Doria Shafik, Egyptian Feminist: A Woman Apart

349 Pages·1996·17.92 MB·English

by  Cynthia Nelson

Doria Shafik, Egyptian Feminist

Doria Shafik, Egyptian Feminist
A Woman Apart
CYNTHIA NELSON
The American University in Cairo Press
First published in Egypt in 1996 by
The American University in Cairo Press
113 Sharia Kasr el Aini
Cairo, Egypt
This edition published by arrangement with
University of Press of Florida
Copyright © 1996 by the Board of Regents of the State of Florida
Second printing 1999
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
DarelKutubNo.8271/96
ISBN 977 424 413 3
Frontispiece: Doria Shafik, 1952
Printed in Egypt
To Aziza and Jehane in memory of their mother
This page intentionally left blank
Action de Grace Thanksgiving
Je rends grace I render thanks
a Dieu unto God
d'avoir vu le jour to have been born
au pays des mysteres. in the land of mysteries,
d'avoir grandi to have grown up
a I'ombre in the shadow
des palmiers, f the palms
O
d'avoir vecu to have lived
dans les bras within the arms
du desert f the desert
O
gardien des secrets . . . guardian of secrets . . .
d'avoir vu to have seen
I'eclat the brilliance
du disque solaire, of the solar disk
et d'avoir bu and to have drunk
enfant as a child
eaux du Nil from the Nile
fleuve beni. sacred river.
—Doria Shafik, Larmes d'Isis
This page intentionally left blank
To Aziza and Jehane in memory of their mother
CONTENTS
Preface xi
Chronology xxi
The Awakening (1908-1928)
1. Between Two Poles 3
The Turning Point (1928-1944)
2. To Want and to Dare (1928-1932) 33
3. In Search of Love (1932-1936) 53
4. Return to the City of Light (1936-1939) 70
5. A Stranger in Her Own Land (1939-1942) 91
6. The Turning Point (1942-1944) 105
The Struggle (1945-1954)
7. Into the Limelight (1945-1947) 119
8. Carrying the Banner (1948-1950) 142
9. Storming the Parliament (1951) 168
10. A False Dream (1952-1954) 178
11. Divergent Paths (1954) 193
Pursuing the Absolute (1954-1957)
12. Flight around the World (1954-1955) 211
13. The Beginning of the End (1955-1957) 225
14. A Woman Alone (1957) 238
Solitude (1957-1975)
15. The Interior Life 253
16. Life as a Work of Art 275
Notes 285
Bibliography 306
Index 311