Google dedicated its Tuesday Doodle to pioneering Egyptian feminist Huda Shaarawi in honour of what would have been her 141st birthday.
Those using the search engine on Tuesday, June 23 will be met with a powerful sketch of Shaarawi against a yellow background, set among other powerful women from around the world.
Shaarawi was a feminist leader in Egypt and founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union. Here is what you need to know about her.
Who was Huda Shaarawi?
Born Nour Al-Huda Mohamed Sultan Shaarawi on June 23, 1879, in the Egyptian city of Minya, she was a member of the famous El-Shaarwi family. Her father, Muhamed Sultan Pasha El-Shaarawi, later became the president of Egypt's Chamber of Deputies.
Shaarawi grew up studying extensively, learning several languages as well as receiving tutoring in Quranic Arabic and Islamic subjects by female teachers in Cairo. She was also a keen poet, writing in both Arabic and French.
From young feminist to activist
From a young age, Shaarawi resented restrictions on women's movements in Egypt, and spent time organising lectures for women on various topics she thought would be of interest to them. These lectures brought many women together outside of the home for the first time, and Shaarawi used the opportunity to establish a women's welfare society to raise money for poor women in the country. In 1910, Shaarawi opened a school for girls where she focused on teaching academic subjects rather than practical skills.
The Egyptian Revolution
Shaarawi played a key role in the Egyptian Revolution of 1919, leading women protestors advocating for Egyptian independence from Britain and the release of male nationalist leaders. Her husband, Ali Pasha Shaarawi, was elected as acting vice president of the nationalist liberal Wafd party and kept her well informed of developments during the revolution so she could take his place if he were to be arrested. Shaarawi used this knowledge to form the Wafdist Women's Central Committee (WWCC) in 1920, of which she was elected as its first president.
Following the death of her husband in 1922, Shaarawi attended the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Congress in Rome. Upon her return, she removed her veil in public and trampled it at her feet, a controversial move that acted as a significant moment in Egyptian feminist history. While many women were shocked, others followed suit.
The Egyptian Feminist Union
In 1923, Shaarawi founded and became the first president of the Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU). Characteristic of liberal feminism in the early twentieth century, the EFU sought to reform laws restricting personal freedoms, such as marriage, divorce, and child custody.
In 1924, alongside the EFU, she led women’s nationalist and feminist demands at the pickets at the opening of Parliament, which were largely ignored by the Wafdist government, leading to her resignation from the WWCC.
In 1945, she received the Order of the Virtues in Egypt, and she continued to lead the EFU until her death in December 1947.
Take a look through some other regional Google Doodles:
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures and results:
Monday, UAE won by three wickets
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
Basquiat in Abu Dhabi
One of Basquiat’s paintings, the vibrant Cabra (1981–82), now hangs in Louvre Abu Dhabi temporarily, on loan from the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The latter museum is not open physically, but has assembled a collection and puts together a series of events called Talking Art, such as this discussion, moderated by writer Chaedria LaBouvier.
It's something of a Basquiat season in Abu Dhabi at the moment. Last week, The Radiant Child, a documentary on Basquiat was shown at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and tonight (April 18) the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is throwing the re-creation of a party tonight, of the legendary Canal Zone party thrown in 1979, which epitomised the collaborative scene of the time. It was at Canal Zone that Basquiat met prominent members of the art world and moved from unknown graffiti artist into someone in the spotlight.
“We’ve invited local resident arists, we’ll have spray cans at the ready,” says curator Maisa Al Qassemi of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's Canal Zone Remix is at Manarat Al Saadiyat, Thursday April 18, from 8pm. Free entry to all. Basquiat's Cabra is on view at Louvre Abu Dhabi until October
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Profile of VoucherSkout
Date of launch: November 2016
Founder: David Tobias
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers
Sector: Technology
Size: 18 employees
Stage: Embarking on a Series A round to raise $5 million in the first quarter of 2019 with a 20 per cent stake
Investors: Seed round was self-funded with “millions of dollars”
Overview
What: The Arab Women’s Sports Tournament is a biennial multisport event exclusively for Arab women athletes.
When: From Sunday, February 2, to Wednesday, February 12.
Where: At 13 different centres across Sharjah.
Disciplines: Athletics, archery, basketball, fencing, Karate, table tennis, shooting (rifle and pistol), show jumping and volleyball.
Participating countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and UAE.
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