The Women and Memory Forum (WMF) started in 1995 as a Research Group, focusing on gender in Arab cultural history. It was established in 1997 as a non-profit civic organization. Then, in accordance with the Egyptian NGO Law 84/2002, WMF registered as a foundation (reg. no. 1823/2003).

WMF has seven core-founding partners with equal responsibilities. The Council of Partners consists of: Hala Kamal, Hoda El Saadi, Hoda Elsadda, Iman Bibars, Omaima Abou-Bakr, Rania Abdel-Rahman and Sahar Sobhi. WMF is run by a Board of Trustees that plans policies and initiates activities. WMF is supported by an Advisory Board of Egyptian scholars in Egypt and abroad.

Since its inception, WMF partners have observed a system of rotation as regards the “general coordination” of administrative and financial day to day work. WMF is supported by an executive staff and research assistants.

WMF consists of a group of women researchers and development practitioners concerned about the negative representations and perceptions of Arab women in the cultural sphere. Dominant cultural ideas and images of Arab women constitute major stumbling blocks in the course of women''s development and attainment of their rights. We believe that one of the main obstacles facing Arab women now is the scarcity of alternate cultural information and knowledge about the role of women in history and the present day. We decided to organize formally in order to advocate for and promote the integration of gender as a category of analysis in the study and interpretation of Arab history and the social sciences in general. The long-term objective of our specialized research is to produce and make available alternate cultural information about Arab women that can be used for raising awareness and empowering women.

The ultimate goal of WMF is the empowerment of women through information generation and dissemination. Towards this end, the main objectives are:

1. Researching and documenting the roles played by women in cultural history.
2. Integrating cultural approaches to development.
3. Promoting gender-sensitive approaches in the cultural historical analysis of Arab history.
4. Translating specialized research on Arab cultural history into simplified information for popular dissemination.
5. Creating relevant networks for the exchange of information and experiences and towards strengthening research in the field.
6. Facilitating the accessibility of interested professionals to relevant specialized cultural information.