Huda Sha'arawi

Egyptian feminist leader who ignited the Arab women's movement by publicly removing her veil in 1923.

Huda Sha'arawi (1879–1947) revolutionized women’s rights in the Arab world. Born into an elite Cairo family, she founded the Egyptian Feminist Union in 1923, demanding education, suffrage, and legal reforms. Her iconic act of removing her face veil at a Cairo train station, recounted in historical records, became a watershed moment for Arab feminism.

Sha'arawi organized the first women-led anti-colonial protests in Egypt and collaborated with international suffragists. She established schools for girls, arguing that education was key to liberation. Her 1986 memoir, Harem Years, exposed the constraints of elite Egyptian women’s lives.

Despite backlash, her efforts led to incremental legal changes, including raising the marriage age. Today, she’s celebrated in initiatives like Cairo’s Huda Sha'arawi Street, a testament to her enduring influence on Middle Eastern gender activism.