At a time when women were still hiding behind the veil, saheir Al Qalamawi stood as one of several pioneer young women who broke out of social restrictions and ventured into the world.

She was the first young woman to join the Egyptian university, now Cairo University, in 1929 and the only female student among 14 male-colleagues in the Faculty of Arts' Arabic Language Department. She was also the first Egyptian young woman to obtain a Ph.D. in literature.

Given her genius, Dr. Taha Hussein, the then Dean of the Faculty of Arts, sponsored her. He made her assistant-editor of the University Magazine in 1932, of which he was the Editor-in-Chief.

Career

1933: She was the first young girl to obtain a BA in Arabic Language; worked in a number of Egyptian magazines: "Qawkab al-Shark" (The Star of the Orient), al-Risalah (The Message), and al-Wadi (The Valley).

1934: She worked as a radio broadcaster in the Egyptian Radio Service,.

1936: She was the first young woman to lecture at the Faculty of Arts.

1937: She obtained her MA on Adab Al Khwarij (Dissidents Literature).

1937: She was the first young woman to go on a scholarly mission to France to prepare for her Ph.D.

1941: She was the first young woman to have a Ph.D. from the Egyptian University on "Folk Literature", based on an analysis and critical study of "Alf Leila wa Leila" "The Thousand and One Nights".

1958: She became head of the Arabic Language Department (Faculty of Arts).

1959: She became head of the Women University Graduates' Union; and Professor of Folklore (Cairo University).

1960: She was president of the International Conference on Woman, held in Addis Ababa.

1961: She was president of the first Conference on Folkloric Arts.

1962: She established a committee to support the Palestinian university students.

1967: She became head of the Egyptian General Authority for Cinema, Theater, and Music.

1968: She became head of the Child Culture Committee.

1971: She became editor-in-chief of the Arts Magazine.

Of al-Qalamawi's most prominent publications:

• The Talks of My Grandmother, 1935
• Thousand and One Nights, 1943
• The Dissidents' Literature, 1945
• On Literary Criticism, 1955;
• Dancing Demons, 1964; and
• Sunset, 1965.

She translated Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew.