The “Mother of Doctors” Zuhaira Abdeen... a legend that makes the hearts of Egyptian children beat

CAIRO -

She tasted the bitterness of an orphan's mother when she was three years old, and she became a "mother of children", and dedicated her life to medicine. She was a "Mother of Doctors", a pioneer of community medicine, a wise woman who reached the borders of the United Kingdom, honored her in the West, and was called a legend.

On this day, May 6, 2002, the doctor and university professor, Zuhaira Abdeen, passed away at the age of 85, after a busy life in which she devoted nearly half a century to science and humanity.

And with two titles that were dear to the heart of the late, Zuhaira Abdeen Khaleda is still called “Mother of Doctors” and “Mother of Children”, after she fought in a fierce medical and community campaign against the microbe that causes rheumatic heart disease in children, which at that time was one of the main causes of death among children. in Egypt.

Al-Rahila’s activity in public and charitable work was not limited only to poor and sick children, but also extended to widows, orphans, the elderly and needy students, and its contributions to improving society included a comprehensive concept of health and well-being.

high culture house

As if the social and cultural circumstances prepared her to become an exceptional personality that transcends the boundaries of time and place, Zahira Abdeen grew up in a house of vast wealth and high culture in Cairo, which was adjacent to the house of the nation’s leader Saad Zagloul, a friend of her father Hafez Abdeen, a member of the Senate at the time.

In a press interview published in 1999, she describes her upbringing and says that her father had a deep Islamic sense that rooted deep in her the love of religiosity that haunted her throughout her life, so she kept praying and memorized the Qur’an since her childhood.

As she progressed in the educational stages, the brilliant student generated an overwhelming desire to devour public Islamic books.

Abdeen married a fellow study at the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Muhammad Abdel Moneim Abu Al-Fadl, and had 4 children, all of whom held high scientific positions.

always first

And about the late doctor and doctor, the Doctors Syndicate says - in a documentary film - that between the years of Zahira Abdeen's birth and her departure (1917 and 2002) a march entitled "Always First";

She is the first in the baccalaureate (high school) in 1936 in the Egyptian country.

She was the first female doctor to enter the teaching staff in Egyptian universities after her return from England in 1949, and she is the first Egyptian doctor to obtain membership in the Royal College of Physicians in London in 1948, and she is the first and only Arab woman to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom in 1980, and she is the only Arab woman who She was awarded the "Elizabeth Norgall International Prize" in 1992.

wise children's hearts

The Physicians Syndicate points out that Zuhaira Abdeen was a model of the true meaning of the wise woman who believes that medicine is a message and a mercy and not just a profession, so she established a new specialty of its kind in the Faculty of Medicine known as community medicine, and it is imperative for the doctor to go down and participate to identify health problems in nature.

Abdeen specialized in pediatrics and rheumatism, and presented 120 scientific papers published in international scientific journals, after she discovered the microbe that causes rheumatism in children.

And in less than two decades, the infant mortality rate in Egypt, caused by rheumatic heart diseases, thanks to her scientific and research activities, decreased from 47% to less than 3%, according to her daughter, Mona Abul-Fadl, in an article published on the website of the Royal College of Physicians in London.

During her career, Zahira Abdeen established many medical institutions, including the Rheumatoid Heart Center (1957) and its branches in medical colleges throughout Egypt, and in 1975 she established the Child Health Institute in Cairo to provide an integrated and comprehensive system for child care, according to the previous source.

In 1986, the Dubai Medical College for Girls was established and, according to her daughter, she managed it for 7 years, which won it international recognition from scientific bodies in England and America. She also founded the Egyptian Doctors Association and was the editor of the first issue of its magazine.

community leader

The scope of Zahira Abdeen's charitable and public work extended not only to poor and sick children, but also to widows, orphans, students, the elderly and the needy, her contributions to the improvement of society included a comprehensive concept of health and well-being.

She founded a series of open and culturally rooted Islamic language schools, and at the request of the Ministry of Social Affairs in Egypt headed the Young Muslim Women Association.

With 700 pounds in the capital of her charitable association, she established projects worth millions of pounds, to relieve people’s pain and aches, and for her extreme devotion to this work, many of them were her teachers and also her students.

Abdeen won the appreciation of all her contemporaries, including leaders, politicians and clerics. She won many awards, not only in her homeland, but also at the international level.

In recognition of its scientific and societal role.

She deservedly deservedly deserved the Republican Order of Merit of the first degree, and she also received the honorary title of "Mother of Egyptian Doctors", and the award was given to her by the first lady - at that time - Suzanne Mubarak in an official ceremony in 1990.

No official in any site was hesitant to respond to her requests, trusting her in her good planning and achievements, and many public figures helped her, including the well-known businessman and politician Othman Ahmed Othman, and Talaat Harb, according to what her daughter told the Physicians Syndicate.

The biggest supporter of her scientific and charitable projects - according to the previous source - was Umm Kulthum, who held parties in order to donate to her charitable projects.

After dedicating her life to public service and professional excellence, and receiving many awards, both in her homeland and internationally, she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, to leave our world after suffering 10 years with the disease on May 6, 2002, leaving behind a legacy A great deal of societal, academic and practical giving.