Amina al-Said

Amina al-Said
(b. May 20, 1910; d. August 13, 1995)

Amina al-Said was born in Asyut and raised in Cairo. She is known as a leading feminist, journalist, writer, and activist in the period before and following the 1952 Egyptian revolution. In 1931 she was among the first women to enroll in Fuad I University, founded in 1908 and renamed Cairo University in 1952. As a protégé of Huda Sharawi, she removed the veil early on and also advanced the cause of women's sports by daring to play tennis on the university campus. She enjoyed success as the author of novels, social tracts, biography, and travel writing.

An avid pan-Arabist, she helped create the Pan-Arab Feminist Union and was also active in the Egyptian Feminist Union. Throughout her career she pressed for the reform of Islamic personal status laws. In the 1940s she became the first paid woman journalist to work for a mainstream publishing house, Dar al-Hilal, and became vice president of the Board of Press Syndicate in 1956. She wrote for al-Musawwar and founded and edited the pan-Arab journal Hawa.

The burgeoning feminist movement underwent severe state repression following 1952, but al-Said endured as the only major feminist from the previous generation to be supported by the government.