麻豆社

In 1979, Egypt鈥檚 former first lady Jehan Sadat helped lead a campaign to grant women new rights to divorce their husbands and retain custody of their children.

Married to President Anwar Sadat, she wanted to play a more active role than the wives of previous leaders and told her husband it was his duty to make Egypt more equal for women.

After some persuasion, he issued decrees improving the divorce status of women despite facing a backlash, and these became known as 鈥淛ehan's laws鈥�.

Produced and presented by Reena Stanton-Sharma.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there.

For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue.

We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron 鈥� Argentina鈥檚 Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous 鈥榯ear down this wall鈥� speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler鈥檚 List; and Jacques Derrida, France鈥檚 鈥榬ock star鈥� philosopher.

You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world鈥檚 oldest languages.

(Photo: Jehan Sadat in 1975. Credit: Hilaria McCarthy/Daily Express/Hulton Archive via Getty Images)

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