Jehan Sadat to conclude 2006-07 Distinguished Speaker Series

University Park, Pa. -- Jehan Sadat, former Egyptian first lady and an international women's rights activist, will speak at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 15, at Eisenhower Auditorium on Penn State's University Park campus as the final speaker in the 2006-07 Distinguished Speaker Series lineup. The event is free but tickets are required.

Tickets may be obtained Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Eisenhower Auditorium box office and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the HUB-Robeson Center outlet, and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday at the Downtown Theatre Center. Two free tickets will be issued on a first-come, first-served basis.

A world figure and widow of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Jehan Sadat has been active in the women's movements both in her country and throughout the world. Sadat, first lady of Egypt from 1970 to 1981, was the first wife of a Muslim leader to have her picture in the newspaper, to travel outside her country and to take up public causes. She has devoted her life to public service and maintaining the legacy of her late husband.

Born in Upper Egypt in 1933, she has spent much of her life challenging traditional Muslim women's roles in society. Involved in social work and women's rights in the Middle East before her husband became president, Sadat established Talla Society, a women's emancipation and education group aimed at helping women become more self-sufficient. The group trains women in handicrafts and pays tuition for nearly 1,000 secondary school and university students.

She organized a movement to reform Egyptian Civil Rights Law and was successful in reforming victimizing divorce laws. Sadat founded Egypt's Wafa' Wal Amal (Faith and Hope) Society for disabled war veterans and civilians, the first and largest rehabilitation center of its kind in the Middle East.

Three years after Anwar Sadat attended the Camp David Accords with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the Egyptian leader was assassinated by Ayman al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor and a top lieutenant to Osama bin Laden.

Jehan Sadat worked closely with her husband in his quest for peace. After his assassination, she took on the role of educator, lecturer and social activist, promoting women's rights and international peace. Sadat, a mother of four, earned a doctorate in 1986 from Cairo University. She is a senior fellow with the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland. She is the recipient of numerous international honors and awards and is author of "A Woman of Egypt," her best-selling autobiography.

The Distinguished Speaker Series is sponsored by the University Park Allocation Committee and coordinated by the Distinguished Speaker Series Committee and the Office of Student Activities. Funded by student activity fees, the series is free to the public.

For more information on the Distinguished Speaker Series, visit http://www.sa.psu.edu/usa/dss/ online.