Chairs newly formed Wafd Central Committee for Women

In January 1920, Huda Sha’arawi helped establish and then chaired the newly formed Wafd Central Committee for Women, integrating women formally into Egypt’s leading nationalist party.[12][16] While the exact day is not consistently recorded, the month and year mark a decisive institutional breakthrough.

The Wafd Party, spearheading the struggle for independence from Britain after World War I, had already relied on women’s mass mobilization in the 1919 protests. By creating a women’s central committee and placing Sha’arawi at its head, the party acknowledged women as organized political actors rather than mere auxiliaries.[13][16]

This was the first official women’s committee within a major Egyptian nationalist party, and its formation signaled a new phase in women’s political participation. Under Sha’arawi’s leadership, the committee coordinated demonstrations, petitions, and fundraising, and provided a training ground for a generation of feminist-nationalist activists.

The January 1920 step also exposed tensions: women were expected to support nationalist goals while postponing their own claims to rights. Sha’arawi gradually used the committee as a platform to articulate specifically feminist demands—such as education, legal reforms, and suffrage—pushing beyond the Wafd’s initial priorities. The experience convinced her of the need for an independent women’s movement, paving the way for the creation of the Egyptian Feminist Union three years later.[1][9][13]