Shaarawi, Huda (1879-1947)

Huda Shaarawi was a key figure in early-20th-century Egyptian feminism, serving as a feminist national activist, philanthropist, orator, and writer. She had a significant impact on women's lives in Egypt and in the Arab world. Born June 23, 1879, into a prosperous family in Minya, Egypt, she was educated in traditional gender roles. The early years of her life in Egypt were shaped by other international social movements, primarily led by women, including the woman's suffrage movement, the international peace movement, and the movement against legalized prostitution. She spent her early years in a harem, being born into the system as a member of wealthy, upper-class society. She was married at age 13 to her older cousin, Ali Shaarawi, already in his late 40s. Though separated from him for 7 years after his breach of their marriage contract, she reconciled with him under family pressure in 1900. They had two children together, a daughter, Bathna, and a son, Muhammad.

In 1908, she created the first philanthropic society operated by Egyptian women for the purposes of providing social services to underprivileged women and children. She was a proponent of female-run organizations and social projects because she believed that through this type of activity women would gain valuable knowledge and experience while dispelling the myth that women cannot be independent of a man's care and protection. She went on to found the Intellectual Association of Egyptian Women in 1914 and became the president of the Wafdist Women's Central Committee in 1920.

After the death of her husband, she no longer had a primary male figure influencing her life because her father and older brother were also deceased. At this time, she turned her efforts from the political independence movement and focused on women's equality. Her focus included education, voting rights, and marriage laws. Her arguments for women's equality were focused on historical facts proving that in ancient Egypt women were given status equal to that of men and this privilege ceased only through foreign rule. She also argued that Islam holds the equality of men and women, yet misinterpretations of the Koran had resulted in inappropriate treatment and application of Islamic law.

In 1923, she founded the Egyptian Feminist Union, serving as president until 1947. Shaarawi was a member of the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship, serving as vice president in 1935, and was the founding president of the Arab Feminist Union (1945-1947). Other significant contributions include her support of the founding of al-Mara al-Arabiyya, the newsletter of the Arab Feminist Union (1946) and founding the magazines l'Egyptienne (1925) and al-Misriyya (1937).

She is most widely known for the act of publicly removing her veil in 1923 at a Cairo train station following her return from a conference of the International Alliance of Women in Rome. At the time, this was considered a bold and symbolic act, yet ironically, not necessarily a key component of her work nor a primary focus of her affiliations. Shaarawi died December 12, 1947