Mabarrat Muhammad ῾Ali, the Muhammad ῾Ali Benevolent Society, is an Egyptian charitable women's organization established in Cairo in 1909.[1]
The origins of the organization were in a health clinic established and financed by Princess Ayn-al-Hayat Rifaat at Abdeen, a poor Cairo neighbourhood. The Princess stipulated that the organization's president should always be a princess of the family, and that all committee members should be women.[2] The society was codirected by two aristocratic women, the Muslim Hidaya Afifi Barakat (1899-1969) and the Christian Mary Khalil (1889-1979). It survived the 1952 Revolution, when many independent organizations were closed down. The society's hospitals were eventually nationalized in 1964, by which time they had treated around 13 million women.[3]
References
edit- ^ Aleksandra Majstorac Kobiljski (2008). "Mabarrat Muhammad `Ali". In Bonnie G. Smith (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History: Volume 3. Kaffka-Service Sector. Oxford University Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-19-514890-9.
- ^ Hassan Hassan (2000). In the House of Muhammad Ali: A Family Album, 1805-1952. American Univ in Cairo Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-977-424-554-1.
- ^ Ghada Hashem Talhami (2013). Historical Dictionary of Women in the Middle East and North Africa. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-8108-6858-8.