Fatma Emam

I was born in Cairo and I live and work in Cairo as a researcher and founder of Nazra for Feminist Studies. I call myself a feminist because I have been through incidents in my life that proved to me that equality and egalitarianism is basic right for everyone, I believe that women suffered and […]


Doaa Mohamed Abdelaal

My primary focus areas are women’s economic and political empowerment which has led me to conduct different studies analyzing the situation of women economically and politically. I am a board member of the international solidarity network- Women Living Under Muslim Laws where I participate in different regional plans for supporting and advocating women’s rights. Since […]


Huda Sha’rawi

Huda Sha’rawi, an activist for women’s rights and social change, is a household name in the Arab world. In many ways, Sha’rawi represented the face of Egyptian feminism, as demonstrated by her actions, thoughts, speeches and writings. Sha’rawi was born in Minya in 1879 to Muhammad Sultan. She was taught to read the Quran and […]


Thousands Who Belong Under the Sun

by Sionne Neely “We’ve said it before: We don’t like prisons, but we are not afraid of them. There are thousands of innocent people who belong under the sun, not in prison cells, but we will continue with our attempts under any and all circumstances.” ~ Mahienour Elmasry To women rights defenders Yara Sallam, Sanaa […]


For Yara, Sanaa and All Your Comrades

More than a year ago I heard one of India’s most powerful activist poets, K Satchidanandan, recite a poem he had written for Indian activist Irom Sharmila. Sharmila has been on hunger strike for the last fourteen years in protest against the brutal Armed Forces Special Powers Laws. Similar to you -and others like you, in Palestine, […]


Freedom Will Always Be Our Ultimate Goal

By Doaa Abdelaal 9th November, 2014 Life is so strange most of the time. It is the 9th of November again… for those who can remember, it was on this same 9th day of November, at night, when the Berlin wall started falling. I was 13 years then, watching it on the screen of our […]


Freedom is Our Right

by Fatma Emam   In my country, we are witnessing the backlash of an incomplete revolution. We are suffering at the hands of a military junta and the Islamists who stole our dreams. In spite of this, we go on in the heat of solidarity and the power of our passion.  I want to confess […]


Fighting for the Women Who Fight for Us

  Sometimes, the women who fight for us, need other women to fight for them. I wondered what it must be like to be buying water to quench your thirst and your entire world changed. The news articles stated that you were buying water when you were arrested. I wondered what made you step out […]


Our Personal Lives Matter (A Letter for Yara)

July 16, 2014   Dear habibty Yara, It’s Nelly Bassily here. Yara, first, I’m sending you lots and lots of solidarity and love from Canada! Habibty, you have to be one of the strongest and most amazing young feminists I have the pleasure and honour to call a friend in Egypt. When I first saw […]