SG : 2119-20
SCOTT : 1718-19
SAMEERA MOUSSA
Sameera Moussa (Arabic: سميرة موسى) (March 3, 1917 - August 5, 1952) was an Egyptian nuclear scientist who held a doctorate in atomic radiation and worked to make the medical use of nuclear technology affordable to all. She organized the Atomic Energy for Peace Conference and sponsored a call for setting an international conference under the banner "Atoms for Peace".
Death
On August 5, 1952 after her first visit to America she intended to return home, but she was invited on a trip. On the way, the car fell from a height of 40 feet, which killed her immediately. The mystery of the accident, since the invitation to California was shown to be untrue later on, besides the vanishing of the car driver who jumped from the car just before it rushed down, made some people believe it was a planned assassination. Voices claimed that the Israeli Mossad was behind Moussa´s murder by a Judeo-Egyptian actress, Raqya Ibrahim.
Aisha Abd al-Rahman
Aisha Abd al-Rahman (Arabic: عائشة عبد الرحمن; c. 1913 – 1 December 1998) was an Egyptian author and professor of literature who published under the pen name Bint al-Shati ("Daughter of the Riverbank").
Life and career
Born in Damietta in the governorate of Domyat, her father taught at the Domyat Religious Institute. When she was ten, her mother, though illiterate, enrolled her in school while her father was traveling. Though her father objected, her mother later sent Aisha to El Mansurah for further education. Later, Aisha studied Arabic at Cairo University earning her undergraduate degree in 1939, and an M.A. degree in 1941.
In 1942, Aisha began work as an Inspector for teaching of Arabic literature for the Egyptian Ministry of Education. She earned her Ph.D. with distinction in 1950 and was appointed Professor of Arabic Literature at the University College for Women of the Ain Shams University.
She wrote fiction and biographies of early Muslim women, including the mother, wives and daughters of the Prophet Muhammad, as well as literary criticism. She was the second modern woman to undertake Qur´anic exegesis, and though she did not consider herself to be a feminist, her works reflect feminist themes. She began producing her popular books in 1959, the same year that Naguib Mahfouz published his allegorical and feminist version of the life of the Prophet Muhammad.
She was married to Sheik Amin el-Khouli, her teacher at Cairo University during her undergraduate years. She died of a heart attack following a stroke in Cairo. She donated all her library to research purposes, and in 1985 a statue was built in her honor in Cairo.
