Huda Sha’arawi & Sarah Chapman

The Riveting Rosies Podcast

18 Apr, 2023

Huda Sha’arawi & Sarah Chapman

Huda Sha’rawi

Huda Sha’arawi was a remarkable Egyptian feminist who challenged gender inequality and advocated for women’s rights in Egypt in the early 20th century. Born into an upper-class family in Minya, Egypt, on June 23, 1879, Huda grew up in Cairo and received an education in multiple languages, including French and Arabic, alongside her brothers. Despite her privileged upbringing, Huda was acutely aware of how differently she was treated compared to her brothers. For example, she was not allowed to ride horses as a child. However, her father’s widow (not her mother) became her confidante and inspired her.

During her youth, Huda secretly bought books and took books from her father’s study to continue her education. After her father’s death when she was five, Huda’s cousin Ali Sha’arawi became her guardian. At 13, she married her cousin, who was already in his forties, but lived apart from him for seven years. During this period of separation, she continued her education and met many foreign women who inspired her to promote change in her society.

In 1900, Huda reconciled with her husband under family pressure and had two children with him. Despite her family responsibilities, she continued her social activism and helped Marguerite Clement, a French lecturer, reserve a university lecture hall for a series of Friday night lectures that attracted many women who had never left their homes to gather in public places before. In 1909, she established the first Egyptian woman-led philanthropic organization to provide social support to poor women and children. She opened a school for girls in 1910 that taught academic subjects rather than traditional practical skills. Inspired by this progress, she formed the Intellectual Association of Egyptian Women in 1914 to improve women’s intellectual and social lives.

After World War I ended, Huda turned her attention to advocating for Egyptian independence from British rule, leading mass protests of lower-class and rural women to participate alongside male activists. Her husband was a founding member of the Wafd party, which Huda supported, and she was primed to take his place should he and other male leaders be arrested. She was then elected president of the Wafdist Women’s Central Committee, marking the most significant female presence and participation in Egyptian political activism seen until then.

After her husband died in 1922, Huda focused her efforts more on women’s suffrage and equality. In 1923, she founded the Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU) and became its first president. The organization sought legal reform to remove various restrictions on personal rights, such as marriage, divorce, custody of children, and others. The EFU launched L’Egyptienne magazine and campaigned for increasing the minimum marriage age, women’s suffrage, restricting polygamist practices, and stricter divorce laws for men, expanding women and girls’ education, and more.

In 1924, Huda led protestors at Parliament’s opening and submitted a list of demands, which were ignored by the Wafdist government she previously supported. She then immediately resigned from the Wafdist Women’s Central Committee. In the same year, Huda also achieved significant visibility when she removed her veil and mantle in a Cairo train station, inspiring many other women to do the same. Within a decade, all Egyptian women stopped wearing veils and mantles, although a return to conservatism movement occurred later in the century.

Huda remained president of the EFU for the rest of her life and accomplished a tremendous amount during her leadership. She was a symbol of hope and inspiration for generations of Egyptian women who followed her lead in fighting for their rights.

Check out Frank Turner’s song The Lioness about Huda on Youtube:

Frank Turner- The Lioness (Official Audio)

References:

Sarah Chapman

Sarah Chapman was a trade unionist, leader of the 1888 Bryant & May Matchgirls’ strike, and the first representative of the Union of Women Match Makers. Born on October 31, 1862, Sarah was the fifth of seven children born to working-class parents who provided her with some formal education. Along with her mother and older sister, Mary, she worked at Bryant & May’s match factory initially as a matchmaking machinist and later in the Patent department. 

While working conditions in the factory were exceptionally poor, men performed the actual dipping of matches into sulfur and white phosphorus, whereas the rest of the work was performed by women, who worked 14-hour shifts in a sweating system for little pay. They did not have gloves or protective equipment when handling the white phosphorus, which caused “phossy jaw” – a disease that caused facial disfigurement and brain damage due to prolonged, repeated exposure. The early symptoms of phossy jaw were similar to those of typhus fever, allowing Bryant & May to avoid taking responsibility for their workers’ ailing health by ordering them to have their teeth pulled or be sacked.

In July 1888, 1400 women walked out of the factory due to poor working conditions, low pay, and unacknowledged health hazards. Sarah was part of the delegation responsible for meeting with different organizational bodies on behalf of the strikers. She met with Annie Besant, a reformer and member of the Fabian Society, who agreed to help create a Strike Committee. The Strike Committee held its first meeting on July 8, 1888, where positive publicity for the strike was provided by the Pall Mall Gazette and The Star. The Committee would later go on to meet with Parliament members at the House of Commons.

With the help of Toynbee Hall and the London Trades Council, the Strike Committee presented their case to Bryant & May Directors, who agreed to abolish all fines and deductions and restore the “pennies” to the packers. They also agreed to restore all grievances directly laid before the firm before any hostile action was taken and take back all the girls. A Union would be formed for workers, Bryant & May would provide a break room away from the production line for workers to take their meals, and wheelbarrows would be provided to transport boxes, rather than workers carrying them on their heads.

The workforce enthusiastically agreed to the new conditions and approved of the proposal. The Union of Women Match Makers had its first meeting on July 27, 1888, where Sarah was elected as one of 12 women. She was part of a 77-person delegation to attend the 1888 International TUC in London and is recorded to have seconded a motion at the 1890 International TUC.

In 1891, Sarah married Charles Henry Dearman, a cabinet maker, and ceased her work at Bryant & May. She and her husband had six children. Sarah died on November 27, 1945, at the age of 83 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Manor Park Cemetery. In 2022, the charitable organization English Heritage announced its plans to commemorate the site of the former Bryant & May factory with a blue plaque, a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The plaque was unveiled on July 5, 2022, marking the 134th anniversary of the strike. Sarah’s legacy continues to inspire generations of women and serves as a testament to the power of collective action.

References: