In the days of the Pharaohs, strong women often ruled Egypt and established great power. They owned property, held high positions and were entitled to defend themselves in court.
Salma Dawara continues this tradition of strong women in the country on the Nile. A general surgeon, she was born in 1953. Her inspiration and determination to pursue the medical career was instilled in her by her father, the renowned writer and critic Foad Dawara, who taught her that women’s contributions to society are as essential as men’s. “He never gave my brothers the upper hand over me,” Dawara said. At Asr El-Aini medical school in 1977, she was one of 17 students out of 1,500 in her year eligible to pursue the surgical field. She could not, however, specialize in the field because of her gender, and the battle began.
“There was no law in Egypt that said I could not pursue my career in surgery because I was female,” Dawara said. “I graduated with honors so I was entitled to specialize in any field I wanted.” A court denied her request. According to Egyptian law, requests are renewed only every three years, which meant her studies were put on hold.
Finally, after her second request, the Administrative Court accepted her case. In 1981, Dawara received her Master’s degree in general surgery, and was soon after assigned as an assistant professor. Dawara’s second battle loomed when she was studying for her doctoral degree. “I failed eight times before receiving my doctorate,” she said. In May of 1991, Dawara successfully completed her degree and became a certified doctor of general surgery. She was one of only two female graduates in Egypt in the field of surgery.
“There are only a few female surgeons in France and England, but many in Russia,” Dawara said. “And because there were only two or three female students studying surgery in my time, professors did not take us seriously. Now, with a larger number of females in class, professors believe that they can excel in the field,” she added.
Surgery, Dawara believes, brings about concrete results. “I’m the sort of person who prefers quick solutions rather than having to prescribe a medication and wait for the results,” she said. “If someone’s appendix is going to explode, the only remedy is to have it removed,” she added.
“My uncle, who fought in the 1973 war, had his right hand amputated,” Dawara said. “It was later discovered that his hand could have been reattached if it had been stored in saline solution,” she said.
Comfortable with all routine procedures, she also treats patients with multiple injuries — a case in point was her experience as a teacher in the emergency room in 1991, when terrorism was high in Egypt, and again in 1994 when Egypt was hit with an earthquake. “I hardly got any sleep because we received many people all at once, so it was a challenge for us to treat all of them,” Dawara said.
But Dawara’s most fulfilling experience in the job is to educate Egyptian women on the importance of understanding the health risks they may encounter. After all, 85 percent of her patients are female.
One of the common health risks is breast cancer. “I am always pleased when I discover a malignant growth in its early stages and remove it without having to surgically remove the breast as well,” Dawara said.
“It is so important for every woman to perform regular self-examinations after every period,” she said. Dawara’s success has not come easy. It required endurance and determination. The social stigma in the Arab world — and in many Western countries — that men are better than women has only made her more determined to prove the theory wrong.
Islam, Dawara explains, does not prohibit women from becoming active members of the work force. Since the days of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), women fought in wars, so it is our culture that is difficult, she observed, not Islam. “Women lack self-confidence and have not been raised at home to value themselves,” Dawara said. She made it clear however, that she is not a feminist, but rather, an active participant in the liberation of the Arab and Muslim world, and is an avid reader of Qasim Amin who is known for his calls to liberate women from unjust traditions). Feminism is a touchy subject where some issues do not fit into the social structure of the Arab and Muslim world, she cautioned. In the West, she said, women demand sexual rights as well as rights for lesbians, and that is why she is wary of the term “feminism”.
Yet if there is anything we can learn from the Western world, Dawara emphasized, it is the responsibility to improve scientific research. Aside from her career, Dawara leads a busy life. She is a wife and mother of two. Ola is in her third year at medical school and Usamah is an elementary student. Her husband, a gynocologist, was her contemporary in medical school. Because he is in the medical profession too, he understands the demands of her job.
She is also a member of the Arab Women’s League — under the auspices of the League of Arab Nations — and is a member of Kasr El-Aini Patient’s Friends, as well as the Egyptian Crescent for the delivery of aid to the occupied Palestinian territories.
Balancing her busy life with family responsibilities is not easy, admits Dawara, but requires hard work, careful planning, and a busy schedule. “I don’t depend on a maid for anything at home, but this means I sleep little and rarely have time to relax,” she said. But, with a little organization, she explained, she manages to do a bit of everything.
-Arab News Features 24 July 2003