Marie Basily Assaad Oral History

Marie Basily Assaad (1922-2019) was a renowned activist for community development and women’s rights in Egypt, and a leader in interreligious affairs, and was an undergraduate alumna of the American University in Cairo (BAs in 1944 and 1946), an anthropology Master’s degree recipient, and a Social Research Center staff member. She recounts growing up in the middle class Cairo neighborhood of Fagalla, noting her family’s Coptic Orthodox Christians faith and its interaction with other religious traditions. Basily Assaad discusses her education (and that of her sisters), including attending Catholic and public schools, and the American College for Girls. She tells of coming to attend AUC as a female “coed” undergraduate student, her pursuit of dual Bachelor’s degrees in social sciences and psychology. A portrait of the social life of AUC students and various classmates and faculty members is provided. She also outlines her participation in the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and volunteer charitable activities during her youth, and work with the YWCA in Geneva, Switzerland and later volunteering with it in Egypt. After marriage and a period spent raising her children, Basily Assaad studied for a Master’s degree in anthropology at AUC, and describes her professors and her field research. She sketches out her work with AUC’s Social Research Center from 1969 to 1980, and her research on family planning centers in Egypt, done in conjunction with her lifelong friend Aziza Hussein. Basily Assaad explains how she became a deputy to the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches in the 1980s. Her work to combat female genital mutilation in Egypt, involvement in the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development, and role (and that of others) in efforts to improve conditions for the zabbaleen garbage collector community in Moqattam (with related environmental initiatives), are addressed in detail. She also offers her observations on Egypt’s post-2011 political future