When we imagine the Crusades, our minds almost immediately summon images of armored Christian knights and Muslim warriors clashing on the battlefields of the Levant. Popular history and romanticized media have long portrayed these medieval holy wars as an exclusively male enterprise. Yet the historical reality tells a far more surprising story. Women took up […]
Huda Shaarawi, Egyptian feminist & activist
Huda Shaarawi (1879–1947) was an Egyptian feminist who influenced not only women in Egypt but throughout the Arab world. She was a pioneer in feminism, and brought to light the restrictive world of upper-class women in her book The Harem Years, published in 1987. Huda Shaarawi (also spelled Hoda Shaarawi or Sha’arawi) was raised in […]