Painting from prison: Egypt’s iconic activist, Inji Efflatoun

An artist, communist, feminist and a champion of the poorest people in Egypt – this is the story of the painter and political activist, Inji Efflatoun.

She was born in 1924 into a traditional Muslim family in Cairo’s French-speaking upper class and was sheltered from everyday life. She started painting in her teens and then joined a group of artists, intellectuals and communists with strong anticolonial views.

Her paintings captured the injustices of 1940s and 50s Egypt – extreme poverty and the continued British imperial military presence in the Suez Canal zone. Efflatoun was jailed in President Gamal Nasser’s anticommunist crackdown – but probably produced her best work in prison, depicting female life behind bars, Palestinian fighters and the poorest Egyptian labourers.

She was released in 1962 and continued to paint until her death in 1989. Efflatoun was an original Arab artist and a champion of the poor when no one else seemed to care.