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 ...
,
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 ...
, 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,
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
celebrated her 106th birthday with a
Google Doodle
Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running annual Bu ...
.
See also
*
List of first women lawyers and judges in Africa
This is a list of the first women lawyer(s) and judge(s) in Africa#Territories and regions, Africa. It includes the year in which the women were admitted to practice law (in parentheses). Also included are the first women in their country to achiev ...
References
1914 births
2002 deaths
Cairo University alumni
Egyptian women lawyers
Lawyers from Cairo
Egyptian nationalists
20th-century women lawyers
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