In this day, Google is paying a tribute to one of the pioneer feminist in the Arab world of the last century, Huda Sharawi. Born in 23rd June, 1879 in Egypt, Huda was unwillingly married to a cousin when she was only 13 years old.
Determined to conquer her autonomy, Huda manages, thanks to her marriage contract, to separate from her husband.
Huda Sharawi is educated, cultivated, goes to salons and makes female friendships. But at 21, under pressure from her family, Huda had to renew her marriage and lose her hard-won freedom. Attached to the status of women, she
created a dispensary open to all, as well as a school teaching domestic hygiene and childcare.
The Egyptian Feminist Union
Based on her personal experience, Huda founded the Egyptian Feminist Union in 1923, which defends the rights of women, in particular access to education and the public service, but also family issues such as early marriage and polygamy. She also works to defend the independence of Egypt and the unity of the Arab world. In the same year,
she decided to fight with her face uncovered and removed her veil, which earned her international renown.
Huda is dedicated to her feminist and nationalist struggles. She participated in international conferences, sponsored associations and launched in 1925 an openly feminist Arabic-language review, The Egyptian (Al-Misriyah), whose
editor-in-chief was her best friend Céza Nabaroui. They articulate the demands of Egyptian women with international
feminist movements.
Twelve years later, she also created a magazine in Arabic, the title of which is the exact translation of The Egyptian
(Al-Misriyah), but whose content changes. From an Egyptian feminism, she widens her struggle to an Arab feminism,
more particularly, to the unity of the Arab world.
In 1944, Huda organized the first Arab feminist congress in Cairo, which linked feminism and Pan-Arabism. A few months later, the Arab League was founded and it did not include any women. Huda criticizes it: “The League
whose pact you signed yesterday is only one half of the League, the League of half the Arab people”.
She died in 1947, a few years before the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and the emergence of Gamal Abdel Nasser
who would both adopt a nationalist position, include feminist demands in his domestic policy, and seek to put
feminist organizations under control.
Reference: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Huda-Sharawi
https://womanrises.com/knowledge/what-feminism-is-really-about/
