Egypt’s 1919 Revolution: Searching for Women’s Autobiographical Writings in the Archive

Women were active participants in the anti- colonial revolution of 1919 in Egypt, both as nationalist and feminist activists. Yet their voices are mostly forgotten in the dominant narrative about this key moment in Egyptian history.

Don't miss this interesting talk with Dina Heshmat, Associate Professorm Sheikh Hassan Abbas Sharbatly Department of Arab and Islamic Civilizations at AUC. Heshmat will give a presentation based on her on- going research project, which seeks to recover these women’s autobiographical narratives by looking at a wide range of texts they authored, including memoirs, articles, poems, short stories and unpublished letters. She will address the challenges she face in locating these texts in the archive, and reflect on issues of gender and class shaping the archival collections examined. Additionally, Heshmat will focus on a specific archival source, the letters sent to feminist and nationalist leader Huda Sha‘rawi by her peers, kept in her private papers at AUC’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library.

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