Egyptian Woman Who Lived As A Man For 40 Years Is Voted 'Best Mum'

Sisa Abu Daooh took on a male identity after her husband died, so that she could get a job, and bring up daughter, according to guardian.

On Sunday, Abu Daooh, 65, met Egypt's president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, to take her award.

She wore a traditional male robe and turban while receiving the award, and was appreciated by the president as an exemplary working woman, according to thehuffingtonpost.

She is dubbed as "Egypt's matriarch of the moment", after she was called by officials in Luxor, her home town, as the city's "most supportive mother". It may sound astonishing that she is seen as Luxor's "best mum" because she has dressed up for 40 years as a man.

She declared, though, that she was not going to give up her identity.

"I have decided to die in these clothes. I've got used to it. It's my whole life and I can't leave it now."

It started in the 1970s after she lost her husband when she was pregnant by six months with their first child. While nowadays, at least one in seven Egyptian breadwinners is a woman, 40 years ago, her conservative family did not support her decision to work, according to dailymail.

"My brothers wanted me to get married again," she says. "All the time they kept bringing new grooms to me."

She did not want to get married to a single one of those men, but her brother didn't support her taking up a career either. As the labouring jobs were closed to women, and she didn't have a qualification that could make her take up an office job, she just took on a male identity so that she could get herself a job.

She tonsured her head, wore long, loose male clothes, made bricks and harvested wheat. At first she was seen as "strong as 10 men", but later she decided to take to shoe-shining as she weakened.

"When a woman lets go of her femininity, it's hard," she said. "But I would do anything for my daughter. It was the only way to make money. What else could I do? I can't read or write, my family didn't send me to school, so this was the only way."

She soon grew to love her work, as she did not fear sexual harassment any more. "I was happy," she said. "I was able to work men's work, and all the people around me were happy with it. When men looked at me they looked at me as a man."

Said Mena Melad, the editor-owner of the Luxor Times:"She'd sit in the coffee shop with the men, and passers-by wouldn't notice. She was one of them."

Lots of citizens understood that she was a woman and called her Umm Hoda, or Hoda's mum, which is usually used as an address in the Middle East. "I never hid it," she remembers. "I wasn't trying to keep it a secret." Gradually her renown grew, to the extent that she now claims "the whole city of Luxor knows I'm a woman, from the smallest kid to the biggest man".

This year, the local government in Luxor called her the city's most devoted mum, and recorded it on a certificate that she cannot read, giving her a kiosk to help get an income.

Even today her son-in-law is ill, so she supports their family, helping to earn enough to put food on the table for them. She does not want Hoda to suffer. "Of course not," says Abu Daooh. "She has a husband and kids."