Doria Shafik:

 

There is a sense of irony, or perhaps tragic justice, in that the story of a woman whose life and presence were forcibly erased from the public sphere continues to linger on the minds of many, unforgettable even 50 years after her death. Just as she forged a path through the social and political barriers confronting her, the Egyptian feminist, poet, and editor Doria Shafik’s legacy as one of the leading figures of the Egyptian women’s liberation movement in the 1940s cannot be forgotten. Shafik strived to make her voice and the voices of all Egyptian women known, undeterred by the many who hurled insults, slander, and mockery her way — but in exchange for her efforts, all her work was seized, her allies turned their backs on her, and she lived out her final years in silence and isolation.

 

Doria Shafik was born on December 14, 1908, in Tanta, Egypt, to Ahmad Shafik, a civil servant, and Ratiba Nassif. Her early years of education began in 1915, when Shafik, then seven years old, started studying at Notre Dame des Apotres, a nuns’ school in Tanta, where she lived with her grandmother. After her mother died in 1920 when Shafik was only 12 years old, she moved to her father’s house in Alexandria, where she attended the Saint-Vincent de Paul missionary school. Even at a young age, she exhibited a headstrong spirit and ambition, propelling her to seize her goals despite the limited opportunities and obstacles that stood in her way. Finding that further education in Alexandria was open only to boys, Shafik resolved to study on her own and completed the official French curricular exams ahead of schedule, earning among the top scores in Egypt, according to David Kirkpatrick, who published an obituary on Doria Shafik in the New York Times.*

 

Shafik set her sights on higher education. In 1928, she wrote a letter to Huda Sha'arawi, an aristocrat and pioneering Egyptian feminist leader, as well as the founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union. With Shaarawi’s help, she secured a scholarship from the Egyptian Ministry of Education to continue her studies in Paris at Sorbonne University, where she earned a doctorate in philosophy under the tutelage of French scholar Louis Massignon in 1940, becoming the first Egyptian woman to do so.

 

Upon graduating, however, the restrictive limitations on women bore down their claws with even greater fervor. Shafik faced several obstacles due to both her sex and her status in attempting to work in education. She hoped to work as a teacher and educate the youthful future generations, but such dreams remained out of reach. When she applied to teach at the Egyptian University’s Faculty of Arts, she was rejected by the dean of the faculty, Ahmed Amin, who turned her away at the door stating she was “too liberal” and he “could not appoint a beautiful woman to teach at the faculty,” according to Brewin Habib’s article “The End of a Brave Woman” published in Al-Quds Al-Arabi.** Dean Ahmed Amin went as far as threatening that “the day Doria Shafik steps foot in the university is the day I will leave” after she attempted to get a job in the Ministry of Education, as quoted by Habib.

 

Efforts to find work in journalism fared no better. Shafik had hoped to work for the French magazine L’Egyptienne, founded by her patron Huda Shaarawi, but was prevented from doing so by its chief editor, Céza Nabarawi, as cited in Sania Shaarawi’s “Doria Shafik,” published on the official Doria Shafik website.*** According to Kirkpatrick, Huda Shaarawi had also excluded Shafik from the Egyptian Feminist Union “because of her middle-class background.” This did not deter her from her goals, however, as Shafik continued to respect and be inspired by Shaarawi, determined to lead the feminist struggle after Shaarawi’s death in 1947. She spoke in a speech at Shaarawi’s memorial: "This fortieth day after the death of Huda Shaarawi conveys the weight of everything she has done for the Egyptians and for all the people of the Orient. Remember her, because remembrance serves to reinforce faith, and because she has struggled to create a proud and cultured society. Remember her until you understand the depth of your indebtedness to her. She lived for you, and she has also died for you. And I shall make sure that mourning helps us to continue what she began… You must struggle to reinforce her memory," as cited by Sania Shaarawi.

 

Despite the obstacles, Shafik persevered in pursuit of her goals, establishing herself both as a writer and an activist. In 1945, she became the editor-in-chief of the French cultural and literary magazine La Femme Nouvelle. This position was offered to her by Princess Chevicar, the wife of Egypt’s former King Fuad I. She completely took over responsibility for the magazine after Chevicar’s death in 1947. Shafik also began publishing her own magazine in 1945, Bint Al Nil (The Daughter of the Nile) — a publication dedicated to educating Egyptian women and bolstering their positions within the family and society — as well as the children’s magazine “Al-Katkut,” and a novel, “L’Esclave Sultane,” in 1951. Shafik remained involved in her activism work as well; she founded her own movement in 1948, the Daughters of the Nile Union, which ran literacy classes, an employment agency, mutual aid programs, and advocated for women’s political rights.

 

On February 19, 1951, Shafik led a demonstration of 1,500 women into the Egyptian parliament, where they demanded women’s rights to vote and hold office, participate in politics, and reform personal status laws by setting limitations on polygamy, divorce, and pushing for equal pay for equal work. After over four hours, they were able to speak with the President of the Senate, who promised to give their demands immediate attention. A week after the protest, a bill was submitted amending the electoral law, granting women the right to vote and the right to run for parliament. Though it wasn’t until 1956 that women’s suffrage was finally achieved, this event was one of the most pivotal in the fight for Egyptian women’s rights and established Shafik as one of the movement’s most influential leaders.

 

With the start of the Egyptian revolution in 1952, Shafik continued to agitate for women’s political rights. After not seeing the results she desired, even after the British-backed monarchy was overthrown in 1952, she and nine other women held a sit-in and hunger strike in the Journalists’ Syndicate building in 1954 that lasted for 10 days and left her hospitalized. However, she received a promise from the acting president that women would have full rights. This promise was never carried out, and under Nasser’s rule, “neither men nor women [had] the right to exercise a meaningful franchise,” writes Kirkpatrick. Shafik was slandered and subject to numerous accusations throughout the protest, among them claims that she and the other women were “spending the night with journalists,” that their husbands were not men, that they were a disgrace to Islam, and even some claims that they were secretly eating on their hunger strike, in the words of Habib.

 

Former allies and colleagues began to turn their backs on her. In her book “She Saw Through Her Eyes: Women in the Life and Literature of Taha Hussein,” Brewin Habib discusses the details behind the deterioration of Shafik’s relationship with Taha Hussein, a known champion of women’s rights. Hussein’s reaction to the women’s hunger strike came as a surprise to many who knew him. Rather than support Shafik, he published an article entitled “The Fiddlers” in Al-Jumhurriya newspaper, criticizing her cause and describing their movement as ridiculous, while also inciting their families to stop them. Rife with mockery and a belittling tone, his response went against his previous attitudes about women’s rights and reputation, leading several journalists to respond in surprise and demand he “respect other opinions,” states Habib.

 

In response, Shafik wrote an article entitled “Taha Hussein and the Old Women of Joy” in which she accused him of political hypocrisy, suggesting he championed the marginalized to elevate his position and, upon achieving the power and authority he desired, shed his original cause to “praise the tyrant, elevating him to the ranks of imams and saints,” writes Habib. Some theorize that Hussein changed his attitude because he felt morally obligated to support and defend Gamal Abdel Nasser’s leadership, given the help he had received in the past. He had replied in an open letter to the editor-in-chief of the magazine to which Shafik had published her response, insulting her without openly naming her.

 

Shafik’s next attempt at a hunger strike would mark the beginning of her downfall. In 1957, she attempted another hunger strike that lasted six days, in which she denounced Nasser’s dictatorship, leading to her censure and the loss of her allies. Nasser placed her under house arrest, shut down her magazines, and erased all reference to her in history books and media. Labeled a traitor, former allies turned against her, removing her from her own movement, the Daughters of the Nile. The house arrest lasted for 18 years, beginning under Nasser’s rule and continuing even after his death under Sadat. During this period, isolation was her only companion, save for her daughter Jehane. Her husband, Nour al-Din Ragai, whom she had met in Paris, was jailed for reasons unrelated to her and blacklisted from Egypt, with their separation leading to their divorce in 1967. Shafik’s second daughter, Aziza, had left Egypt with her husband to settle in America, where he worked.

 

In her confinement, Shafik also heard news of others who shared her fate for daring to speak critically of Nasser. Mary Kahlil, a friend and colleague from the days of her work on La Femme Nouvelle, made a mocking remark towards Nasser during a reception at the Apostolic Nunciature in Cairo in 1961, stating “two thousand greetings like the two thousand hectares you took away from me,” referring to the agrarian reform, as cited by Shaarawi. Kahlil’s possessions were consequently confiscated, and she also began to live withdrawn and isolated. That same year, Muhammad Shaarawi, the son of Huda Shaarawi, was also detained and “completely ruined for daring to criticize the impact of the selfsame agrarian reform,” writes Shaarawi, who adds that “one by one, all the people that Doria had mingled with in the past were treated to the same regime of misery.”

 

Even after Nasser’s death in 1970 and President Sadat’s decision to free her from house arrest, Shafik remained in isolation, only keeping contact with her daughter Jehane and granddaughter Nazli. She turned to writing during her isolation, producing three versions of her autobiography, twice in French and once in English, as well as six poetry collections. In total, she wrote 550 pages in French and 4,200 pages in English, according to Habib. Her poetry included “Les Larmes d’Isis” and “Avec Dante Aux Enfers.” As Sania Shaarawi states, “She wrote to survive the isolation that stifled her.”

 

Ultimately, Shafik remained isolated until the end of her life. On September 20, 1975, she committed suicide by jumping from a 6th-floor balcony. Her death became the subject of speculation and rumors, as some believed she had fallen after a dizzy spell or had been pushed off the balcony. In the words of Pierre Seghers, a poet and friend of Shafik from her days in Paris, as cited by Shaarawi: “She was hunted down, trapped by time, but the devastation failed to destroy everything. Her tragic destiny…failed to wipe out her words.”