Iqbal Baraka

Baraka won the Egyptian State Prize for Distinction in 2004. In 2007, she received the Oxfam Novib/PEN Award for Freedom of Expression.

She opposes the hijab, calling it a remnant of the dark ages and declaring it has nothing to do with the religion of Islam itself. She is also in favor of completely abolishing the niqab. Baraka expressed this criticism in her 2002 book The Hijab.

Several of her stories and novels have been adapted into television programs. She has also written scripts for television since 2000.

In 1993, she was named editor in chief of the women's magazine Hawaa. Her goal was to convert the conservative magazine, which previously focused on how to be a good housewife, into a source of articles on politics, human rights, and influential women. As she later said: "I take as my basic assumption that women are not simply the tools of fashion designers and manicurists, that women have real and serious interests and concerns we must deal with." She used her column in the magazine to consistently call for gender equality. Baraka ran the magazine for over 20 years, until 2014.

Baraka has written over 20 books, mostly dealing with Muslim women and society. Her first novel, published in 1970, was Friends Forever. Other novels include Dawn for the First Time and Diaries of a Working Woman. Notable nonfiction works include The Hijab: A Modern Vision, Love in Early Islam, Muslim Women in the Conflict of Fez Versus Hat, and The New Woman.

She obtained a bachelor's degree in English from Alexandria University in 1962, and a second bachelor's from Cairo University in Arabic literature in 1979. At Cairo, she studied the role of women in the Quran and hadith.

Iqbal Baraka (born 1942) is an Egyptian journalist, women's rights activist, and writer. She served as editor in chief of the women's magazine Hawaa for over two decades. Baraka is known for her work to advance the role of women in Egyptian and Islamic society. She is considered "one of the most influential feminists in the Arab world."

Baraka was born in 1942 in Cairo, Egypt. She grew up in a liberal, middle-class family in the El Daher district, where she was encouraged to pursue reading and education.