Jehan Sadat was sitting within the stands, just some meters far away from her husband, when gunmen opened fire at a military parade in Cairo. Her life partner, Anwar – then president of Egypt – was hit by several bullets and died two hours later in hospital. it had been 6 October 1981, and Jehan’s decade-long spell as Egypt’s first lady came to an abrupt halt. Jehan, who has died at the age of 88, spent most of her life dedicated to promoting social justice and feminine empowerment in Egypt and continued to try and do so decades after her husband’s very public assassination. “She led change and inspired generations to return,” says Noha Bakr, a political studies affiliate professor at the American University of Cairo. A tough proposal Born in Cairo in 1933 to an Egyptian father and British mother, Jehan experienced a various upbringing, celebrating Christmas and eating cornflakes for breakfast rather than the standard Egyptian fare of fava beans, in addition to devotedly fasting every year during the Muslim festival of Ramadan. Her dislike for gender inequality stemmed from her school days when she was advised by her parents to target subjects like sewing and cooking, in preparation for marriage, as opposed to the maths and sciences that might have led to a university career. “I have always regretted that call. I might never allow my daughters to shut off their futures that way,” she wrote in her autobiography, a lady of Egypt. She first met her future husband Anwar, a former officer, at the age of 15 on a visit to her cousin’s house – shortly after he was released from prison for fighting against British control in Egypt. Her mother specifically was reluctant to permit the wedding of her daughter to a divorced revolutionary nearly twice her age, but he won her over during a conversation about the author. “He is intelligent. He has character. He will take excellent care of you. And you may never be bored,” her mother told her. They wed in 1949 and enjoyed a wedding lasting quite three decades, having four children together. The first lady within the spotlight Just three years later, her husband became a household name after joining a coup led by Gamel Abdel Nasser that ousted the British-backed king in Egypt from power and adjusted the course of Egyptian politics forever. Anwar Sadat went on to require several high-level posts, culminating in his election as president, after Nasser’s death in 1970. Jehan was resolute to play a more active role than the wives of previous leaders and was frequently photographed alongside her husband on official visits abroad and in additional intimate settings, reception with their family. Jehan’s first raid public service began within the late 1960s when she was inspired to assist several women she had met during a rural village called Talla within the Nile Delta region, who were desperate for money. She founded a co-operative that enabled them to become skilled in sewing and economically independent from their husbands. What started off as 25 sewing machines in an abandoned building was a far larger scale assembly line, with over 100 women making 4,000 uniforms every day for factory workers. “She microfinance small projects and economically empowered women – she would make exhibitions to indicate their work and sell them. She realized that if women are economically empowered, then they’ll even be politically empowered,” says Dr. Bakr. The Talla Society was the beginning of several projects Jehan led – she went on to make a rehabilitation program designed for disabled army veterans and civilians and founded orphaned children’s projects in an exceeding number of cities. Jehan’s laws A decade later, Jehan helped lead a campaign to reform Egypt’s status law which might last to grant women new rights to divorce their husbands and retain custody of their children. In her book, she recounted the difficulties of convincing Anwar to back the reforms. “Over half our population are women, Anwar. Egypt won’t be a democracy until women are as free as men,” she told him. “As the leader of our country, it’s your duty to create that happen.” Despite a backlash from conservative Muslims, within the summer of 1979, President Sadat granted her wish and issued decrees improving the divorce status of girls, further as a second law that put aside 30 seats in parliament for girls. These measures, which were later competent in parliament, became called ‘Jehan’s laws’. “Her actions and her work changed the world’s views on Arab women and it paved the way for future First Ladies to play a more active role in politics,” says Mervat Kojok, who knew Jehan personally as head of the Egyptian diplomat wives association. At the age of 41, Jehan decided to return to high school and enrolled at Cairo University to review Arabic Literature – attending university at the identical time as three of her grown-up children. She would last to earn a master’s and doctorate degree in literary study and in her later years, took on lecturing posts in Cairo and also the US. Noha Bakr recalls watching Jehan Sadat defend her thesis to continue to exist on a black and white TV, and said many ladies – including herself – saw this as an example to follow. “In my late 30s, I returned to school to continue my Ph.D. after having kids. Who inspired me? She did.” Jehan was just 46 when her husband was killed. She spent her remaining years trying to preserve his legacy of peace through her work lecturing around the world. “Peace. This word, this concept – this goal – is that the defining theme of my life. I’m always hoping and praying for peace,” she wrote, 12 years before her death.
Australia - Egypt