Several autobiographies of Egyptian intellectuals describe their confusion at what seems to be a peculiar scene of the 1930s: the presence – for the first time – of female students on the campus. This scene raised concerns about the legitimacy of their presence in that particular space and doubtful questions about the genuine “feminine nature” of these newcomers and their values. Three decades later, with the establishment of free higher education in 1961, this scene was no longer peculiar and h…