Arab Feminist Union

Arab Feminist Union (AFU), transnational organization of feminist associations from Arab countries, which first convened in 1944. The Arab Feminist Union (AFU) focused on achieving social and political gender equality while promoting Arab nationalism. The Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU) and its founder, Huda Sharawi, played a critical role in founding and organizing the AFU.

The seeds of pan-Arab feminism were sown in the 1920s and ’30s, when feminists in the Arab world, led by Sharawi and the EFU, sought to connect with the international women’s movement. The EFU was accepted by the International Women Suffrage Alliance (IAW; later called International Alliance of Women) as an affiliate in 1923, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom added an Egyptian section in 1937. The established international women’s organizations, however, remained largely dominated by European and North American feminists, and representatives from the colonized countries of the Middle East as well as those of Asia, Africa, and South America often saw their concerns pushed to the margins. Of particular concern to Arab feminists was the ongoing Zionist migration to Palestine, which they saw as a violation of the rights of Palestinian Arabs. Sharawi, a strong supporter of Palestinian rights, continued to raise the issue at international women’s conferences but to no avail.

In 1938 Arab feminists attended a separate conference, the Eastern Women’s Conference for the Defense of Palestine. Sponsored by the EFU and held in Cairo, it was intended to voice support for the Palestinian rebellion against the British mandate. During the conference Sharawi suggested that the individual countries establish feminist unions and that those unions could then be gathered together into a single organization spanning the Arab world.

In December 1944 the EFU convened the Arab Feminist Congress in Cairo. That progressive conference established the AFU, which brought together diverse women’s organizations to promote both feminism and pan-Arab unity. The EFU administered the AFU, which was headquartered in Egypt; Sharawi became the AFU’s first president in 1945. Its treasurer and secretary were also Egyptians. Each of the other member countries—Trans-Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon—had two representatives on the board. Sharawi drafted the AFU’s constitution in 1945.

Among the issues addressed by the AFU were the rights accorded to women under Islam, the use of Arab women as prostitutes by Western militaries, and the gendered nature of the Arabic language. However, from 1950 to 1960 several totalitarian regimes in newly independent Arab countries cracked down on feminist organizing. The Egyptian government forced the closure of the EFU in 1956, compelling the AFU to transfer its headquarters to Beirut. The organization declined, but it was revived during increased feminist activism at the end of the 20th century.