Jehan Sadat, spelled Jihan, was born Jehan Safwat Raouf in Cairo, Egypt, as the first girl and third child of an upper-middle-class family of an Egyptian surgeon father, Safwat Raouf, and English music teacher mother, Gladys Cotterill.
16 Facts About Jehan Sadat
2.
Jehan Sadat's mother was the daughter of Charles Henry Cotterill, a Sheffield City police superintendent.
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Jehan Sadat was raised as a Muslim, according to her father's wishes, but attended a Christian secondary school for girls in Cairo.
4.
Jehan Sadat heard many stories about him from her cousin, whose husband was his colleague in resistance, and later in prison.
5.
Anwar Jehan Sadat was part of the core members of the Free Officers Movement that led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan.
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Jehan Sadat became First Lady of Egypt in 1970, and used her platform to touch the lives of millions inside her country, serving as a role model for women everywhere.
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Jehan Sadat helped change the world's image of Arab women during the 1970s, while undertaking volunteer work, and participating in non-governmental service to the less fortunate.
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Jehan Sadat played a key role in reforming Egypt's civil rights laws during the late 1970s.
9.
Jehan Sadat played crucial roles in the formation of the Talla Society, a cooperative in the Nile Delta region which assists local women in becoming self-sufficient, the Egyptian Society for Cancer Patients, the Egyptian Blood Bank, and SOS Children's Villages in Egypt, an organization that provides orphans new homes in a family environment.
10.
Jehan Sadat headed the Egyptian delegation to the UN International Women's Conferences in Mexico City and Copenhagen.
11.
On 6 October 1981, Jehan Sadat's husband was assassinated by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Operation Badr.
12.
Jehan Sadat gained a BA in Arabic Literature at Cairo University in 1977.
13.
In 1986, Sadat was controversially paid a salary of $350,000 to teach for three semesters by James B Holderman at the University of South Carolina.
14.
Jehan Sadat was a senior fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park.
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Jehan Sadat was the recipient of several national and international awards for public service and humanitarian efforts for women and children.
16.
Jehan Sadat received more than 20 honorary doctorate degrees from national and international colleges and universities around the world.