After graduating from the Institut Supérieur des beaux-arts pour jeunes filles (Cairo) in 1948, she pursued her training at the studio of Marcel Gromaire (1951), then in Rome (1952) and London, where she obtained a postgraduate degree from the Slade School of Fine Art (1955). Her early works connected her to the Group of Modern Art, which argued that Western means of pictorial expression could serve the development of a modern and authentic Egyptian art. In this regard, the hieratic figures outlined in black that characterise her paintings from the 50s and 60s borrow as much from pharaonic sepulchral paintings as from the Coptic tradition, as well as from lithographic techniques. Her numerous depictions of women and the working class were pertinent to nationalist iconography, contributing to G. Sirry’s acknowledgement in official spheres and earning her State grants and exhibitions at governmental venues. However, G. Sirry’s relationship with Nasser’s regime was a complex one, as it had imprisoned her husband.