Inji Efflatoun (1924-1989) was an Egyptian feminist activist and pioneering artist. She used her surrealist paintings to highlight the cruelty of an autocratic government, even when she was being held as a political prisoner.
Inji Efflatoun (1924-1989) was an Egyptian feminist activist and pioneering artist. She used her surrealist paintings to highlight the cruelty of an autocratic government, even when she was being held as a political prisoner.
You’re probably familiar with rebels without a cause, but what about rebels with a cause? This month on Womanica, we’re talking about women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. From the “Godmother of Title IX” Bernice Sandler, to the most prominent figure of the People Power Revolution, Corazon Aquino, to the “Queen of Civil Rights” Ruby Hurley, these women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
Follow Wonder Media Network:
Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan. And this is Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about Rebels WITH a cause: women who broke rules that were meant to be broken. These women took major risks to upend the status quo and create meaningful change.
Today, we’re talking about an Egyptian feminist activist and pioneering artist. She used her surrealist paintings to highlight the cruelty of an autocratic government — even when she was being held as a political prisoner.
Please welcome Inji Efflatoun.
Inji was born on April 16, 1924 in Alexandria, Egypt. She grew up in an aristocratic family. Her father was a scientist and professor, and her mother was a dressmaker. Inji’s parents divorced when she was young, and her mother raised Inji and her sister in Cairo.
Inji’s mother valued education and enrolled her at a prestigious French Catholic school in Cairo. Inji hated it. The school had a reputation for harsh discipline and strict rules. Students weren’t allowed to read alone or purchase their own books. Inji also despised the blatant discrimination at the school. Later, Inji called that place her “first prison.”
As she would years later, Inji rebelled. She read banned books and snuck out. Eventually, her mother relented. She enrolled her daughter in a much more liberal school. There, Inji read Enlightenment philosophers and studied the history of European colonialism in Egypt. Her new political consciousness drew her towards Marxism– it called her to reject her wealthy upbringing and find solidarity with working class Egyptians.
Inji was also blossoming as a young painter. Her mother hired Kamel El-Telmissany, an Egyptian artist and filmmaker, to tutor Inji. He was a member and founder of the leftist Surrealist Art and Liberty Group.
As Inji studied with him, she also found her political and artistic identities blending together. .She depicted bloody scenes from Egyptian history: women carrying coffins after the struggle against British control of the Suez Canal. A man hanging from the gallows in front of his family. She depicted moments from Egyptian history that sparked outrage against oppressive British rule, as well as the autocratic Egyptian government that had taken control of the country after Britain.
Inji also expressed her discontent through writing. She published political pamphlets on class and gender inequality and imperialism. In 1942, Inji joined Iskra, a Communist youth group. Three years later, she was a delegate to the First Women’s International Democratic Federation in Paris. As a feminist activist, Inji advocated for women’s suffrage, equal pay and helped organize other women into political action.
Inji’s bold paintings attracted admirers from the art world. By the 1950s, her art had been widely circulated in Cairo and beyond– from Venice, Italy to São Paolo, Brazil. Egyptian students transformed her art into protest posters, cementing it as a symbol of the anti-authoritarian movement.
But her growing fame was dangerous. In 1959, President Gamal Abdel Nasser led sweeping campaigns to crack down on dissidents. Inji was one of many communists arrested during this time. .
Inji spent the next 4 years living in a prison. In cramped conditions, Inji continued to paint as much as possible, though prison guards sometimes banned her from working. Other times, she was allowed to paint on the condition that her work would be sold by prison administrators. Inji was able to buy back some of her paintings, but many others were lost entirely. That’s why we can’t be sure how many works Inji painted as a prisoner.
Inji found inspiration in the women imprisoned with her. Her paintings of other inmates provided a window into the gloom and despair of life within the prison walls. Many of her works from this period reflect the painful dehumanization prisoners experienced. One of her paintings depicts a woman whose death sentence had been postponed so she could breastfeed her newborn baby.
When Inji was arrested, she became one of Egypt’s first female political prisoners. Nasser’s regime strove to keep the reality inside women’s prisons a secret Inji’s paintings, then, became a way for Egyptians to understand the harsh reality of women’s prisons.
But the misery and tragedy surrounding Inji eventually pushed her away from painting human subjects. She found solace in landscape paintings. The small window in her cell became her connection to the natural world. She later wrote, “The experience of prison revealed the importance of nature to me … when I was deprived of it, I felt how precious it was. It became a symbol of freedom in my eyes.” Trees were especially important symbols to Inji. She painted one tree that was visible from the prison so often that the other inmates began to call it “Inji’s tree.”
Inji was freed in 1963. A year out from her release, Inji was exhibiting her art once again. She focused on painting rural scenes and landscapes. Inji went on to exhibit her paintings in Rome, Paris, Warsaw, Moscow and other European culture centers. Her work has also almost always been on view in museums in Cairo since the 1970s.
Inji died in Cairo on April 17, 1989. She was 65 years old. Today, Inji is remembered as a pioneer of modern Egyptian art and a feminist activist. Her paintings provided a rare glimpse into a world unseen– an example of how powerful art can become when it’s used to call out injustice.
All month, we’re talking about rebels with a cause. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!