Egyptian Feminist Union

The Egyptian Feminist Union was founded at a meeting on 6 March 1923[1][2] at the home of activist Huda Sha'arawi,[3] who served as its first president until her death on December 12, 1947.

[5] The EFU also supported complete independence from the United Kingdom, but like upper-class male leaders of the Wafd Party, promoted European social values and had an essentially secular orientation.

[7] Upon Huda Sha'arawi's death in 1947, Doria Shafik looked as though she would become her natural successor as the leader of the EFU, but instead formed the Bint Al-Nil Union a year later in 1948 to further the aims of the women's rights movement in Egypt - with a particular focus on social progress and inclusion in policymaking.

[8] In February 1951, Shafik managed to secretly bring together 1500 women from Egypt's two leading feminist groupings (the EFU and Bint Al-Nil Union).

[16] Nabawiyya Mohamed Musa Badawi (1886–1951) was a pioneering figure of women's education in Egypt and was a founding member of the Egyptian Feminist Union.

After receiving her formal education, Musa continued on her trailblazing path by becoming the first female school principal, a position she held from 1924 to 1926.

[19] Throughout her career, Saʿīd's opposition to Egypt's veiling traditions and to its personal status laws were unwavering,[20] which resulted in her facing intimidation from Islamic fundamentalists.

Saʿīd's career in the journalism industry spanned until her eventual retirement in 1984, in which she held the position of chairperson of Dar al-Hilal, Egypt's oldest publishing house.

Nabarawi was initially raised by a distant relative in Paris but would later continue her studies at Les Dames de Sion, a private French school in Alexandria.

She would later leave for Cairo as a teenager to live with a different relative where she would meet Huda Sha'arawi, who was a friend of Nabarawi's deceased foster mother.