Durriyya Shafiq

1908 - 1975

Egyptian writer and feminist.

Durriyya (also Doria) Shafiq was born in the town of Tanta in Egypt's Nile delta, where she was educated by Roman Catholic nuns. With the support of Huda al-Shaʿarawi, she received her doctorate from the Sorbonne in Paris, where she wrote a dissertation entitled "La femme Egyptienne et l'Islam." In 1945 Shafiq returned to Egypt, founded Majallat Bint al-Nil (The magazine of the daughter of the Nile), and in 1948 established the Union of the Daughter of the Nile, an association which called for political rights for women and female literacy. A later political party, which she founded in 1953, was banned in 1954. In the 1960s Shafiq's public opposition to President Gamal Abdel Nasser led to her being placed under house arrest. Among her writings are al-Mar'a al-Misriyya min al-Faraʿina ila al-Yawm (The Egyptian woman from the pharaohs until today) and al-Kitab al-Abyad li Huquq al-Mar'a al-Misriyya (The white paper for the rights of the Egyptian woman).

Bibliography

Badran, Margot, and Cooke, Miriam, eds. Opening theGates: A Century of Arab Feminist Writing. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.

— DAVID WALDNER