[5] He encouraged her to become an Islamic leader citing the example of Nusayba bint Ka'b al-Muzaniyya, a woman who fought alongside Prophet Muhammad in the Battle of Uhud.

For a short time during her teens, she joined the Egyptian Feminist Union[6][2][7] only to conclude that "Islam gave women rights in the family granted by no other society.

"[8] At the age of eighteen, she founded the Jama'at al-Sayyidat al-Muslimat (Muslim Women's Association),[7] which she claimed had a membership of three million throughout the country by the time it was dissolved by government order in 1964.

Some scholars, like Leila Ahmed, Miriam Cooke, M. Qasim Zaman, and Roxanne Euben argue that al-Ghazali's own actions stand at a distance,[12] and even undercuts some of her professed beliefs.

[13] To these scholars, among many, her career is one which resists conventional forms of domesticity, while her words, in interviews, publications, and letters define women largely as wives and mothers.

(al Ghazali 2006)In justifying her own exceptionality to her stated belief in a woman's rightful role, al-Ghazali described her own childlessness as a "blessing" that would not usually be seen as such, because it freed her to participate in public life (Hoffman 1988).

"[S]he faced whipping, beatings, attacks with dogs, isolation, sleep deprivation, and regular death threats...."[3] During these periods of hardship, she is reported to have had visions of Muhammad.

[citation needed] While in her seventies, al-Ghazali visited Pakistan and openly lent her support to the Afghan mujahidin, such as through an interview she gave to al-Jihad, a popular magazine published by the Services Office.

[3] She describes her prison experience, which included torture, in a book entitled Ayyām min ḥayātī, published in English as Days from My Life[16] by Hindustan Publications in 1989 and as Return of the Pharaoh by the Islamic Foundation (UK) in 1994.

Although the Islamic movement throughout the Muslim world today has attracted a large number of young women, especially since the 1970s, Zaynab al-Ghazali stands out thus far as the only woman to distinguish herself as one of its major leaders.