16 March marks Egyptian Women’s Day for a good reason. On this day in 1919, 300 Egyptian women led by Huda Shaarawi marched against British occupation.
One woman, Hamida Khalil, was killed, making her the first female martyr that day. On that day, four years later, Shaarawi led the march to form Egypt's first feminist movement. The march progressed from then on.
This year, Ahram Online celebrates Egyptian Women's Day in collaboration with the AUC Rare Books and Special Collection Library by sharing the stories of inspiring Egyptian women who led the march for women's rights in the country.
Every Thursday, the biography of an inspiring Egyptian woman will be shared. After exploring the life of Huda Shaarawi (1879-1947), the woman behind the march, and Doria Shafik (1908-1975) the "Daughter of The Nile," the life and struggle of Aziza Hussein (1919-2015) the "People’s Ambassador," we end the series with a salute to Nabaweya Moussa (1886 -1951), the First Educator.
Nabaweya Moussa (1886 -1951)
Nabaweya Moussa made several groundbreaking achievements. She was the first Egyptian woman to earn a Bachelor's degree, become a tutor, then a woman principal, establish private schools, and receive the Order of the Nile. Her resilience and rebellion against traditions that constrained women in Egyptian society made her a prominent figure.
Poor handwriting, valuable content
In her memoirs, titled My History Written by Myself, published in 1999 by the Women and Memory Forum, Moussa described her upbringing in a society that did not welcome women's education.
Her mother's comment, "Teach them how to spin and weave but not calligraphy," was her initial response when Nabaweya asked to learn how to read and write like her brother. Her wit and persistence at a very early age led her to grab her right to education by her own hands. Initially, she read from her older brother's school books and learned all of the poems he recited at school. Her brother's private Arabic tutor helped her to read Arabic.
When she was 13, she applied for her Ibtedaía (Sixth Primary) degree at Al-Saneya Girls' School for Tutors. At that time, it was the highest form of education any Egyptian girl could attain. She stole her illiterate mother's khytm (seal) to sign her admissions application. She also sold some of her own jewellery to pay for the fees. She passed her exams along with two other girls in 1903. Her teachers were very impressed by the writing style of a self-educated girl.
The first Egyptian woman principal
Soon, she was assigned the job of a teacher at Abbas Helmy School for a salary of EGP 6, while her male counterparts were given double her salary. When she questioned the discrimination, she was told that the men attained the bachelor's degree while no Egyptian women did. And so she applied to become the first Egyptian woman to attain her bachelor's degree in 1907.
Known for her strictness and knowledge, she became the first Egyptian woman principal and then the head of inspectors at the Ministry of Education. She founded several schools for girls under her name in 1920, making her a pioneer in the field of Egyptian private schools for girls. She was granted the Order of the Nile by King Fouad after he visited her schools and saw her great impact on national education.
The feminist and patriotic writer
Moussa's life was not solely focused on education. She was a creative writer who published her essays under a pseudonym because government employees were prohibited from writing for published papers.
Her essays, including "A Free Consciousness in a Sensitive Body", were often regarded as a subtle condemnation of the British occupation in Egypt. They were so eloquent that they grabbed the attention of Egyptian political leader Saad Zaghloul at the time.
She founded her own women's magazine, Al-Fatah, becoming one of the key figures in the Egyptian feminist movement, and one of two women who accompanied Huda Shaarawi to the first International Women Federation Conference in Rome in 1923.
As a feminist, Moussa adopted her own interpretation of hijab and sufur. During this era, the word hijab meant face cover, and sufur meant taking the face cover off.
In her memoirs, she recalled a debate with a male counterpart who argued that women should cover their faces because their faces were seductive. She argued back, saying that there was no religious prohibition of showing a woman's face, that Egyptian peasants do not cover their faces, and that the white transparent cloth barely covers the face.
"Besides, since you men claim to be wiser and have better minds than women, then how come you are seduced by seeing their faces," she wrote in her memoirs.
*Photos courtesy of the AUC Rare Books and Special Collections Library.
Short link: