Fatima al-Zahraa Abdel-Majid

A pioneering Egyptian physician and women's rights advocate who broke barriers in healthcare and education during the mid-20th century

Fatima al-Zahraa Abdel-Majid (1920–1995) was a trailblazing Egyptian doctor and social reformer whose work reshaped healthcare access and women's empowerment in post-colonial Egypt. Born in Alexandria to a family of educators, she defied societal norms by pursuing medicine at Cairo University in the 1930s when only 2% of Egyptian physicians were women. Her 1948 establishment of the Al-Mahrousa Women's Health Clinic became a landmark institution, offering free prenatal care and gynecological services to underserved communities. During the Suez Crisis (1956), she organized mobile medical units that treated over 10,000 refugees, earning her the Egyptian Order of Science and Arts.

Abdel-Majid's 1963 book <《Women's Health in Developing Nations》 became a foundational text in global health policy. She pioneered midwifery training programs that reduced maternal mortality rates by 40% in rural areas by 1970. Her collaboration with UNICEF in the 1960s led to the first nationwide immunization campaign against polio. Despite facing backlash for her progressive views on women's reproductive rights, she founded Egypt's first medical school for women in 1968, graduating 300 female doctors over two decades.

Abdel-Majid's legacy endures through the annual Fatima al-Zahraa Health Awards, which honor frontline healthcare workers. Her advocacy for integrating traditional medicine with modern practices inspired WHO's 1975 guidelines on holistic healthcare approaches. Modern scholars credit her work with laying the groundwork for Egypt's 2008 National Women's Health Strategy, a testament to her enduring impact on public health systems across the Arab world.