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The Egyptian Feminist Union was founded at a meeting on 6 March 1923 at the home of activist Huda Sha'arawi, who served as its first president until her death on December 12, 1947. The creation of the Egyptian Feminist Union was in response to the struggle for independence under colonial British rule, which placed women’s rights as secondary to the liberation of Egypt. It’s mission was to gain comprehensive rights for women. Some of the demands of the EFU were but are not limited to: women’s suffrage, the advancement of women and children’s education, stopping government legalized prostitution, reforming the Personal Status law, as well as better healthcare for women and children. These demands were chronicled and published in their fortnightly periodicals L'Egyptienne from 1925, and from 1937 the journal el-Masreyyah (The Egyptian Woman). They would eventually become successful in the struggle for women’s suffrage, with Egypt granting the right to vote to women in 1956, as well as ending legalized prostitution. Demands for education reforms by the union were met in 1925 when the government made primary education compulsory for girls as well as boys, and later in the decade women were admitted to the national university for the first time. The union's campaign for the reform of family law, however, was unsuccessful. The EFU was not able to reform parts of the family law and Personal Status Codes that allowed males to divorce their spouses without the spouses consent, as well as ending polygamy.

EFU Under Nasser
Under the first years of Gamal Abdel Nasser Presidency the EFU had their demands met by being granted the right to vote (1956). Nasser also created equal opportunity for women in education and employment, while promising middle and lower class citizens the right to education, healthcare, and economic mobility for both men and women .The Egyptian Feminist Union became restricted under the government controlled by President Gamal Abdel Nasser during and after 1956. The Nasser regime would go on to dissolve The EFU in 1956 and absorb the organization, going from an independent organization to a government run charity renamed the Huda Sha'arawi Association. The Nasser regime passed the law 32/1964 which gave the government the ability to regulate organizations that were not already associated under the government. This made it difficult for the organization to demand political and economic rights. The union reformed as a non-profit, non-governmental organization under the original name but with a different goal and team in 2011.

Before becoming the EFU, the organization which had ties to the Wafd Party was called the Wafdist Women's Central Committee in 1920.

The union was notably affiliated to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. In 1923 the International Woman Suffrage Alliance held a meeting in the capital of Italy which the EFU sent delegates to attend.