Aida El-Kashef is a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

Egyptian filmmaker and actress. Her acting credits include ''

Ship of Theseus The Ship of Theseus is a thought experiment about whether an object that has had all of its original components replaced remains the same object. According to legend, Theseus, the mythical Greek founder-king of Athens, had rescued the children of ...

'' and '' Walad w Bent''. She has also directed the short films ''A Tin Tale'' and ''Rhapsody in Autumn''. El-Kashef was involved in the protests at

Tahrir Square Tahrir Square ( ar, ميدان التحرير ', , English language, English: Liberation Square), also known as "Martyr Square", is a major public town square in downtown Cairo, Egypt. The square has been the location and focus for political dem ...

, where she filmed the events of the

Arab Spring The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...

as they unfolded. She was one of the first protestors to occupy Tahrir where she set up a tent. She also documented "aggressive assaults against women" that occurred during the protests often risking her own personal safety. El-Kashef's films of men

sexually assaulting Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

women were shown worldwide and El-Kashef and her friends vowed to fight back, carrying electric prods and knives as protection. She was arrested and detained for her participation in the No Military Trials for Civilians protest. El-Kashef missed the promotion of ''Ship of Theseus'' in India while she was protesting. Another aspect of the protests was her involvement in filming the grief of family members who raided the Zeinhom Morgue in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

to see their loved ones one last time. In 2014, El-Kashef received a grant for ''Ward No 3'' from SANAD, which is the development and post-production fund for the

Abu Dhabi Film Festival The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF; ar, مهرجان أبو ظبي السينمائي), formerly the Middle East International Film Festival, was an international film festival held in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 2007 to 20 ...

. Also in 2014, El-Kashef won best supporting actress from the

Indian National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

for her role in ''Ship of Theseus''. She also won Best Actress for the Muhr Asia-Africa Feature category at the Dubai Film Festival for her role in ''Ship of Theseus'' in 2012. In November, 2015, El-Kashef began crowdfunding the partial costs of producing her first full-length documentary, a film tackling the subject of domestic abuse in Egypt. In ''The Day I Ate The Fish'', Aida documents several marriages where a woman murdered her spouse.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kashef, Aida 1988 births Living people Actresses from Cairo Egyptian film actresses Egyptian film directors Egyptian women film directors Egyptian feminists Egyptian expatriates in India Expatriate actresses in India Best Supporting Actress National Film Award winners Screen Awards winners