while undertaking volunteer work, and participating in non-governmental service to the less fortunate. Non-governmental services Sadat played a key role in reforming Egypt's civil rights laws during the late 1970s. Often called "Jehan's Laws", new statutes advanced by her granted women a variety of new rights, including those to alimony and custody of children in the event of divorce. After visiting wounded soldiers at the Suez front during the Six-Day War in 1967, she founded al Wafa' Wa Amal (Faith and Hope) Rehabilitation Center, which offers disabled war veterans medical and rehabilitation services and vocational training. The center is supported by donations from around the world and now serves visually impaired children and has a worldwide known music and choir band. She also played crucial roles in the formation of the Talla Society, a cooperative in the Nile Delta region which assists local women in becoming self-sufficient, the Egyptian Society for Cancer Patients, the Egyptian Blood Bank, and SOS Children's Villages in Egypt, an organization that provides orphans new homes in a family environment. She headed the Egyptian delegation to the UN International Women's Conferences in Mexico City and Copenhagen. She founded the Arab-African Women's League. As an activist, she hosted and participated in numerous conferences throughout the world concerning women's issues, children's welfare, and peace in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. On 6 October 1981, Sadat's husband was assassinated by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Operation Badr. This ended both his presidency and her period as First Lady, which had lasted for nearly 11 years. Education Sadat gained a BA in Arabic Literature at Cairo University in 1977. This was followed by a MA in Comparative Literature in 1980, and PhD in Comparative Literature in 1986, both at the same university. In 1986, Sadat was controversially paid a salary of $350,000 to teach for three semesters by James B. Holderman at the University of South Carolina. After completing her education, Sadat became a teacher at the Cairo Artist and Performance Center. Later years and death Sadat was a senior fellow at the University of Maryland, College Park (where The Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development has also been endowed). She also wrote an autobiography, A Woman of Egypt (), published by Simon & Schuster in 1987, as well as poetry in Arabic, under a