Raufa Hassan al-Sharki

Biography Al-Sharki was born and raised in Sana'a, a town in old sana'a. Once there, they requested better books for their schools of the same quality as the ones given to boys' schools in Yemen. Al-Kurshmi was impressed with their initiative and allowed them to attend school with boys, marking the first time co-education was permitted in Yemen. She did this because while she had the support of her mother in her paid work at the radio, her father would not have supported her. Later, when he found out, he relented and she kept her radio show.

Al-Sharki graduated high school in 1975 and went on to Cairo University. In 1979, Al-Sharki reopening the YWA in Sana'a. Later, she received her Ph.D from University of Paris in 1991. In 2000, conservative Islamists who were critical of the center, forced the Yemen government to close the center and Al-Sharki left Yemen for the Netherlands. There had been a fatwa issued on her. She was also personally threatened and her telephone calls were monitored. Later, she returned to Yemen in 2004. Her organizations helped register "thousands of women to vote." She also lobbied for freedom of the press and the need for women's rights. Al-Sharki was very vocal during elections, demanding a quota for women in parliament in Yemen and organizing demonstrations by women for women's civil rights. She believed that the status of women in Yemen could only be improved by creating a Yemeni women's movement.

One of her projects archived dress codes and information about what political leaders in Yemen wore throughout history. In addition to clothing, she also collected flags and stamps from 1948 through 2004 for her 2005 Exhibition of State Dress and Codes of Identity.

In 2006, she held the position of the Weissberg Chair and was a visiting professor at Beloit College.

Al-Sharki died in a hospital in Cairo in 2011 from cancer. In Sana'a, her sister, Taysir al-Sharki, opened the Raufa Hassan Gallery in honor of her memory.