A Woman to Know: Doria Shafiq
No one will deliver freedom to women, except woman herself. — Doria
(image via Wikimedia Commons)
Before the Arab Spring, there was Daughter of the Nile.
The literary journal, founded and managed by Doria Shafik, put women's equality on the Egyptian political agenda in the 40s and 50s. Doria produced the magazine, organized a women's rights political party (also named Daughters of the Nile) and even publicized a hunger strike to bring attention to her cause.
Following the hunger strike, Doria assembled more than 1,000 women to storm the Egyptian parliament in demand of equal voting rights. Later in life she would be ostracized from other activist circles, victimized by smear campaign and eventually even placed under house arrest -- but in 1956, after all Doria's work, women in Egypt finally won the right to vote.
Add to your reading list:
Doria Shafik, Egyptian Feminist: A World Apart (Cynthia Nelson)
Read more:
Adventures in Feministory: Doria Shafiq (Bitch Media)
Durriya Shafiq: Restless Daughter of the Nile (Al-Akhbar English)
Protests raise hopes for women's rights in Egypt (The Los Angeles Times)
Do women in Egypt want equality? (Egyptian Streets)
Women must help craft a new Egypt (USA Today)
Listen more:
Robin Morgan interviews Mona Eltahawy, an Egyptian Activist (Women in the World)
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