Nour Emam
With passion and know-how against body taboos in Egypt
Understanding your own body better: Egyptian Nour Emam helps fellow countrywomen with medicine, education and empathy.
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Your opponents: body taboos that make you sick
Your strategy: listen, speak, post
Who she does this for: for all women in Egypt
The list of misconceptions that Nour Emam encounters in her work is endless: Only an intact hymen – the membrane at the entrance to the vagina – is proof of virginity? Wrong. Painful periods mean higher fertility? Wrong. Once a Caesarean, always a Caesarean? Wrong. “The woman’s body is completely taboo in Egypt,” says the 31-year-old pregnancy counselor. Because there is no sexual education in the family or at school, “we women have to navigate our health through a lot of prejudice and misinformation.”
Emam wants to change that. With a team of 26 people – including doctors, nurses, a psychotherapist and a pharmacist – she opened a slightly different women’s clinic in Cairo in early 2023, as a start-up and with investors from the region: The team not only wants to treat women, but also educate them about their bodies, including sexually. Nour Emam wants to break taboos that endanger health: “Some girls suffer from infections for years because their parents do not take them to the gynecologist – often out of shame.”
“I have always been fascinated by reproduction, pregnancy and birth,” says Emam during a video call from her home office in Cairo. After studying music, she worked as a DJ and producer for several years. Until the birth of her daughter in 2019 became a traumatic turning point for her. For no reason, the doctors induced labor far too early – and later performed a caesarean section, she says. A terrible disappointment for Emam. Because her own family is more open about female sexuality, she was very well prepared for the birth. Nevertheless, she was not able to hold her own in the clinic. “It felt like something very precious had been taken from me.” Emam fell into a deep depression.
“Motherbeing” – for more sexual rights, education and exchange
During this time, she discovered the profession of doula on the Internet, non-medical assistants who provide advice to pregnant women and women giving birth. Emam was fascinated. From Cairo, she completed an online training course in Canada – and started the Instagram channel “Motherbeing”, on which she posted videos about her work and the rights of expectant and new mothers. She quickly realized: Many of her followers were not pregnant at all, but simply girls and young women who wanted to learn more about their bodies. Emam offered them online courses on menstruation, sex and contraception. At the same time, the MeToo movement Egypt – and Emam’s channel became a leading voice for sexual and reproductive rights.
Today, more than 680,000 people, many of them men, follow “Motherbeing.” In Emam’s view, the opening of the clinic last year is just the logical second step. To date, Egyptian women have often had devastating experiences with gynecologists. “Motherbeing” found out about this from Instagram followers and documented it: For example, procedures were not explained in advance and examination devices were inserted without the patient’s consent. Women also complained that they were looked at strangely or rejected if they were unmarried and sexually active. Things are supposed to be different at “Motherbeing”.
Sex, periods, having children: These are important topics in the Cairo Women’s Clinic. Counseling is also available anonymously.
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A visit to the clinic in Cairo’s Maadi district begins with a warm welcome: there are comfortable sofas and abstract art depicting women’s bodies hangs on the walls. After the examination, there is the opportunity to discuss any open questions and further steps with a care coordinator. For anyone whose parents are against a visit or who live too far away, there are online consultation hours. And if you feel uncomfortable talking about your own body in front of strangers, you can consult the specialist staff without a camera or via chat.
Nour Emam: “I have become so much stronger, louder, braver”
“Motherbeing” already cares for 800 patientsevery week there are more. The clinic has just hired a third doctor, the program is to be expanded to include breastfeeding and menopause counseling, and the clinic rooms will be used for workshops on weekends.
For Nour Emam, all of this not only means professional success. It also helps her deal with her own trauma. “I have become so much stronger, louder, braver”she says – as a woman, a business leader and as a mother. She now has the ability to “raise a strong daughter who understands her body and can stand up for her rights.”