950s, she was a leading spokesman for the Marxist-progressive-nationalist-feminist spokeswoman and a pioneer of modern Egyptian art.
3- Latifa al-Zayyat
Latifa was an Egyptian activist and writer. She’s mostly known for her novel The Open Door, which won the inaugural Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.
4- Lotfia El Nadi
Lotfi was the world’s second solo female pilot after Amelia Earhart. In 1933, she became the first Egyptian and Arab woman to obtain a pilot’s licence.
5- Nawal El Saadawi
Nawal is a writer, activist, physician, and psychiatrist who is widely regarded as Egypt’s voice of feminism today. She authored numerous books on the subject of women in Islam, earning her the moniker “the Simone de Beauvoir of the Arab World.”
6- Sameera Moussa
Sameera was a nuclear physicist with a PhD in atomic radiation and the first female professor at Cairo University. She worked to make nuclear medicine accessible to all people and organised the Atomic Energy for Peace Conference. She was dubbed the “Mother of Atomic Energy.”
7- Suhayr al-Qalamawi
Suhayr was a literary figure and politician who influenced Arabic literature and culture. She was one of the first female students at Cairo University. She was the first Egyptian woman to receive a Master of Arts degree and a PhD for her work in Arabic literature in 1941. Her writings were primarily about feminist activism and advocacy.
She founded the Cairo International Book Fair in 1967, the Middle East’s first international book fair.