Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Revolutionary Egyptian feminist, Huda Shaarawy


Thu 19 Jul 2018 | 01:30 PM
Hana Khaled

SEE-July19th: Egyptian feminist and activist Huda Shaarawy is on top of  'BBC list of African women who changed the world'. She was born in 1879 to a wealthy family in Minia. She received good education; spoke different languages; Arabic, French, and Turkish.

After her separation from her husband, she went on a period of independence and freedom. She studied and taught Islamic subjects and Quran.

She spent her early life belonging to the 'harem system', the system that kept women isolated and veiled.

Poor or rich, no woman was allowed to go outside without wearing a veil according to traditions.

The word 'harem' refers to rooms where women were kept separated from men. It was famous among royal, wealthy, and upper-class families.

Shaarawy did not only influence women in Egypt, but women all over the world.

Her courageous act of taking off the veil in public broke the restricting rules, encouraged other women to do the same after being controlled for many years.

In addition to her lectures that helped women to go out and participate in public life with no fear, she changed the image of  the fragile woman that needs to be saved from being an object used by men.

She opened a school for girls in 1910 for academic studies.

Shaarawy shed light on oppressed women who belong to upper-class families in her book The Harem Years:  The Memoirs of an Egyptian Feminist. The book was published in 1987.

She was influenced by her husband who was an activist. She was involved in politics,  and was one of the leaders of 1919 women's anti-British street demonstration.

Furthermore, Shaarawy was the founder of 'Egyptian Feminist Union' that led till her death in 1947.