Hind Nawfal
Hind Nawfal | |
---|---|
Born | Hind Nawfal 1860 Al-Fatat magazine |
Spouse | Habib Dabbana |
Relatives | Maryam Nawfal (née al-Nahhas) (mother), Nasim Nawfal (father), Sarah (sister) |
Hind Nawfal (
Family and background
Hind Nawfal was born in
Nawal attended mission schools in
Hind Nawfal was unique at the time in that she came from a household where both her mother and father were writers. Hind's mother, Maryam, completed a biographical dictionary, Ma’rid al-Hasna’ fi Tarajim Masharhir al-Nisa’ (The beautiful woman's exhibition for the biographies of female celebrities), of Eastern and Western women. She dedicated it to Princess Cheshmat Hanim, third wife of Isma’il, who sponsored its personification.[7] Hind's father and uncle worked as journalists and translators in the Egyptian government.[8] Her father would end up directing the office of Hind's magazine where her sister, Sarah, would also assist.[9]
Al-Fatat
Nawfal started her journal,
In her first issue, she outlined her goals for the magazine, which included defending women's rights, expressing their views and drawing on their responsibility and duties. She subtitled the magazine “scientific, historical, literary, and humorous.”[10] It would not however discuss politics and had “no aim in religious controversies.”[14][15]
Nawfal was inspired by women's periodicals abroad which had existed almost a century and a half earlier than when she first published hers. The magazine covered issues such as marriage, divorce, veiling, seclusion, education, work, domestic instruction and entertainment. It had publications that contained biographies of Western women like Queen Victoria or interesting facts pertaining to women like there are 252 female medical students in France along with 121 novelists, 280 poets, and 425 essayists.[16] The magazine encouraged debate by discussing topics like the different standards of beauty that exist among different countries.
Sometimes, Nawfal would ask questions for readers to write in and answer. In her February 1893 issue, for example, she asked the question, “whose labor is more strenuous, men or women?”[10] Thus al-Fatat became a forum for discussion and debate over women's roles.
To urge women's participation in al-Fatat, Nawfal emphasized that a woman who wrote in journals was “not compromising her modesty or violating her purity and good behavior.”
Legacy
Nawfal married Habib Dabbana in August 1893 who was a Syrian who worked in the legal section of the Ministry of Finance and stopped her journal to return to life of domesticity and philanthropy in 1894.
References
- ISBN 9780791421710.
- ISBN 978-0801464898.
- ^ a b Khairallah, Shereen (1996). "The Sisters of Men: Lebanese Women in History". pp. 178–179.
- ^ Baron, Beth (1997). The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. Yale University Press. p. 14.
- ^ Elsadda, Hoda (2012). Gender, Nation, and the Arabic Novel: Egypt, 1892-2008. Edinburgh University Press. p. 9.
- ^ Baron, Beth (1997). The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. Yale University Press. p. 16.
- ^ Baron, Beth (1997). The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. Yale University Press. p. 14.
- ^ Zeidan, Joseph (1995). Arab Women Novelists: The Formative Years and Beyond. SUNY Press. p. 46.
- ^ a b Baron, Beth (1997). The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. Yale University Press. p. 16.
- ^ .
- ^ a b c Baron, Beth (1997). The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. Yale University Press. p. 1.
- ^ Badran, Margot; Cooke, Miriam (2004). Opening the Gates An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing. Indiana University Press. pp. 215.
- ^ Baron, Beth (1997). The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. Yale University Press. p. 1.
- ^ Baron, Beth (1997). The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. Yale University Press. p. 107.
- ^ a b Badran, Margot; Cooke, Miriam (2004). Opening the Gates An Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing. Indiana University Press. p. 217.
- ^ Zeidan, Joseph (1995). Arab Women Novelists: The Formative Years and Beyond. SUNY Press. p. 45.
- ^ Baron, Beth (1997). The Women's Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press. Yale University Press. p. 106.
- ^ Badran, Margot; Cooke, Miriam (2004). Opening the Gates an Anthology of Arab Feminist Writing. Indiana University Press. p. 217.
- ^ Ramdina, Nabila (2013). "Women in the 1919 Egyptian Revolution: From Feminist Awakeng into Nationalist Political Activism". Journal of International Women's Studies. 14 (2).