Shemsi is the Local Brand Bringing Period Panties to Egypt

Fighting to shatter taboos and challenge deeply-entrenched social stigmas, North Africa-based underwear line ‘Shemsi’ is unraveling the shackles that are stunting conversations around young Arab girls’ and women’s menstrual health with their line of period panties and menstrual products. Women-led and governed, the brand mixes sustainability and self-love to procure a safe space for women all over the region. 

Divided into four pillars - Ecology, Femininity, Accessibility, and Comfort - Shemsi strives to create a line of feel-good products, simultaneously enabling women to feel empowered and in control of their bodies, the planet, and their finances. In their mission to address the complexities of fashion’s relationship with size, the period panties are size inclusive, ranging from an XS to a 3XL. 

With sustainability at the forefront of their work, Shemsi is “working around the clock to create a real community around period awareness and eradicating period poverty,” Shemsi tells CairoScene. 

Furthermore, their goals go beyond profitability into the body politic, bridging the gap between women and the discourse around their own bodies. “Our goal is to bring women into the center of pan-Arabism and develop a true Arabic identity by including the realities of womanhood,” they add. “We hope to create a movement out of the values we represent and defend.” 

Shemsi is no stranger to the ups and downs of navigating social stigmas, and when asked about it the brand explained the importance of facilitating conversations around menstrual health, Shemsi had a lot to say. “Our product is radically different from what exists today in the market and from that opens a lot of conversations around periods,” they explain. “We had some customers who told us that for the first time, periods were a conversation with their whole family.”

With a fully functioning production hub in Egypt, you can now place online orders through eg.myshemsi.com