“It’s frustrating that so many names in the top 20 are British”

Although the list is very timely given that 2018 is the centenary of the first British women achieving the vote, it is still quite frustrating that more than half the names making up the top 20 in a poll of ‘Women Who Changed the World’ are British.

In 14th place is Boudicca who took on the Romans in Britain, while Cleopatra, who not only kept the Romans at bay for 20 years but made a huge impact on the ancient world, doesn’t even make the top 20. But at least she is there, as is fellow Egyptian-born Hypatia, in at number 36, no doubt helped by actor Rachel Weisz’s portrayal of her life in the 2009 film Agora.

It is good, too, to see the Prophet Muhammad’s military-minded wife Aisha making number 91, although curiously there is no sign of Shajar al-Durr, only the second Muslim woman in history to rule as monarch and whose forces defeated the seventh crusade in 1250.

So roll on Shajar al-Durr the movie!

Professor Joann Fletcher, University of York. Joann’s most recent book is The Story of Egypt (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015)