MALAK 0IFN^ N$-IF (1886-1918),

pen-name of B§Èiï9at al- B§diya, daughter of 0ifnÊ †§sif, a follower of MuÈammad #Abduh [q.v.], and pioneer protagonist of women's rights in pioneer protagonist of women's rights in Egypt Egypt . She was in 1903 one of the first Egyptian women to receive a teacher's primary certificate and became a teacher in the government girls' school. Her marriage to #Abd al-Satt§r al- B§sil took her to the Fayyåm, where she observed the life of women in nomadic and rural society. She was herself faced with the problem of polygamy, since her husband had married a second wife.

The intellectual influence of her father, her professional training and experience, and the experience of her marriage caused her to become the first Egyptian woman to speak out publicly for the emancipation of women. She wrote articles on the topic in al- ò3arÊda and such women's magazines as al- ò3ins al- laãÊf and founded her own women's organisation, the Ittiȧd al-Nis§" al- Tahù9ÊbÊ.

In 1911 she gave a speech before the Egyptian Congress in Helipolis, in which she [VI:220a] developed a ten-point programme for the improvement of the conditions of women.

(Source: Quoted from The Encyclopaedia of Islam ($))