Google is the world’s hub of information, and in being so, they often celebrate a number of historical and present day figures by updating the doodles on their homepage daily – to also provide us as users, with a fun fact for the day.
On the 20th of January, Google Doodle featured Egyptian female lawyer, Mufidah Abdul Rahman, on her 106th birthday. The late female Arab lawyer was born in the capital city of Cairo on 20th January 1914, and was one of the first ever women to graduate from the city’s law school, at Cairo University. Following her graduation, she made major waves as she established her career and became the first female attorney in Egypt.
She worked with a number of Egyptian women, especially when it came to representing them in the political world and striving for equality.
Abdul Rahman not only defended in over 400 legal cases, but also became a member of the Egyptian Parliament, and continued to fight for justice in all that she did. What is unique about Mufidah and who she was as a person, was that instead of money, she took payment in eggs and natural produce in return for her legal services.
Being a pioneer for equal rights, the female lawyer aided in establishing the National Feminist Party and fought for gender equality and rights for women in her home country.
Mufidah Abdul Rahman’s fight against social injustices led her to join a women’s activist group, the Bint Al Nil. The founder of the association, Doria Shafik led, protested and organized a movement that demanded the right for women to be able to vote and hold office in the Egyptian Parliament, in 1951. This was not received well by the parliament, and Doria was then summoned to court, where Mufidah represented the activist’s case – making it one of her most prominent and talked about cases.
Eventually, Abdul Rahman’s service to defend Doria Shafik caused a stir and helped the Egyptian women to win their right to vote in 1956.
