Inji Efflatoun, Portrait of a Woman Behind Bars, 1959, Oil on Canvas, 41 x 30 cm.

Inji Efflatoun (1924 Cairo – 1989 Cairo) was a prominent Egyptian artist, political activist and a strong figure of social justice. She developed an interest in political history from a young age. Artist and filmmaker, Kamel el-Tilmisani, who further influenced her freedom of artistic expression and socialism, trained her in painting. Despite her upbringing in a privileged, upper-class family, Efflatoun was deeply concerned and immersed in the living conditions of the Egyptian working class. On 19 June 1959, she was arrested and imprisoned for four years at the Abi Zaabal and Qanater women’s prison for her political and feminist ideals. Efflatoun managed to convince the prison authorities to continue painting in her cell and she used this as an opportunity to document the women behind bars exhaustingly during the first two years of her imprisonment. This experience has produced Efflatoun’s eminent series of prisoners’ portraits and her memoir, From Childhood to Prison.