Mufidah Abdul Rahman (; 20 January 1914 – 3 September 2002) was one of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

's first female lawyers; she was also the first female lawyer to take cases to the Court of Cassation in Egypt, the first woman to practice law in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, the first woman to plead a case before a military court in Egypt, and the first woman to plead cases before courts in the south of Egypt.

Education

When she entered

Cairo University Cairo University () is Egypt's premier public university. Its main campus is in Giza, immediately across the Nile from Cairo. It was founded on 21 December 1908;"Brief history and development of Cairo University." Cairo University Faculty of En ...

, then called King Fouad I University, to study law in 1935, she was the first married woman to enroll there, and she later became the first mother to graduate from there.

Work

She was chosen to defend

Doria Shafik Doria Shafik (‎; 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. As a direct result of her efforts, Egyptian wome ...

in court. This was in regards to how in February 1951, Shafik managed to secretly bring together 1500 women from Egypt's two leading feminist groupings (Bint Al-Nil and the

Egyptian Feminist Union The Egyptian Feminist Union () was the first nationwide feminist movement in Egypt. History and profile The Egyptian Feminist Union was founded at a meeting on 6 March 1923 at the home of activist Huda Sha'arawi, who served as its first president ...

), and organize a march of people that interrupted parliament for four hours after they gathered there with a series of demands mainly related to women's

Socioeconomics Economic sociology is the study of the social cause and effect of various economic phenomena. The field can be broadly divided into a classical period and a contemporary one, known as "new economic sociology". The classical period was concerned ...

rights. When the case went to trial, many Bint al-Nil supporters attended the courtroom, and the judge adjourned the hearing indefinitely. Also in the 1950s, she served as a defense lawyer in famous political trials regarding a group charged with conspiring against the state. In 1959, she became a member of parliament for Ghouriya and Ezbekiya (districts of Cairo). She was an active deputy for seventeen years in a row. She was the sole woman to be part of the work of the Committee for the Modification of Status Laws for Muslims that began in the 1960s. She was a board member for Al-Gomhouriya Bank, the Bar Association, the Council of University Unions, the National Conference of the Socialist Union, the National Union, and the Postal Authority Council. She also cofounded the Women of Islam Society, and served as its chairwoman for several years.

Personal life

She was a mother to nine children, Adel, Ismail, Nabila, Azima, Nabil, Sherif, Farouk, Fouad and Samy Abdel Latif. Four of them were born during her study in the university.

Tribute

On January 20, 2020,

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celebrated her 106th birthday with a

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References

1914 births 2002 deaths Cairo University alumni Egyptian women lawyers Lawyers from Cairo Egyptian nationalists 20th-century women lawyers {{Egypt-bio-stub

Education

Work

Personal life

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References