Rateb was born in Cairo to a middle-class, educated family.[2]
Education
When she attended college, she first studied literature at Cairo University, but transferred to law after only a week of studies.[2] Rateb graduated from Cairo University in 1949, went briefly to Paris for further education and then received her PhD in law in 1955.[2]
Rateb applied to become a judge on the Conseil de'Etat (the highest judicial body in Egypt) in 1949, and was rejected because of her gender.[3] The prime minister of the time, Hussein Serry Pasha, said that having a woman judge was "against the traditions of society".[2] She sued the government on the grounds that her constitutional rights were violated.[4] Her lawsuit was the first of its kind in Egypt, and when she lost the case, it was admitted by the head of State Council, Abdel-Razek al-Sanhouri, that she lost only because of political and cultural reasons,[5] not based on Egyptian or sharia law.[6] The lawsuit and the written opinion of al-Sanhouri encouraged other women to follow suit, although none became judges until in 2003, when Tahani al-Gebali was appointed as a judge.[7] In 2010, Egypt's prime minister ordered a review of a recent decision against allowing female judges.[8] In July 2015, 26 women were finally sworn in as judges.[6]
Political career
Rateb was part of the Arab Socialist Union's Central Committee in 1971, where she helped write the new constitution for Egypt.[2] Of all of the committee members, she was the only one who objected to the "extraordinary powers that the Constitution granted to the then president Anwar al-Sadat".[2]
Afterwards, she served as Minister of Insurance and Social Affairs from 1974 to 1977, and was the second woman to hold that position.[9] During her time there she was able to pass reforms for women in the country. Rateb was able to do this even while fundamentalist sheikhs tried to ruin her reputation.[10] Rateb went on to place restrictions on polygamy and ensure that divorce was only legal if it was witnessed by a judge.[11] She also worked to help those in poverty, and passed a law to help employ the disabled.[2] When the government lifted subsidies on essential goods, a move that would affect the poorest citizens in Egypt, she resigned protest in 1977 during the bread uprising.[2]
In 1979, Rateb was appointed as Egypt's first woman ambassador.[12] As an ambassador, she led Egypt on a "balanced position in a world of highly polarised international relations".[9] She was ambassador to Denmark from 1979 to 1981 and to the Federal Republic of Germany from 1981 to 1984.[1]
Rateb was critical of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak because she felt that his rule created a greater divide between the rich and poor.[9]
