Background
She was born in 1933 near Cairo to an Egyptian father and an English mother. Her father was a surgeon and her family was upper-middle class.
She was born in 1933 near Cairo to an Egyptian father and an English mother. Her father was a surgeon and her family was upper-middle class.
She attended a Christian school for girls and a secondary school in Cairo.
In 1980 she earned a master's degree from the University of Cairo in Arabic literature. She received a doctorate in 1987, six years after her husband's death.
ehan played a key role in reforming Egypt's civil rights laws during the late 1970s. Sadat traveled outside the country on her own, something unprecedented for the wife of a Muslim leader. Fundamentalist and traditionalist Arabs were scandalized by her Western mannerisms and willingness to grant personal interviews in Western magazines. One such interview was published in Playgirl although she seems to have been misled by her interviewer about where the article would appear. Others have found her typically bourgeois with more than a little taste for luxury and comfort.
Sadat's presence in the academic world has given her a place to continue her life following the death of her husband. She has taught in both Egypt, at the University of Cairo, and in the United States. Her pursuits in the U. S. have taken her to the American University in Washington, D. C. , the University of South Carolina, Radford University in Virginia, and the University of Maryland. She has taught classes and led seminars on women's issues, Egyptian culture, and international studies. Sadat has also written a book on her life titled A Woman of Egypt.
She headed the Egyptian delegation to the UN International Women’s Conferences in Mexico City and Copenhagen. As an activist she has hosted and participated in numerous conferences throughout the world concerning women’s issues, children’s welfare, and peace in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America.
Jihan Sadat pioneered the cause of women's rights in her country. She set up cooperatives in Egyptian villages for peasant women. During her husband's presidency, two laws that gave women greater rights were issued. One law allowed for thirty seats to be filled by women in the Egyptian parliament. The second law provided women with the right to sue for divorce and retain custody of their children.
She has also played crucial roles in the formation of the Talla Society, a cooperative in the Nile Delta region that assists local women in becoming self-sufficient; the Egyptian Society for Cancer Patients and the Egyptian Blood Bank; and SOS Children's Villages in Egypt, an organization that provides orphans new homes in a family environment.
In 1993, she received the Community of Christ International Peace Award. In 2001 she was the winner of Pearl S. Buck Award.
She was raised as a Muslim according to her father's wishes, but also attended a secondary Christian school for girls.
Sadat was concerned with various humanitarian causes. While many admire Jihan Sadat for her independent nature and activism, she has had her share of critics.
It was in Cairo that Sadat met her future husband, Anwar Sadat. Her parents objected to the idea of their daughter marrying a divorced revolutionary; nonetheless, Jihan and Anwar were married in May 1949. Jihan was the devoted wife of a rising political man and mother of their four children.
