Board member
Afaf Mahfouz
Afaf Mahfouz is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist serving patients of diverse social, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds and Chair of the Committee of the UN International Psychoanalytical Association. Afaf Mahfouz is Past President of the Conference of Nongovernmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the UN and previously taught law at Helwan University in Cairo. She was a member of the facilitating committee of the NGO forum at the Fourth International Conference on Women in Beijing, and a key organizer of other regional and international NGO forums including the Millennium NGO Forum in New York in 2000.
Amal Abou Elfadl
Amal Abou El-Fadl is an Assistant Professor at the English Department, the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University. She obtained her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 2003. The topic of her dissertation was "Islands Myths: A Comparative Study of the Role of the Island in some Representative English and German Novels." In 1991, she got her M.A. in English and Comparative Literature, from the American University in Cairo. The dissertation was entitled "The Spirit of Place .A Comparative Study of the Image of Alexandria in Miramar and Justine." From 1984 till now, Abou El-Fadl has been teaching Translation, Essay writing, Civilization, and Introduction to English Literature. Since 2004, she has been the editor and managing director of www.boswtol.com an Egyptian online variety magazine with content relying heavily on data concerning young people's needs and abilities.
In 2000, she joined the Women and Memory Forum, where she has been profiling women writers and leading figures in the intellectual field, as well as researching, reviewing and highlighting the seminal contributions of such figures in Egypt.
Amal Abou El Fadl represented WMF in an international conference entitled “Women in Islam-Between Oppression and (Self-) Empowerment” held by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Cologne from 7th to 9th March 2007. The conference established a forum where intellectuals and representatives of human rights organizations from Asia and Africa met with researchers in the area of development policy in Germany to debate and discuss the promotion of Muslim women and ‘Islamic Feminism’, and to foster an exchange of ideas and networking. Muslim women from countries all over the world were invited to Cologne to discuss what influence religion has on democracy and cultural attitudes, and how this debate can have a positive effect on the living conditions of Muslim women.
Amina Elbendary
Amina Elbendary is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilizations at the American University in Cairo (AUC). She earned her PhD in July 2007 from the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Cambridge. Her dissertation was entitled “Faces in the Crowd: Urban Protests in Egypt and Syria in the Late Middle Ages.”
Since 2004, she has been a member of the Women and Memory Forum. She is also a member of the Egyptian Society for Historical Studies and the British Federation of Women Graduates.
From 1999-2003, she worked as a senior staff writer at the Egyptian English-language weekly newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly where she wrote articles covering the Egyptian and Arab cultural scene, including reviews of academic publications and fiction, was Assistant Editor of the monthly Books Supplement and editor of special supplements such as one commemorating the 50th anniversary of the July 1952 Revolution and another commemorating the bicentennial of Muhammad Ali’s rise to power.
In 2000, she earned her MA degree from the Department of Arabic Studies at AUC having written a thesis on “Histories of the Muslim Hero: Medieval and Modern Perceptions of al-Zahir Baybars.” She earned her BA in Political Science, with a minor in European History, from AUC, graduating suma cum laude in 1996.
She was the recipient of Rioyichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Graduate Fellowship from 1996-1998. In 1998 her paper “The Sultan, The Tyrant and the Hero: Changing Medieval Perceptions of al-Zahir Baybars,” won the prize for Best Graduate Student Paper on a Medieval Topic from Middle East Medievalists.
Dr Elbendary is currently working on a book based on her doctoral dissertation analyzing and comparing incidents of urban protest in Egyptian and Syrian cities in the late Mamluk and early Ottoman periods.
Her publications include “The historiography of protest in late Mamluk and early Ottoman Egypt and Syria,” International Institute of Asian Studies Newsletter 43 (Spring 2007); with Huda al-Sa‘di, *Al-Awqāf fi sutūr wa suwar* (Cairo: Women and Memory Forum, 2006); “The Worst of Times: Crisis Management and al-shidda al-`uzma,” in Money, Land and Trade: An Economic History of the Muslim Mediterranean, ed. Nelly Hanna (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2002); “The Sultan, The Tyrant and the Hero: Changing Medieval Perceptions of al-Zahir Baybars,” Mamluk Studies Review 5 (2001).
Amira Sonbol
Amira Sonbol is Professor of Islamic History, Law and Society at Georgetown University, Doha Qatar campus, where she teaches courses on the History of Modern Egypt, Women and Law, and Islamic Civilization. She is also is the Founder and Director of the Qatar University International Affairs Program and currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of HAWWA: the Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World and Co-Editor of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. She holds an MA in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the American University of Cairo and a Ph.D. in History from Georgetown University, Washington DC.
Professor Sonbol is widely regarded as a leading scholar on Modern Egyptian History, Islamic History, and Gender and Islam. Her publications include The New Mamluks:Egyptian Society and Modern Feudalism (2001); Women, the Family and Divorce Laws in Islamic History (1996); The Creation of a Medical Profession in Egypt: 1800-1922 (1991); The Memoirs of Abbas Hilmi II: Sovereign of Egypt (1999); Beyond the Exotic: Women’s Histories in Islamic Societies (2007) and Women of Jordan: Life, Work and Law (2002).
Hoda El-Saadi
She is currently an adjunct faculty member at the Department of Arabic and Islamic Civilizations at the American University in Cairo (AUC). She received both her BA and MA from the American University in Cairo (1986&1990) and her PhD from Cairo University (1996) in Islamic History. Her specialization or discipline is early and medieval Islamic history. She developed an interest in gender issues in the Islamic tradition. She is specifically interested in the roles and positions of women throughout the Arab/Islamic history from pre-modern to modern, to highlight and analyze women's presence in public life before the pre-modern period, exploring how their roles had expanded or were circumscribed through the ages. Her aim is to use history (and its interpretations) to strengthen the position of Muslim women in the present, as well as formulate a culturally Islamic discourse that incorporates women's perspective and an awareness of gender. The objective of her research is to empower women by making available historical information that demonstrates women's involvement in public life. She believes that the production and dissemination of alternative knowledge is a challenge to the negative representation of women and their traditional roles. She considers her work to be a form of resistance against the process of exclusion and marginalization from which women suffered in different historical periods.
She is working on a project to produce a series of occasional papers on the work of women. Three are already published, one on women and the medical profession and the second is on women in the field of Islamic scholarship and religious life. The third paper is on "Women and the market place." She also published two papers on mad women and the mental institutions in both the pre-modern and modern periods trying to show how the societal views and attitudes towards the mad woman has changed throughout the years. Besides her interest in mental institutions, she also has an interest in educational institutions and learning centers. She has a paper published on the libraries and the cultural centers in Islamic history.
She has a great interest in the question of identity and its exploration and especially woman's identity. She believes that re-reading and rewriting history keeps culture on the move and with it the question of identity. History is a significant factor which influences contemporary social issues.
In re reading the history of women and in looking for new interpretations that would bring social justice and gender awareness, one would definitely need to gain more insight into Islam, Islamic law and Islamic institutions.
She is currently engaged in establishing “The Women and Memory Library and Documentation Centre (WMLDC). The project aims at creating a resource centre for gender studies in the Arab world that would make available resources and programs to enable researchers and students in the field, and hence play a constructive role in promoting this key research area in the region.
Publications:
- "al-Nisa wa mihnat al-tibb fi'l mujtama' 'l islami" Al-Mu’arikh al Masri, Cairo University, 23(July1999): 381-49
- "al-mara' wa'l haya'l-diniya fi'l ‘usur al Islamiya" Dur al Mar’a al-Siaysi wa’l-Hadari ‘Ibr al-‘Usur. Cairo: Cairo University-Markaz’l-Buhuth wa’l-Dirasat’l-Tarikhiya, 2002
- “al-Maktabat fi’l ‘Asr ‘l Buwayhi” Majallat Kulliyat’l-Adab Cairo University/Benisuef branch, 5 (October2003):90-123
- "al-Mar'a wa Khitab al Junun fi al Thaqafa al Arabiya" Majallat Kuliyat al Adab Cairo University 2004
- "Women and the Discourse of madness in the 19th century Egypt." Hawwa, Volume 3, Number 3, 2005, pp293-308 (16) Brill
- "Women in the Market Place: Cairo-Jerusalem and Damascus." Proceedings of the Women and Work: Past and Present conference, Georgetown University, Doha-Qatar 2006
- elSadda, Hoda, et. al. Madkhal ila Qaddayyia’l-Mar’a fi Suwar wa Sutur. Cairo: Women and Memory Forum, 2002
- elSaadi, Hoda & Amina el Bindari. Al_Awqaf fi Suwar wa Sutur. Cairo; Women and Memory, 2006
- elSaadi, Hoda&Munira Soliman Ra'idat al Fann'l-Masri'l-Hadith. Cairo; Women and Memory Forum, 2008
- " Al Mar'a'l-Muslims: Intaj al-Ma'rifa bayn'l Mahali wa'l-'Alami " elSadda, Hoda, et. al. Intaj'l Ma'rifa Fi'l 'Alam 'l-Arabi (The Production of Knowledge in the Arab World). Cairo: al Majlis al-A'la lil Thaqafa, (Higher Council for Culture), (Forthcoming, 2009)
- "Gulf Women and The Economy: Pre-oil Gulf States" Sonbol, Amira et.al. Gulf Women: Past and Present. (Forthcoming,2009) .
Other Activities:
- Founding member of the Woman & Memory Forum
- Member of the Egyptian Historical Society
- Participated in curriculum development of the History department at Benisuef University (1999-2001)
- Participated in a panel discussion in the Qasim Amin conference held by the Higher Council of Culture. (October1999)
- Participated in the summer seminar held by the Fulbright commission- lectures on Islamic civilization (July1997&1999)
- Presented a paper on women theologians in a conference held by Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, on "women throughout history". (May2001)
- Participated in a seminar held by the Cedej & the Egyptian Historical Society on Historiography (May 2002)
- Presented a paper titled "Women and the Medical Profession" in a conference held by Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School on “Women and the Labor Market: The Islamic World Past and Present. (May2002)
- Participated in a Roundtable discussion on Revising Discourses in Arab Cultural History, in the Berkshire conference, University of Connecticut (June2002).
- Presented a paper titled “Re-writing History of Arab Women" in a seminar held by the Cedej & the Egyptian Historical Society (May2003)
- Participated in the workshop organized by the Ford Foundation on “Citizenship and Identity-Special Initiative for Africa” (June2003)
- Participated in the MESA annual conference (San Francisco, 2004), presented a paper titled "Changing Attitudes of Madness in the 19th century Egypt."
- Invited to Yale University by the Women's Studies Department to present research carried out by WMF (November 2004)
- Participated in a conference held at Georgetown University Doha (March 2006) presenting a paper titled "Women and the Urban Economy."
- Participated in the WOCMES annual conference in Amman-Jordan (June 2006) presenting a paper titled "Women in the Public Space."
- Participated in a panel discussion on the book of "Al_Awqaf fi Suwar wa Sutur." September 2006
- Participated in the MEHAT annual conference at Chicago University (May 2007) presenting a paper titled "Women and the Discourse of Madness in Arab-Islamic Culture."
- Participated in a conference held by the Higher Council for Culture held in Cairo (July 2007), in collaboration with the University of Manchester, presenting a paper titled "Changing Paradigms in writing History from Women in Islam to Women of Islam"
- Participated in the Gulf Woman Project organized by Qatari Foundation in Doha-Qatar (June 2008) presenting a paper on Gulf Women and the Economy: Pre-oil Gulf States.
- Participated in the MESA annual conference (Washington 2008) presenting a paper titled "Marriage and Divorce of Early Islamic Egypt: A Study of Arabic Papyri of the 7th to the 11th Centuries" (Read in absentia)
Hoda Elsadda
Hoda Elsadda is Co-founder and current Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Women and Memory Forum. She holds a Chair in the Study of the Contemporary Arab World at Manchester University, and is Co-Director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Arab World in the UK (www.casaw.ac.uk). She has previously held the position of Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the Faculty of Arts, at Cairo University, Egypt.
In 1992, she co-founded and co-edited Hagar, an interdisciplinary journal in women's studies published in Arabic. She has written articles and edited books dealing with discourses on gender in modern Arab history, particularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
She is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies IJMES (2005- present); member of the Advisory Board of the Durham Modern Languages Series (2009-); member of the Middle East Panel in the British Academy (2008-present); Associate Editor of the Online Edition of the Encyclopedia of Women in Muslim Cultures published by Brill since 2006; Consultant Editor of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, Second Edition,(2006-2009); member of the Advisory board of The Global Fund for Women; member of the Advisory Committee (2005-present), The Anna Lindh Euro- Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures (2004-2007); and member of the Core Team, The Arab Human Development Report, UNDP in 2003.
Publications
Books:
• 2002 (co-authored with others) Madkhal ila Qadaya al-Mar'a fi Sutur wa Suwar (A Beginner's Guide to Women's Issues). Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, 277 pp.
• 2001 (co-authored with Emad Abu-Ghazi) Masirat Al-Mar'a Al-Misriyya: `Alamat wa Mawaqi,. Cairo: National Council for Women; trans. 2001 into English by Hala Kamal as Significant Moments in Egyptian Women's History, Cairo: The National Council for Women, 151 pp.
Edited Books:
● 2009 (edited with an introduction) al-Niswiyya wal Tarikh (Feminism and History), translated by Abir Abbas. Cairo, the Women and Memory Forum, forthcoming.
● 2009 (edited with an introduction) ‘Intaj al-Ma’rifa ‘an al-‘Alam al-‘Arabi (Mapping the Production of Knowledge on the Arab World). Proceedings of a conference held in Cairo in July 2007. Cairo, the Supreme Council of Culture, forthcoming.
● 2007 (edited with an introduction) Al-Fatah li Sahibatiha Hind Nawfal 1892-1892. Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum.
• 2004 (edited with an introduction) `A'isha Taymur : tahadiyyat al-thabit wal mutaghayir fil qarn al tasi' `ashar (Aisha Taymur: Challenges of Change and Continuity in the Nineteenth Century). Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum,197 pp.
• 2002 (compiled with an introduction) Aswat Badila: al-Mar'a wa al-`irq wa al-Watan (Alternate Voices: Gender, Race and Nation) trans. into Arabic by Hala Kamal Cairo, The Supreme Council of Culture, 492 pp.
• 2001 (edited with an introduction) Min Ra'idat al-Qarn al-`ishriyn: Shakhsiyat wa Qadaya (Women Pioneers of the Twentieth Century: Critical Essays). Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, 339 pp.
• 1998 (edited with an introduction) Al-Nisa'yat(On Women's Issues) by Malak Hifni Nasef. Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, 246 pp.
• 1998. (edited with others) Zaman al-Nisa' wa al-Thakira al-Badila (Women's Time and Alternate Memory). Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, 390 pp.
Journals
• 1992-1998. (co-founder and co-editor) Hagar (Hagar: On Women's Issues). Cairo, Dar Sina 1993-1995; and Dar Nusus, 1996-1998.
Academic Journal Papers
-2007. “Imaging the `New Man': Gender and Nation in Arab Literary Narratives in the Early Twentieth Century” in JMEWS: Journal of Middle East Women's Studies 3.2 (Spring 2007)pp. 31-55.
- 2006. “Gendered Citizenship: Discourses on Domesticity in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century,” in Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World 4:1 pp.1-28.
• 2001. “Discourses on Women's Biographies and Cultural Identity: Twentieth Century Representations of the Life of Aisha Bint Abi Bakr,” in Feminist Studies, 27:1 (Spring), pp.37-64.
- 2000. “`Motherhood' as Experience in the Poetry of Lorna Goodison,” in Cairo Studies in English, Cairo, Cairo University Press.
• 1995. “A Gender-Sensitive Reading of Latifa El-Zayyat's Sahib Al-Bayt,” in Cairo Studies in English, edited by Hoda Gindi, Cairo, The Department of English, Cairo University, pp. 25-48.
- 1994. "Crossing the Boundaries of Self in Grace Nichols' I is a long memoried woman," Bulletin of the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University.
• 1994. “Malak Hifni Nasef: Halaqa Mafquda fi Ta'rikh al-Nahda (Malak Hifni Nasef: A Missing Voice in the History of the Egyptian Enlightenment) inHagar No. 2, Cairo, Dar Sina, pp.109-119.
• 1993."Parodic Stylization as a Safeguard of Human Rights: Cultural Politics in Afro-Caribbean Writing," in Alif. No.13, Special issue on Human Rights, pp.106-127.
• 1993. "Al-Mar'a Mantiqat Muharramat: Qira'a fi `A'mal Qasem Amin” (Woman as The Territory of Taboo: A Reading of the Works of Qasem Amin," in Hagar No. 1, Cairo, Dar Sina, pp.144-160.
Book Chapters
- 2008. “Egypt,” Arab Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide 1873-1999. Edited Radwa Ashour, Ferial Ghazoul and Hasna Mekdashi, trans. By Mandy McClure. Cairo and New York, The American University Press, pp. 98-161.
- 2004. "Al-Kitaba al-`Ibda'iyya lil Nisa' fi Misr” (Women's Creative Writing in Egypt) in Thakira lil Mustaqbal: Mawsu'at al-Mar'a al-`Arabiyya (The Memory of the Future: An Encyclopaedia of Arab Women's Writings). Cairo, Nour and The Supreme Council of Culture, pp.7-59.
• 2004. “Tanaqudat al-Khitab al-Watani fi Mas'alat al-Mar'a: Qira'a fi Migalat al-Ustaz li `Abdallah al-Nadim” (Ambivalence in Egyptian National Discourses on `The Woman Question': A Reading of Abdallah Al-Nadim's Magazine `Al-Ustaz'”, in `A'isha Taymur: Tahadiyyat al-Thabit wa al-Mutaghayir fi al-Qarn al-Tasi' `Ashar (Aisha Taymur: Challenges of Change and Continuity in the Nineteenth Century) edited by Hoda Elsadda, Cairo, The Women and Memory Forum, pp.169-195.
• 2004. “The Meaning of a Prayer: Challenges to Cross-Cultural Understanding in a Global Age,” Keynote Address in the Conference on Culture and Power: Phobias, Tarragona University, Spain, October, 2002; published in Culture and Power: Phobias, edited by Cristine Andreu and Pere Gallardo, Tarragona, Silva editorial, pp. 15-34.
• 2003. “ Tashkiyl Tasawurat `an al-That: Qira'a `Adabiyya fi Sirat Kawkab Hifni Nasef,” (Constructing Representations of the Self: A Literary Reading of the Oral Narrative of Kawkab Hifni Nasef) in Al-Nisa' al-`Arabiyyat fi al-`Ishrinat Huduran wa Huwiyya (Arab Women in The Twenties: Presence and Identity), edited by Jean Said Makdisi and others, Beirut, Al-Bahihat, Al- Markaz Al-Thaqafi Al-Arabi, pp. 193-210.
• 2001. “Bidayat Multabisa: Azmat al-Huwiyya fi `Aqsam al-Luqha al-`Ingliziyya fi al-Gami'at al-Misriyya” (Ambivalent Beginnings: The Identity Crisis in Departments of English in Egyptian Universities) in Bahithat (Bahithat: Special Issue on Arab Universities), edited by Fadia Hotait and others, Beirut, pp. 195-222.
• 1996. (co-written with Mona Zulficar) “Mashru' Tatwiyr Namuthag `Aqd al-Zawag”(On Modifying the Marriage Contract”Hagar, No.3-4, Dar Nusus, 1996, pp. 251-263.
• 1996. “Women's Writing in Egypt: Reflections on Salwa Bakr,” in Gendering the Middle East, edited by Deniz Kandiyoti, New York, Syracuse University Press; London, I.B. Tauris, pp. 127-144.
Professional Journal Papers
• 2004. “Women in the Arab World: Reading Against the Grain of Culturalism,” International Politics and Society, 4 ( Friedrich-Ebert -Stiftung) pp. 41-53.
• 2003. `Disciplinary Entry on Oral History,” in Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Cultures, Vol. I, edited by Suad Joseph, Brill, pp. 389-393.
- 1996. “Women in Egypt: Education and Modernity,” inThe Self and the Other: Sustainability and Self-Empowerment, ed. Ismail Serageldin and Afaf Mahfouz, ESD series No. 13, Washington, The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/ The World Bank.
- 1991. "Towards a Department of English and Comparative Literature," in CDELT, Cairo.
Conference Proceedings:
• 2000. “Ru'yat al-Ragul li Thatihi fi Maraya Tasawuratihi al-Tamthiliyya hawla al-Mar'a: Qira'a fi Khitab Ruwwad al-Nahda,” (Male Perceptions of the “Self”: Representations of Women through the Eyes of Egyptian Pioneers of Enlightenment) in A Hundred Years Since the Liberation of Women, Proceedings of a Conference held in Cairo in 1999, Cairo, The Supreme Council of Culture, 2000, pp. 349-365.
-1998. “From Arabic Into English: The Politics of Translation in a Post-Colonial Context,” in Comparative Literature Studies, ed. Ahmed Itman. Proceedings of a conference organized by the Society of Comparative Literature Studies, Cairo.
• 1998. “Notions of Modernity: Representations of the “Western Woman” by Female Authors in Early Twentieth-Century Egypt,” in The Arabs and Britain: Changes and Exchanges. Proceedings of a Conference organized by the British Council in Cairo, Cairo, The British Council, pp. 352-366.
• 1996. “Tatawur Nathariyyat al-Sira al-Thatiyya: Matha Ta'ni bilnisbati li Kitabat al-Mar'a?” (Theories of Autobiography and Arab Women's Writings) Al Mar'a al-`Arabiyya fi Muwagahat al-`Asr (ArabWomen Confronting The Challenges of the Age), Proceedings of a conference organized by Nour publishers in 1995 in Cairo, Cairo, Nour, pp. 201-210.
• 1995. "Reconsidering the History of Feminism and Anti-Colonialism in Egypt: A Reading of Mounira Thabet's Memoirs,” in History in Literature, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Comparative Literature held in Cairo in 1994, edited by Hoda Gindi, Cairo, The Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, pp.449-464.
• 1993. "Cultural Encounters and Feminist Revisionism in H.D.'s Helen in Egypt," in Encounters in Language and Literature, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Comparative Literature held in Cairo in 1992, edited by Hoda Gindi, Cairo, The Department of English, Cairo University, pp. 485-502.
• 1991. " Egypt as Metaphor: Changing Concepts of Time in Forster, Durrell, and Lively" in Images of Egypt in Twentieth Century Literature,Proceedings of the International Symposium on Comparative Literature held in Cairo in 1989, edited by Hoda Gindi, Cairo, The Department of English, Cairo University, pp. 199-210
Translations
• 1992. (translated with an introduction) Such a Beautiful Voice: Short Stories by Salwa Bakr, Cairo, GBO; India, Kali for Women, 1994, 85 pp.
- 1992. “Doves on the Wing,” short story by Salwa Bakr, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Middle East, Special issue edited by Anton Shammas, 31:4 (Fall) pp.520-524.
• 1990. (translated with an introduction) Evening Lake: Short Stories by Ibrahim Aslan, Cairo, GBO, 133 pp.
Other Publications:
• 1999. “al-Mar'a wa al-Thakira: Hoda Elsadda Muqabala ” (Women and Memory “An Interview with Hoda Elsadda) in Gender and Knowledge: Contribution of Gender Perspectives to Intellectual Formations, a special issue of Alif, No.19, pp. 210-230.