Hikmat Abu Zayd (
Arabic:
حكمت أبو زيد; pronounced
Hekmat
Abu Zeid in
Egyptian Arabic; )
was an
Egyptian
politician and academic. She became the first female cabinet minister in Egypt
in 1962.
Her tenure as Minister of Social Affairs set a precedent. Afterwards, it became
common for women to head that ministry.
An avowed advocate of
Nasserism, Abu Zayd has had a major impact on Egyptian law and policy in the areas of
social
affairs and
insurance.
(1922 or 1923
– July 30, 2011) |
Early life and education
Born in the village of Shaykh Daud, located near the city of
al-Qusiyya
in
Asyut Governorate, Abu Zayd
grew up in a
nationalist household. Her
father's job at the
Egyptian State Railways meant
that he was assigned to many stations and was constantly on the move. Although
her mother was illiterate, Abu Zayd was encouraged to read and was given access
to her father's large library.
[7]
Abu Zayd received an advanced education. After completing her
secondary education at the
Helwan Girls School, she obtained a
licence
in history from
Cairo University (then named
Fuad I University) in 1940. She progressed further in her academic studies by
receiving a teaching certificate in 1941, a
Master of Arts
in education in 1950, and finally a
doctorate
in
educational psychology from
the
University of London in 1957.
She taught in the Women's College from 1955 to 1964, before being promoted to
the rank of
professor at Cairo University
in 1965.
[7]
Tenure as minister
In 1962, Abu Zayd sat on the preparatory committee for the
National
Congress of Popular Forces. During her membership of the committee,
she expressed her disagreement with
President Gamal Abdel Nasser over some
sections in the
Charter
of National Action. Impressed, Nasser decided to appoint her as a
minister.
[9]
On 29 September 1962, Abu Zayd was named Minister of Social Affairs in
Ali
Sabri's first government.
[10]
She retained her role when the
cabinet
was
reshuffled in March 1964,
[11]
and served until 1965.
[12]
Abu Zayd was part of a new female leadership that shared the same
lower middle class background
of Nasser and his fellow
Free Officers.
[13]
Her appointment by Nasser was made in the context of his new socialist program,
which put emphasis on broadening access to education and employment for all
people, regardless of gender or social class.
[6]
The 1950s and especially the 1960s were a time of increased female emancipation
in Egypt.
[14]
Polygyny
was on the decline, and women were increasingly holding key posts in
government, industry and academia.
[15]
The country's first two female parliamentarians,
Rawya
Ateya and
Amina Shukri,
were elected in 1957.
[16]
Karimah al-Sa'id
became the deputy minister of education in the 1960s. Such high-level
appointments of a few well-qualified women were showcased by the government,
while the majority of Egyptian women remained stuck in the lower echelons of
society.
[6]
Nasser's appointment of Abu Zayd was a politically significant move.
Including a woman in the cabinet was a way for him to co-opt female-run
charitable organizations into the
Arab Socialist Union (ASU),
the country's newly formed
sole political party.
[17]
Many of these associations were headed by women from prominent families and
were protective of their independence, which Nasser found objectionable. His
regime targeted women's organizations in the early 1960s and moved to take over
most of their functions as state responsibilities, thereby depriving the
associations of their momentum and autonomy. Abu Zayd implemented these
policies, which were aimed at benefiting female workers and peasants.
[18]
The Ministry of Social Affairs which she headed was increasingly specializing
in women's issues.
[13]
In 1963, it organized a general and wide-ranging women's conference to discuss,
among other things, ways to increase female economic
productivity,
working women's leading role in spreading
family
planning, as well as the rise of family income through the
employment of female members. Abu Zayd was named to preside over the
conference, thereby cementing her status as leader of the
women's
movement in Egypt.
[13]
She became coordinator for women's activities within the Arab Socialist Union
in 1963,
[7]
at a time when the party had nearly 250,000 female members.
[15]
During her time in office, Abu Zayd worked on several different social
issues. She strongly supported a law that prohibited
Islamic oral repudiation and
made it mandatory for a husband to go to court to be able to divorce his wife.
[19]
In order to combat
mendicity, she imposed prison
terms on recidivist beggars who returned to begging after they had received
state-sponsored training in handicrafts.
[20]
In addition to registering
NGOs and
expanding their development activities, she launched projects aimed at
improving the status of rural women.
[21]
One of the most sensitive tasks assigned to Abu Zayd was the relocation of
thousands of
Nubians, displaced by the
construction of the
Aswan Dam, to newly built
villages. Her management of the resettlement process led to her being
nicknamed
the "Merciful Heart of the Revolution" by Nasser.
[9]
Nevertheless, the Nubians'
forced displacement
remains controversial in Egypt to this day, with some blaming Nasser for the
neglectful conditions in which the relocated Nubians have been living since
then.
[21]
On a personal level, Abu Zayd faced domestic problems during her tenure as
minister. Her husband was resentful of her responsibility-laden role and of the
amount of time she spent outside the house. Their previously modest lifestyle
changed considerably as she hired a 12-year-old
houseboy
and was provided a
chauffeur-driven car by the
government.
[22]
Exile in Libya
Following Nasser's death in 1970 and
Anwar
Sadat's ascension to the presidency, Abu Zayd's career progression
was blocked. She moved to
Libya with her husband in 1974.
[7]
Her Nasserist convictions were in line with the
anti-colonialism,
anti-Zionism
and
pan-Arabism
of Libya's leader
Muammar Gaddafi.
[9]
Abu Zayd spent nearly two decades in Libya, during which time she taught
political
science at
Al Fateh University in
Tripoli.
[21]
She also penned articles and made speeches denouncing the Egyptian government.
[7]
Abu Zayd began criticizing President Sadat in the mid-1970s. She became a
leader of the
Egyptian National Front,
which was set up in
Damascus in 1980 by General
Saad
El Shazly. The organization called for the overthrow of Sadat's
government.
[23]
Due to her opposition to Sadat's peace overture to
Israel, Abu
Zayd was accused of
high treason,
terrorism
and
spying,
and was consequently deprived of her Egyptian nationality.
[9]
This turned her into a
stateless political
refugee.
[21]
A long legal battle ensued, which was finally resolved in late 1991 when a
judge ruled that Abu Zayd and her husband were entitled to their
Egyptian
passports.
[7]
She was also acquitted of the charges of high treason and terrorism.
[9][21]
Return to Egypt
After having recovered their nationality, Abu Zayd and her husband came back
to Egypt in March 1992.
[7]
She was treated as a
VIP upon her return, and
rushed to visit Nasser's
mausoleum.
[9]
During the 1990s, she opposed the
Gulf
War, the
Madrid Peace Conference, as
well as Israeli and
American imperialism. She
wrote articles for
al-Osboa
newspaper in 1998 dealing with the issues of Western imperialism and Arab
unity.
[7]
In late 2010, she was hospitalized at the Anglo-American Hospital in Cairo to
receive treatment for her
bone fractures.
[21]
Farkhonda
Hassan visited her there on behalf of then First Lady
Suzanne
Mubarak.
[24]
During her stay at the hospital, Abu Zayd granted an interview to
Almasry
Alyoum newspaper in which she defended Nasser's legacy and
lamented the loss of tolerance in Egypt.
[21]
Abu Zayd died on July 30, 2011.
Awards
Abu Zayd received the
Lenin
Peace Prize in December 1970.
[25]
To see more of who died in 2010 click here
