Malak Hifni Nasif was born in Cairo, Egypt on 25 December 1886 to middle class parents. Her father, the author of several textbooks, encouraged her to learn and maintain a strong commitment to Egyptian culture, and she grew up studying Arabic poetry and writing in her free time. She was a part of the first graduating class from Abbas Primary School’s Girls’ Section in 1901 and went on to continue her education at Saniyyah Teacher Training College. Following her graduation in 1903, she returned to teach at her former primary school, Abbas, where she remained her two years before quitting to marry because, at the time, women were forbidden from teaching after their marriage. After her marriage, she followed her husband to a smaller city, al-Fayyum, where she found out her husband already had a wife and child. Here in al-Fayyum, she began to write about her experience as a woman in Egypt.. Her works were published in Al-Jarida, a major newspaper of the Umma political party and she often gave speeches at the party headquarters and universities across the country. In 1909, four years after her marriage, she published Al-Nisa’iyyat, a collection of her speeches and essays advocating for the advancement of Egyptian women, covering topics like the veil, marriage, and education. Malak wrote at a time of growing political discourse on the status of women in Egypt, which often saw advocacy for a westernization of the culture and a movement towards a more European society. She on the other hand, advocated for a combination of westernization and Islamic traditionalism, an alternative voice to the dominant one at the time. She also deviated from her contemporaries, many who argued for unveiling as a revolutionary act for women. She believed the veil had been part of the culture for too long to change and that many wealthier women who were unveiling were doing so because of fashion, not as revolutionary acts. Malak also founded the Union for the Education of Women, which brought Egyptian and other Arab women together with European women & dedicated most of her career to advocating for an expansion of public education in Egypt. She passed away of influenza on October 17 1918.