Cairo // An Egyptian woman who dressed as a man to get work has been hailed as an “exemplary working mother” by the country’s president.
Sisa Abu Daooh, 65, showed up at the presidential palace wearing a male robe and turban to receive an award from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Sunday, a day after Egypt marked Mother’s Day.
She also received a cash prize of 50,000 pounds (Dh24,000), a large sum in the conservative rural south where she lives.
Ms Abu Daooh said she started dressing as a man in the city of Luxor 43 years ago after her husband died and she was left to raise her daughter alone.
“I cut my hair and wore a man’s robe and turban, and a man’s shoes to get a job. It was hard to get opportunities as a woman,” she said.
She worked as a brick maker and field hand, and then when her health worsened took up shoe shining.
“It was hard [to dress as a man], but without it men would have hassled me and stopped me from working, and maybe even assaulted me.”
Despite now having become famous, she says she will continue to work in men’s clothes.
“I will work dressed in a man’s robe until I die,” she said.
Women in Egypt are legally equal to men, and many are employed outside the house, but advocates say the country still has a long way to go in advancing their participation in politics and the economy.
* Agence France-Presse
