March is the month of women; 9 March is International Woman’s Day, 16 March is Egyptian Woman’s Day, and 21 March is Mothers Day. And 2008 marks the centennial of the first Egyptian university, the present-day Cairo University. To honour both the university and women, Watani remembers the first six women university graduates As the Egyptian University celebrates its centennial in 2008, we ought to remember that it opened to Egyptians the gates of knowledge and social revolution by confronting many of the conservative ideas rooted in our society. It allowed women to enrol as students and, even though these women often paid a horrendous price in social censure, they—and their families—persevered, believing in their right to higher education.
Fait accompli
In 1929 six women, Naïma al-Ayoubi, Fatma Salem, Zuheira Abd al-Aziz, Suhair al-Qalamawi and Fatma Fahmi, broke with tradition and attended classes at the Egyptian University. They were helped by Taha Hussein, (1889 – 1973) the then professor of history at the university and dean of its Faculty of Arts, who began as a blind village boy and later metamorphosed into one of Egypt’s leading intellectuals and enlightenment figures. Dr Hussein kept the story of the women’s enrolment out of the news and advised them to keep silent about their attendance until their enrolment became a fait accompli, since it was feared that circulation of the news might trigger a conservative backlash.
The plan was successful; the public were initially surprised, but quickly accepted the idea of female students in the faculties of arts and law. Ms Ayoubi studied law, achieving the highest marks in all her examinations. She graduated to become Egypt’s first female lawyer.
Crisis
Although they had attained their goal and entered university, they were so unaccustomed to a mixed gender environment that they avoided any relations with their male colleagues. They did not answer greetings, and would enter the classrooms with their heads covered. They remained in semi-isolation until 1932, when Dr Hussein was dismissed from his post. In 1925 the university had come under the direct authority of the minister of education, and the State and academic community began to confront one another over academic freedom. A famous struggle erupted in 1926 over Taha Hussein’s book about pre-Islamic poetry, and he was accused of heresy because he argued that most pre-Islamic poetry was actually written after the coming of Islam, and disputed some of the stories mentioned in the Qur’an. The entire university supported Hussein, and his colleagues elected him dean of the faculty of arts. The government transferred him to the Ministry of Education. Again, the decision was resisted: students went on strike, and Ahmed Lutfi al-Sayyid, the president of the university, resigned. The crisis was resolved when Hussein returned to the university as dean in 1934 and Sayyid came back as president in 1935.
In the public eye
In the thick of the crisis all the students boycotted lectures, demanding the reinstitution of Professor Hussein. The women joined their striking male colleagues and Naïma al-Ayoubi, who beforehand had remained silent in the presence of fellow-students, gave an address to 1,800 students.
The girls joined the male students in their strike outside the classrooms, which obliged the dean of the faculty, who understood Ms Ayoubi’s leadership qualities, to ask her to convince her colleagues to halt the strike.
The girls had tasted the joy of the working alongside the male students, and this led to a change in their behaviour. From that time on all university colleges were open to women students.
Women were also sent on scholarships abroad, and in the 1940s Safiya Mahmoud was appointed dean of the science department.
BOX
Outstanding numbers
Irene Makram
Marianne Maurice
• The first: Dr Taha Hussein, first professor at Fouad I University.
• Five: the kings who visited the university were King Fouad, King Farouk, King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, King Albert of Belgium and the Emperor of Iran, Shahpour.
• Six: the first members of the University Board were Elwi Pasha, Hussein Rushdi, Ibrahim Naguib, Abd al-Khaleq Tharwat and Jacob Artin.
• Nineteen: the number of university courts, which occupied 50 acres and cost LE90,000.
• Two thousand and twenty-seven: the number of Fouad I University students in 1925, distributed in three colleges in the faculties of arts, law and medicine. All were males.
• Four thousand six hundred: the number of seats in the university’s grand hall, which was the second largest in the world.
• Thirty-eight: the number of Egyptian pounds approved by Lutfi al-Sayed Pasha for the construction of the university clock. He regretted this approval, however, when he became the university president, because its gigantic bell rang right next to his office.
… And dates:
• 12 October 1906: the Egyptian University Association Committee held its first meeting in the house of the Leader of the Nation, Saad Zaghloul.
• 11 February 1908: a public mourning day was announced for the university on the occasion of the funeral of nationalist leader Mustafa Kamel.
• 20 March 1914: a cornerstone was laid for the university at a ceremony for which Princess Fatma Ismail donated an ink pot, trowel, pencil and a hammer of pure gold in addition to a silver basin.
• 11 March 1932: King Fouad opened the university and was granted an honorary doctorate.
• 22 August 1935: the Royal Faculty of Engineering, the High Faculty of Agriculture and the High Faculty of Commerce were added to the university.
• 23 May 1940: a resolution was issued changing the name of the university from the Egyptian University to King Fouad I University.
• December 1945 King Farouk I issued a royal decree on the construction of the university hostel, with a committee under his auspices to collect donations towards its completion.