Suhair Al-Qalamawi is a prominent Egyptian literary and political figure who has shaped Arabic writing and culture through her writing, feminist movement, and advocacy.
She was born on July 20, 1911, to a father who works as a doctor in the city of Tanta and a Circassian mother. She studied at the American School for Girls there. She grew up in a family that prides itself on educating its females. Therefore, she was able to benefit from her father's vast library of works at an early age. Then she registered her name to study at Fouad I University with some other girls in a precedent that was the first of its kind, which encouraged the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the time.
Dr. Taha Hussein, given her superiority, also helped her to write in the Egyptian University Journal.
She was one of the first ladies who attended Cairo University, and in 1941 she became the first Egyptian woman to obtain a master's and doctorate in literature for her work in Arabic literature. After graduation, the university appointed her as the first female lecturer to hold this position.
She was also one of the first women to hold the position of president, including head of the Arabic language department at Cairo University, president of the Egyptian Feminist Union, and president of the Arab Women's University Alumni Association.
Her book, which includes two volumes of short stories, ten case studies, and several translations of The World of Literature (My Grandmother's Talks), was published in 1935.
During her childhood during the 1919 revolution, she grew up amid the influence of Egyptian women during the period when the great feminist Hoda El Shaarawy and nationalist figure Safiya Zagloul were.
Taha Hussein made Al-Qalamawi the assistant editor-in-chief of the Cairo University magazine in 1932, thus Al-Qalamawi became the first woman to have a press license in Egypt. During her studies, too, she was a broadcaster for the Egyptian radio broadcasting service.
After she obtained her Master of Arts, she received a scholarship to conduct research in Paris for her Ph.D. In 1941, after she completed her doctorate, she became the first woman to receive a doctorate from Cairo University.
She was one of many of the first girls of her gender and started her career as the first lecturer at Cairo University in 1936. She soon made her way to a university professor and later head of the Arabic language department between 1958-1967 and was the first woman to do so.
She worked as the president of the Egyptian Feminist Union, and in 1959 she became the president of the Association of Alumni of the Arab Women's University, where she established the cooperation between the Egyptian Federation and the World Federation of Universities. She later became president of the Egyptian General Authority for Cinema, Theater and Music in 1967 and president of the Child Culture Society in 1968.
Al-Qalamawi contributed to the struggle for women's rights, not only through her literary work, but also through her participation in Arab women's conferences where she called for equal rights. In 1960, she was president of the International Conference on Women; And in 1961 she became president of the first folk art meeting.
A committee was formed to supervise the Palestinian Girls University to talk about its interest in the Palestinian cause and that was in 1962. She began her political work when she entered politics as a member of Parliament in 1958 and again in 1979 until 1984.
She was also the head of the department of the Egyptian Authority for Publishing and Distribution, where she worked to expand the range of readers, encourage young writers, and advance the book industry. In 1967, she founded the first book fair in the Middle East: the Cairo International Book Fair. During her last years, she served as the head of the General Book Authority from 1967 to 1971 and as the head of the censorship authority from 1982 to 1985.
At the beginning of 1935, she published a wide range of literary works, including short stories, case studies, cultural journals, and translations. She died in Cairo in May 1997.
Among her more than eighty publications, al-Qalamawi's first and most famous work is the first volume of short stories (My Grandmother's Conversations), published in 1935. This work, published in Cairo, was also the first volume of short stories published by a woman in Egypt.
Her Ph.D. dissertation consisting of a paper on "One Thousand and One Nights" laid the foundation for her feminist mission. She aimed to prepare a new woman: an intelligent, educated, and wise woman who is fully responsible for her life and her family. A woman who not only uses her wit and virtues to equal men, but also strives to re-educate men to gain equality. This message appeared in her literary criticism books, Literary Criticism 1955, and The World Between the Covers 1985.
Suhair Al-Qalamawi thought about educating Egyptians through reading, and she had the first lead in establishing a library in the Azbakeya theater hall, to sell books at half the price, so that the book would reach its simple audience. In the name of "New Writings".
She married Dr. Yahya al-Khashab, and Suhair al-Qalamawi died on May 4, 1997.
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