Leading Arab Women: Lotfia Elnadi

Tags:: Egypt Airplanes Documentaries Women Arab Egyptian Pilots Flying Female

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By: mnadi
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Updated: 14-Oct-08
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Basic English
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Added: 12-Aug-08

From a short documentary about Lotfia Elnadi, the first Egyptian female pilot.

Lotfia Elnadi was an Egyptian aviatrix (woman pilot) of Swiss citizenship.

At the age of 26, she became the first Egyptian woman to fly a plane between Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt and became the 2nd woman in the world to fly a plane solo at a time when men were still afraid of cars.

She had a strict upbringing. To achieve her dream -in a time when Egyptian women fought to obtain equal rights- Lotfia had to distract her father to be able to attend flying lessons twice a week without his knowledge or consent.

It is said that her first time in a plane was when she worked as a receptionist at Cairo airport and she had to hide in a 2-seater plane to try flying. When the plane took off, she popped her head up and told the pilot she only wanted to try the feeling! Later she learned to be a pilot. At one time she had to live in the dessert as part of a survival training course. The only women in that group were herself and another girl