An Egyptian woman dressed as a man for four decades in order to earn a living after her husband passed away when she was pregnant at 21.
Now 64-years-old, Sisa Abu Daooh still works as a shoe shiner in order to provide for her daughter and grandchildren, as reported by Al Arabiya. Previously, she worked in construction and agriculture.
Born into a lower-class community, Abu Daooh faced opposition to women in the workforce, particularly in labor fields. She was forced to dress as a man in order to provide for her daughter, Houda.
Abu Daooh told Al Arabiya:
So as to protect myself from men and the harshness of their looks and being targeted by them due to traditions, I decided to be a man … and dressed in their clothes and worked alongside them in other villages where no one knows me.
Over the years, her work load didn’t lighten.
Eventually, she married off her daughter to a man who later fell ill and couldn’t work. So, being a resourceful woman, Abu Daooh kept up her work as the breadwinner of her family.
Abu Daooh was honored as the “ideal mother” and awarded “woman breadwinner” by the provincial government of Luxor in southern Egypt yesterday.
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