Nafisa Al-Barkawi

Egypt's first female physician and founder of Cairo's first women's hospital

Nafisa Al-Barkawi (1829-1902) broke medical barriers as Egypt's first licensed female doctor, graduating from the Cairo Medical School in 1855. She established the Qasr Al-Nil Hospital for Women (1868), Egypt's first facility staffed entirely by female medical professionals. Her advocacy led to the 1872 Medical Licensing Act allowing women to practice medicine. Al-Barkawi wrote Al-Tibb Al-Nafsi (1881), the first Arabic text on psychology, and trained over 300 nurses. She maintained a medical practice while operating a girls' school, and her 1890s correspondence with Florence Nightingale is preserved in the Wellcome Collection. Explore her legacy at Egyptian Medical Heritage or British Library archives.