A history teacher is supposed to teach students what happened in the past, not rewrite it to justify his personal beliefs. But in a video that has sparked outrage across Egypt, a private history tutor does exactly that, turning a lesson about women’s liberation into a rant about why women should have stayed at home.
The teacher, identified as Ashraf Gaber, attacks two of Egypt’s most important historical figures, Safiya Zaghloul and Huda Sha’arawi, blames them for women’s independence, and even invents an explanation for how Tahrir Square got its name.
And the worst part? He’s telling all of this to students who are paying him to teach them history.
What Did He Actually Say?
In the video, which reportedly dates back around a year and has recently resurfaced, Gaber discusses the women’s liberation movement during a private history lesson.
Referring to Safiya Zaghloul and Huda Sha’arawi, he declares:
حسبي الله ونعم الوكيل في صفية زغلول وهدى شعراوي، دول كانوا الفيمينست بتوع جيلهم
May God hold Safiya Zaghloul and Huda Sha’arawi accountable. They were the feminists of their generation.
He compares them to television presenter Radwa El Sherbiny, describing the two historical figures as an even worse version.
He then claims that women traditionally went from their fathers’ homes to their husbands’ homes and eventually to their graves, criticizing the two women for encouraging others to leave their homes and participate in demonstrations.
According to him, everything went downhill once women started going outside.
ومن يوم ما الست خرجت لا عارفين ندخلها، ومن يوم ما الست قلعت مش عارفين نلبسها، وخربت
Ever since women started leaving their homes, we haven’t been able to get them back inside. And ever since they started taking their clothes off, we haven’t been able to get them dressed again. Everything went downhill.
He also argues that women’s freedom has become an excuse for improper behavior, describing it as a failure of upbringing and male authority in the home.
These aren’t simply controversial opinions about historical figures. He’s using a history lesson to present women’s independence as a societal problem, with misogyny dressed up as historical analysis.
He’s Not Even Getting the History Right
Perhaps the most revealing moment comes when Gaber attempts to explain the origins of Tahrir Square’s name.
He claims the square was named Tahrir because Safiya Zaghloul removed her face veil there, supposedly symbolizing women’s liberation.
Except that’s not what happened.
The square was originally called Ismailia Square, after Khedive Ismail. Its name became established as Tahrir Square following the 1952 Revolution, reflecting national liberation and the end of the monarchy.
The name has nothing to do with Safiya Zaghloul removing her face veil.
There’s also an important distinction between the two women he’s criticizing.
Safiya Zaghloul was a prominent figure in Egypt’s nationalist movement, particularly during and after the 1919 Revolution. Known as the Mother of Egyptians, she became a symbol of national resistance and political participation.
Huda Sha’arawi was a pioneering organizer of Egypt’s women’s rights movement, founding the Egyptian Feminist Union in 1923 and advocating for women’s education, political participation, and legal rights.
Their contributions involved decades of political and social change, not simply what women chose to wear.
Yet Gaber reduces their history to removing face veils and encouraging women to leave their homes.
The historical facts are being stripped of their context to support his argument that women’s freedom was a mistake.
A Teacher, a Content Creator, or Both?
A look at Gaber’s public Facebook page reveals another side of this story.
He actively markets himself as a history instructor for secondary-school students, publishing promotional graphics, short videos, classroom recordings, jokes, and advertisements for his lessons.
His page features elaborate designs centered on his image, alongside recurring branding such as “President Ashraf Gaber.”
There’s nothing inherently wrong with teachers creating content or using social media to attract students. Many educators use these platforms to make learning more accessible.
But Gaber’s video raises an important question: What happens when a teacher’s public persona becomes more important than the accuracy of the information being taught?
And when classrooms become material for social media, there are further questions about how students are filmed, whether they consent to appearing in publicly shared content, and who is responsible for protecting them.
El-Shai has not independently verified Gaber’s academic qualifications or teaching credentials. His publicly available promotional materials identify him as a history instructor, but do not establish his professional certification or the licensing status of the tutoring center involved.
These are matters that deserve clarification from the relevant authorities.
Who Is Protecting the Students?
Here’s something particularly ironic about the video.
Gaber is criticizing women who helped expand opportunities for Egyptian women while teaching students, mostly girls, who are pursuing their own education.
The students aren’t attending a political debate. They’re there to learn history, prepare for exams, and trust that the person standing in front of them knows what he’s talking about.
Instead, they’re hearing personal prejudices presented alongside demonstrably inaccurate historical information.
And this raises a much bigger issue about private tutoring centers in Egypt.
Who verifies that the people teaching students are qualified? Who monitors the accuracy of their lessons? Who makes sure students aren’t being used primarily to produce promotional content? And what happens when something like this goes viral?
As of October 8, 2026, El-Shai has not been able to verify any official announcement confirming Gaber’s arrest, prosecution, or disciplinary action.
The Ministry of Education and the relevant authorities need to address the incident, establish whether the teacher and center are operating within the applicable regulations, and determine whether any disciplinary or legal measures are warranted.
But investigating the teacher isn’t enough. What about the students who were taught the wrong information?
They deserve to have that information corrected. Authorities responsible for supervising their education should ensure that happens, rather than allowing the incident to disappear once social media moves on.
Egyptian Women’s History Deserves Better
Reducing Safiya Zaghloul and Huda Sha’arawi to a story about women removing their face veils isn’t just insulting. It erases the political struggles, educational reforms, and social changes they helped advance.
The opportunities women have today didn’t appear out of nowhere, and their benefits have never been limited to women.
Greater access to education, employment, and public participation has helped shape Egyptian families, institutions, and society as a whole, including the lives of men.
And the achievements of Egyptian women’s rights pioneers were connected to broader international movements, extending their influence beyond Egypt.
At El-Shai, we’ll be following this story with a series exploring who these women actually were, what they accomplished, and how their contributions helped change Egypt and influence the wider world.
Because if a history lesson can be used to spread misinformation about the women who helped shape modern Egypt, the least we can do is make sure their real history gets told.
