Nabawiyya Musa

Nabawiyya Mohamed Musa Badawia (; December 17, 1886 – April 30, 1951) was an Egyptian Nationalist and Feminist and is recognized as one of the founding feminists of the 20th century in Egypt. Her career and life is often discussed alongside figures such as Huda Sharawi and Malak Hifni Nasif, as all three of these women gave lectures and put on other events to further education, promote health, and reduce sexual exploitation for women, among other things. She grew up in Alexandria and was part of the Egyptian middle-class. Along with being an avid educator, she was a prolific writer. She wrote and published articles such as "al-Ayat al–badyyina fi tarbiya al-banat" (a treatise on girls' education) in 1902, "al-Mar’a wa-l-‘amal" (Woman and Work) in 1920 as well as editing a woman's page for al-Balagh al-usbui (The Weekly News). She is known as the first Egyptian woman to obtain a baccalaureate secondary degree, and her writings are considered important historical documents reflecting the periods of Egyptian history her life spanned, especially Egyptian life under rule of the British protectorate.

Education Nabawiya Mohamed Musa Badawia was a Zagazigi fallahi (peasant) woman who exhibited strong principles of nationalism and feminism even as a young woman. She stood for the rights of her nation and fellow Egyptian women. Her father, an Egyptian Captain(junior officer), owned for his family a country house, but was never seen by his daughter as he was sent and died on a mission to Sudan during the Mahdist War 2 months before she was born. She, her older brother Muhammad Musa, and her mother (now a widow) thereafter moved to Cairo for her brother's sake, to continue his schooling. In 1908, she finished her degree in education and went on to be a prominent educator in the state school system for the middle-class and an advocate for women's rights, she got equal pay as male peers.

She helped found a woman's magazine in Egypt called majallat al-fata ("the young woman's magazine"), to which she contributed an autobiographical column called "my memoirs" from 1937 to 1942. She wrote 91 installments that were later compiled into a book under the title "My history, by my pen", and published by her own Alexandrian publishing house, making her one of the first Muslim women with a published autobiography.

Feminist movement Nabawiyya Musa was an integral part in the feminist movement in Egypt. She stood out because many of her views echoed very strong Egyptian Nationalism as well as equal opportunities for women. Along with highlighting the education of women, she was also a leading role model in breaking down the social constructs of women. She and her partners in the feminist movement believed that a radical call for unveiling of women was not needed in the beginning of the movement because Egypt was not ready to accept it. However, after attending a conference in Rome in 1923, she, along with Huda Shaarawi and Ceza Nabarawi, came back to Egypt unveiled as a proclamation to Egyptian society.

Death Musa was imprisoned by the Egyptian Wafd government in 1948 after criticizing Egypt for supporting Britain in the Second World War, ending her career. After eight years of retirement, Musa died on April 30, 1951.