Labiba Hashim

Hashim was born in Beirut,[1] and studied at the Sisters of Love School and the English Missionary School in her native Lebanon.[2] In 1898 she published Hasanat al-hubb (The Merits of Love), which she self described as a "literary tale and an economic exhortation".[3]

In 1900, Hashim moved to Cairo, where she encountered the Warda al-Yaziji group of writers and thinkers. She learned much about Arabic literature from Ibrahim al-Yaziji,[2] and in 1904 she published the novel Qalb al-rejul (A Man's Heart) a romantic tale featuring an Egyptian girl of Syrian heritage.[3] In 1906 she founded Fatat al-sharq (Girl of the East) magazine, one of the first's women's magazines in the Arabic world. She set up an office in Cairo which employed a number of women freelancer journalists, editors, and typesetters.[1] In 1911 she became the first Arab woman to be appointed lecturer of Egyptian University, and again in 1919, when King Faisal I appointed her general inspector of women's schools in Damascus, she was the first woman to be appointed to this position.[2]

Due to conflict she returned to Egypt but in 1921 she immigrated to Chile, and began publishing for al-Sharq wa-al-gharb magazine there. In 1942 she returned to Egypt and resumed working for Fatat al-sharq. She authored the Kitab al-tarbiya (The Book of Education), a compendium on her teachings and differences in education between genders.[2]