Egyptian Women and Their Rights

Bahithat al-Bidiya

known as Malak Hifni Nasif

used the pseudonym Bahithat al-Badiya

(Seeker in the Desert)

graduated from the first teacher training

school for women in Egypt

On Fridays she gave women's lectures

addressing some of the most sensitive

social issues of the day

Feminist

Some of the sufferings she experienced

and observed were expressed in her
writings.
 advocted greater economic and educatioal rights for women in rapidly
changing society

she wrote at a time when egyptian nationalists were demanding independence

from Britain.

Intellectuals were debating the merits of modernity as opposed to tradtion

offered a program for improving women's lives.

sent in 1911 to the Egyptian Congress in Heliopolis, a meeting of (male)

nationalists.
A Lecture in The Club of the Umma Party

has contributed to the wide variety of arguments pertaining to womens rights in the
Islamic world and the womens rightful place next to the man, neither below nor
behind him.

argues that it not women that have been created lesser than men but that the men
have replaced the womens job with machinery and that the idle mind of the woman
without the jobs she used to do, is a harmful thing not only to herself but to the whole
of national progress.

She then advocates that women should have the same occupational and education
opportunities as men.

endorsed the principle of full political equality for both sexes.

She presented a petition which contained ten demands for women.

"10 demands" which concluded her speech
to the all-female Umma Party in 1909. In
1911 Al-Badiya sent her demands to the
Egyptian Congress, an all-male nationalist
organization
10 Demands
1. Teaching girls the Qur'an and the correct
Sunna [Prophetic practice];
2. Primary and secondary school education
for girls, and compulsory preparatory school
education for all;
3. Instruction for girls on the theory and
practice of home economics, health, first aid
and childcare;
4. Setting a quota for females in medicine
and education so they can serve the women
of Egypt;
5. Allowing women to study any other
advanced subjects they wish without
restriction;
Modest as they may appear, the 10 demands were rejected.
6. Upbringing for girls from infancy stressing
patience, honesty, work and other virtues;
7. Adhering to the Shari'a concerning
betrothal and marriage and not permitting
any woman and man to marry without first
meeting each other in the presence of the
father or male relative of the bride;
8. Adopting the veil and outdoor dress of the
Turkish women of Istanbul;
9. Maintaining the best interests of the
country and dispensing with foreign goods
and people as much as possible;
10. Making it incumbent upon our brothers,
the men of Egypt, to implement this
programme.
 Nasif emphasized the importance of
education not only the role of women in
the society, but also value of women in
sustaining Egyptian society and Islamic
values into the new century
Despite the rejection of her
recommendations, Nasif succeeded in
promoting the elements that would enable
women to become an effective asset to
egyptian society: Education, Faith, and
Equality