Born: 25 December 1886, Egypt
Died: 17 October 1918
Country most active: Egypt
Also known as: Bahithat al-Badiya
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Melek Hifni Nasif was the daughter of a professor in the Egyptian University at Cairo. Her background was therefore cultural. She too became a teacher and interested herself in intellectual pursuits. However her life was not a particularly happy one; perhaps because her feelings became so involved in the question of the position of women in Islam.
Her writings on this subject incline to be didactic. For instance, she calls attention to the disinterested attitude of the average Egyptian father toward his children and his refusal to admit his wife to an intellectual companionship with him.
In order to arouse the father to his duties, she argues that the children would grow in spirit and character if they had the help and sympathy of both parents. Furthermore the mother would be more competent to advise the children if she could discuss matters with the father. Thus it was that the distress of a teacher for the condition of the children and a woman for the condition of women perhaps saddened this public spirited Egyptian. The increasing signs of freedom among the women of the East are proof that workers like Melek Hifni Nasif have not struggled in vain. Moreover the writings of this gifted woman are mentioned in most discussions of modern Egyptian literature.