Doria Shafik[note 1] (Arabic: درية شفيق; 14 December 1908 – 20 September 1975) was an Egyptian feminist, poet and editor, and one of the principal leaders of the women's liberation movement in Egypt in the mid-1940s.
[4] She wrote two theses, one refuting the merely utilitarian ends generally associated with Ancient Egyptian art, and the second, arguing about recognising women's equal rights.
Upon her return from France to Egypt in 1940, Shafik hoped to contribute to the education of her country's youth, but the dean of the Faculty of Literature of Cairo University denied her a teaching position on the pretext that she was "too liberal.
"[4] In 1945, Princess Chevicar, the first wife of Egypt's then former King Fuad I, offered Shafik the position of editor-in-chief of La Femme Nouvelle, a French cultural and literary magazine addressing the country's elite.
Also in 1945, Shafik decided to publish an Arabic magazine, Bint Al Nil (meaning Daughter of Nile in English), intended to educate Egyptian women and to help them to have the most effective role possible within their family and their society.
In 1948 Shafik created the Bint Al Nil Union to help solve women's primary social problems and to ensure their inclusion in their country's policies.
On 12 March 1954, Doria Shafik undertook an eight-day hunger strike at the press syndicate, in protest at the creation of a constitutional committee with no women on it.
As a result of the interest sparked by her hunger strike, Doria Shafik was invited to lecture in Asia, Europe and the United States about Egyptian women.
[2] In addition to her magazines, Shafik wrote a novel, L'Esclave de Sultane (Slave of King) about slavery of a woman to a man,[11] several volumes of poetry published by Pierre Fanlac, and her own memoirs that were translated into many languages.
Poetry from her final days was translated by Nadeen Shaker and published in The Cairo Review:[12] Daughter of the Nile I have demanded women’s rights My fight was enlarged to human freedom And what was the result?