 Although she had acquaintance with Shaikh Hasan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun), since the late 1930s and actively participated in many Islamic programmes, she formally joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1948.After the assassination of Hassan al-Banna in 1949, she played a major role in the re-organization of the Muslim Brotherhood.She was arrested in 1965 for an alleged conspiracy to kill Gamal Abdel Nasser and overthrow his government.