Nawal El Saadawi

The second-eldest of nine children, Saadawi was born on 22 October 1931 in the small village of Kafr Tahla, Egypt.{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/22/nawal-el-saadawi-obituary|title=Nawal El Saadawi obituary|date=March 22, 2021|first=Sarah A|last= Smith|website=The Guardian}} Saadawi was subjected to female genital mutilation at the age of six,{{Cite book|last1=Sa'dawi|first1=Nawal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I9vqMossOjoC|title=A Daughter of Isis: The Autobiography of Nawal El Saadawi|last2=Saadawi|first2=Nawal El|last3=Saʻdāwī|first3=Nawāl|last4=Saʿdāwī|first4=Nawāl as-|date=1999|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-85649-680-3|pages=63–87|language=en}} though her father believed that both girls and boys should be educated. She had described her mother and father as being relatively liberal when growing up.

Her Upper Egyptian father was a government official in the Ministry of Education, who had campaigned against the British occupation of Egypt during the Egyptian Revolution of 1919. As a result, he was exiled to a small town in the Nile Delta, and the government refrained from promoting him for 10 years. He was relatively progressive and taught his daughter self-respect and to speak her mind. He also encouraged her to study the Arabic language. However, when El Saadawi was 10 years old, her family tried to make her marry, but her mother supported her in resisting.{{Cite news |title=Nawal El Saadawi: Feminist firebrand who dared to write dangerously (obituary) |last=Taylor-Coleman |first=Jasmine |website=BBC News |date=21 March 2021 |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-55048245}} Both her parents died at a young age,{{Cite web|title=Nawal El Saadawi|url=http://faculty.webster.edu/woolflm/saadawi.html|access-date=25 September 2015|website=faculty.webster.edu}}{{Unreliable source?|date=September 2021|sure=y|reason=This is an unpublished undergraduate student assignment paper}} leaving Saadawi with the sole burden of providing for a large family.{{Cite web |url=http://www.nawalsaadawi.net/oldsite/articlesnawal/bornexile.htm |title=Exile and Resistance |first=Nawal |last=El Saadaw|website=Nawal El Saadawi/Sherif Hetata |date=November 2002|access-date=23 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027223127/http://www.nawalsaadawi.net/oldsite/articlesnawal/bornexile.htm |archive-date=27 October 2009 |url-status=usurped }} Her mother, Zaynab, was partially descendant from a wealthy Ottoman family;{{cite news|last=Cowell|first=Alan |author-link=Alan Cowell |year=2021|title=Nawal El Saadawi, Advocate for Women in the Arab World, Dies at 89 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/21/obituaries/nawal-el-saadawi-dead.html|newspaper=The New York Times|quote=Nawal El Saadawi was born on Oct. 27, 1931, in the village of Kafr Tahla, a settlement in the lower Nile Delta, the second of nine children. Her mother, Zaynab (Shoukry) El Saadawi, was partially descended from a wealthy Ottoman family. Her father, Al-Sayed El Saadawi, was an official in the government’s education ministry. }} Saadawi described both her maternal grandfather, Shoukry,{{cite book|first=Nawal|last= El Saadawi|year=2013|title=A Daughter of Isis: The Early Life of Nawal El Saadawi|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1848136403}} and her maternal grandmother as having Ottoman origin.{{citation|first=Nawal|last= El Saadawi|year=1986|title=Memoirs from the Women's Prison|publisher=University of California Press|page=64|quote= "My eyes widened in astonishment. Even my maternal grandmother used to sing, although she was born to a Turkish mother and lived in my grandfather's house in the epoch when harems still existed." |isbn=0520088883}} Even as a child she objected to the male-dominated society she lived in, with sons valued far more highly than daughters, reacting angrily to her grandmother who said that "a boy is worth 15 girls at least... Girls are a blight". She described herself proudly as a dark-skinned Egyptian woman since she was young.{{Citation|url=https://zora.medium.com/my-childhood-in-egypt-not-knowing-i-was-in-africa-27580b07a93b|title=My Childhood in Egypt, Not Knowing I Was in Africa|first=Nawal|last=El Saadawi|website=zora.medium.com|date=13 June 2019}}{{cite book|title=New Daughters of Africa|chapter=About Me in Africa—Politics and Religion in my Childhood|editor-first=Margaret|first=El Saadawi|last=Nawal|editor-last=Busby|publisher=Myriad Editions|edition=paperback|pages=42–44|date=2020}}

Saadawi graduated as a medical doctor in 1955 from Cairo University. That year, she married Ahmed Helmi, whom she met as a fellow student in medical school. They have a daughter, Mona Helmi. The marriage ended after two years.{{cite journal|first=Yusuf|last=Koseli|title=A PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACH TO THE NOVEL OF NAWAL EL SAADAWI TITLED MÜZEKKİRAT TABİBE|journal=The Journal of International Social Research|date=2013|volume=6|issue=28|url=http://www.sosyalarastirmalar.com/cilt6/cilt6sayi28_pdf/koseli_yusuf.pdf|access-date=15 April 2020}}{{Cite web|title = Nawal El Saadawi: Egypt's radical feminist|url = https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/apr/15/nawal-el-saadawi-egyptian-feminist|website =The Guardian|date= 15 April 2010|access-date =15 April 2020|first = Homa|last = Khaleeli}} Through her medical practice, she observed women's physical and psychological problems and connected them with oppressive cultural practices, patriarchal oppression, class oppression and imperialist oppression.[http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1999/462/women.htm Feminism in a nationalist century] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419040800/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/1999/462/women.htm |date=19 April 2010 }} Her second husband was a colleague, Rashad Bey.{{cite thesis|url=https://www.academia.edu/23224495|title=Voice of Oppressed from the Margins: A Critical Reading on Nawal El Saadawi's "Woman at Point Zero"|last=Puthiyakath|first=Hashim H.|publisher=Central University of Tamil Nadu|access-date=15 April 2020}}

While working as a doctor in her birthplace of Kafr Tahla, she observed the hardships and inequalities faced by rural women. After attempting to protect one of her patients from domestic violence, Saadawi was summoned back to Cairo. She eventually became the Director of the Ministry of Public Health and met her third husband, Sherif Hatata, while sharing an office in the Ministry of Health. Hatata, also a medical doctor and writer, had been a political prisoner for 13 years. They married in 1964 and have a son. Saadawi and Hatata lived together for 43 years{{cite web|last1=Cooke|first1=Rachel|title=Nawal El Saadawi: 'Do you feel you are liberated? I feel I am not'|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/11/nawal-el-saadawi-interview-do-you-feel-you-are-liberated-not|work=The Observer|date=11 October 2015|access-date=15 April 2020}} and divorced in 2010.{{cite web|url=http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/18/62/99644/Books/Review/ElSaadawi-and-Hatata-Voyage-of-a-lifetime.aspx|title=El-Saadawi and Hatata: Voyage of a lifetime|date=24 April 2014|publisher=Ahram Online|first=Mahmoud |last=El-Wardani|access-date=15 April 2020}}

Saadawi attended Columbia University, earning a master's degree in public health in 1966.{{Cite news|last=Smith|first=Harrison|date=March 23, 2021|title=Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian author, physician and feminist activist, dies at 89|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/nawal-el-saadawi-dead/2021/03/23/43c7c250-8b19-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html|access-date=June 16, 2021}} In 1972, she published Woman and Sex ({{lang|ar|المرأة والجنس}}), confronting and contextualising various aggressions perpetrated against women's bodies, including female circumcision. The book became a foundational text of second-wave feminism. As a consequence of the book and her political activities, Saadawi was dismissed from her position at the Ministry of Health. She also lost her positions as chief editor of a health journal, and as Assistant General Secretary in the Medical Association in Egypt. From 1973 to 1976, Saadawi worked on researching women and neurosis in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Medicine. From 1979 to 1980, she was the United Nations Advisor for the Women's Programme in Africa (ECA) and the Middle East (ECWA).{{Cite web|url=https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/11/saadawi-nawal-el-2/|title=Saadawi, Nawal el – Postcolonial Studies|website=scholarblogs.emory.edu|language=en-US|access-date=31 July 2017}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r9SPVEG3cv0C&q=Nawal+Saadawi+united+nations+advisor+1979&pg=PR1|title=The Nawal El Saadawi Reader|last=Saʻdāwī|first=Nawāl|date=15 December 1997|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=9781856495141|language=en}}

In 2002 a legal attempt was made by Nabih el-Wahsh in an Egyptian Court to legally divorce el-Saadawi from her husband on account of hesba, a 9th-century principle of shariah law, that allows for the conviction of Muslims who are seen to be harming Islam. The evidence used against her was a March interview in which el-Wahsh claims was proof she had abandoned Islam. The legal attempt was unsuccessful.{{Cite web |date=2001-06-18 |title=Cairo writer threatened with divorce |url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jun/18/internationaleducationnews.highereducation |access-date=2022-12-22 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

In 2008, a similar attempt was made to strip el-Saadawi of her Egyptian nationality due to her radical opinions and writing, this attempt was also unsuccessful.

Long viewed as controversial and dangerous by the Egyptian government, Saadawi helped publish a feminist magazine in 1981 called Confrontation. She was imprisoned in September by President of Egypt Anwar Sadat.{{cite book|last1=Uglow|first1=Jennifer S.|author2=Maggy Hendry|title=The Northeastern Dictionary of Women's Biography|url=https://archive.org/details/northeasterndict0000uglo|url-access=registration|year=1999|publisher=Northeastern University Press|isbn= 9781555534219|pages=[https://archive.org/details/northeasterndict0000uglo/page/189 189]–190}} Saadawi stated once in an interview, "I was arrested because I believed Sadat. He said there is democracy and we have a multi-party system and you can criticize. So I started criticizing his policy and I landed in jail." Sadat claimed that the established government was a democracy for the people and that democracy as always was open for constructive criticism. According to Saadawi, Sadat imprisoned her because of her criticism of his purported democracy. Even in prison she still found a way to fight against the oppression of women. While in prison she formed the Arab Women's Solidarity Association. This was the first legal and independent feminist group in Egypt. In prison, she was denied pen and paper, however, that did not stop her from continuing to write. She used a "stubby black eyebrow pencil" and "a small roll of old and tattered toilet paper" to record her thoughts.{{Cite web|title=Interview with Nawal el aasawi|url=http://www.nyu.edu/classes/keefer/twenty/nawal.html|last=Network|first=Vile News|date=2015|access-date=26 April 2020}} She was released later that year, one month after the President's assassination. Of her experience she wrote: "Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies."{{cite web |url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/06/03/stories/13030786.htm |title=Egypt's face of courage |work=The Hindu|first=Kalpana|last=Sharma|date=3 June 2001|access-date=25 September 2013 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041030002518/http://www.hinduonnet.com/2001/06/03/stories/13030786.htm |archive-date=30 October 2004 }}

In 1982, she founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association.Hussey, Sierra, [https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/biography-nawal-el-saadawi-sierra-hussey "Biography of Nawal El Saadawi"], South African History Online. She described her organization as "historical, socialist, and feminist".{{cite magazine |url= https://www.aljadid.com/node/2254|title= Nawal El-Saadawi's 'Daughter of Isis' Life and Times via the Plenitude of Her Writings |first=D.H. |last=Melhem|website=Al Jadid Magazine|volume= 5|number= 29|date=Autumn 1999|access-date=22 March 2021}}

Saadawi was one of the women held at Qanatir Women's Prison. Her incarceration formed the basis for her 1983 Memoirs from the Women's Prison ({{langx|ar|مذكرات في سجن النساء }}). Her contact with a prisoner at Qanatir, nine years before she was imprisoned there, served as inspiration for an earlier work, a novel titled Woman at Point Zero ({{langx|ar|امرأة عند نقطة الصفر}}, 1975).{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-books-of-nawal-el-saadawi|title=The Books of Nawal El Saadawi|magazine=The New Yorker|first=Jenna|last=Krajeski|date=7 March 2011|access-date=31 July 2017}}

In 1993, when her life was threatened by Islamists and political persecution, Saadawi was forced to flee Egypt. She accepted an offer to teach at Duke University's Asian and African Languages Department in North Carolina,{{Cite web|title=Former Visiting Professor in Court, Under Fire in Egypt|url=https://today.duke.edu/2001/06/el-saadawi629.html|date=June 29, 2001|website=Duke Today|publisher=Duke University|access-date=2021-04-01|language=en}}Dr Dora Carpenter-Latiri, [http://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2015/11/11/the-reading-room-a-review-of-memoirs-of-a-woman-doctor/ "The Reading Room: A review of ‘Memoirs of a woman doctor{{'"}}], BMJ Blog, 11 November 2015. as well as at the University of Washington. She later held positions at a number of prestigious colleges and universities including Cairo University, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the Sorbonne, Georgetown, Florida State University, and the University of California, Berkeley. In 1996, she moved back to Egypt.{{cite web|last=Ling|first= Jessica |url=http://www.warscapes.com/blog/today-history-happy-85th-birthday-nawal-el-saadawi |title=Today in History: Happy 85th Birthday, Nawal El Saadawi!|website=Warscapes|date=27 October 2016}}

Saadawi continued her activism and considered running in the 2005 Egyptian presidential election, before stepping out because of stringent requirements for first-time candidates.[https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2005/7/16/egypt-presidential-aspirant-pulls-out "Egypt presidential aspirant pulls out"], AlJazeera, 16 July 2005. Retrieved 21 July 2021. She was among the protesters in Tahrir Square in 2011.{{cite web|first=Elizabeth |last=Rubin|url=http://www.newsweek.com/2011/03/06/the-feminists-in-the-middle-of-tahrir-square.html |title=The Feminists in the Middle of Tahrir Square|work=Newsweek|date= 6 March 2011}} She called for the abolition of religious instruction in Egyptian schools.{{Cite web |title=Nawal El Saadawi – Illustrated Women in History |url=https://illustratedwomeninhistory.com/nawal-el-saadawi-is-an-egyptian-feminist-writer/ |date=28 October 2015|access-date=2022-05-15 |language=en-US}}

Saadawi was awarded the 2004 North–South Prize by the Council of Europe.{{Cite web|url=http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/nscentre/winners_nsp_EN.asp|title=North-South Centre homepage|website=North-South Centre|language=en-GB|access-date=18 March 2018}} In July 2016, she headlined the Royal African Society's "Africa Writes" literary festival in London, where she spoke "On Being a Woman Writer" in conversation with Margaret Busby.{{cite web|first=Kelechi |last=Iwumene|url=http://africawrites.org/blog/africa-writes-2016-the-round-up/ |title=Africa Writes 2016: The Round-Up|publisher=Royal African Society|date= July 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://africawrites.org/uncategorized/on-being-a-woman-writer-nawal-el-saadawi-in-conversation-2/ |title=On Being A Woman Writer: Nawal El Saadawi in conversation|website= Africa Writes|publisher=Royal African Society|date= 2 July 2016}}

At the Göteborg Book Fair that took place on 27 to 30 September 2018, Saadawi attended a seminar on development in Egypt and the Middle East after the Arab Spring{{Cite web|url=https://www.gp.se/kultur/kultur/nawal-el-sadaawi-till-bokm%C3%A4ssan-1.7940393|title=Nawal El Sadaawi till Bokmässan|work=Göteborgs-Posten|language=sv|date=29 August 2018|access-date=10 October 2018}} and during her talk at the event stated that "colonial, capitalist, imperialist, racist" global powers, led by the United States, collaborated with the Egyptian government to end the 2011 Egyptian revolution. She added that she remembered seeing then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Tahrir Square handing out dollar bills to the youth in order to encourage them to vote for the Muslim Brotherhood in the upcoming elections.[https://www.memri.org/tv/egyptian-activist-nawal-saadawi-saw-hillary-clinton-dollars-tahrir-square "Egyptian Women's Rights Activist Nawal El Saadawi: I Saw Hillary Clinton Handing Out U.S. Dollars In Tahrir Square So That People Would Vote For the Muslim Brotherhood"], Memri TV, 30 September 2018.

Nawal El Saadawi held the positions of Author for the Supreme Council for Arts and Social Sciences, Cairo; Director General of the Health Education Department, Ministry of Health, Cairo, Secretary General of the Medical Association, Cairo, Egypt, and medical doctor at the University Hospital and Ministry of Health. She was the founder of the Health Education Association and the Egyptian Women Writers' Association; she was Chief Editor of Health Magazine in Cairo, and Editor of Medical Association Magazine.{{cite web|url=https://ipb.org/nawal-el-sadaawi-in-memory/|title=Nawal El Sadaawi – In Memory|first=Ingeborg |last=Breines|author-link=Ingeborg Breines|website=ipb.org|publisher=IPB – International Peace Bureau|access-date=19 February 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.gold.ac.uk/news/nawal-el-saadawi-tribute/|title=Tribute to doctor, writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi|website=gold.ac.uk|publisher=Goldsmiths University of London|date=26 March 2021|access-date=19 February 2024}}

File:Nawal El Saadawi 02.JPG in 2010]]

Saadawi began writing early in her career. Her earliest writings include a selection of short stories entitled I Learned Love (1957) and her first novel, Memoirs of a Woman Doctor (1958). She subsequently wrote numerous novels and short stories and a personal memoir, Memoir from the Women's Prison (1986). Saadawi has been published in a number of anthologies, and her work has been translated from the original Arabic into more than 30 languages.Van Allen, Judith Imel, [https://books.google.com/books?id=fy11AwAAQBAJ&dq=saadawi+translated+into+more+than+30+languages&pg=PT1369 "Saadawi, Nawal El (1931–)"], in Gary L. Anderson and Kathryn G. Herr (eds), Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice, Sage Publications, 2007, pp. 1249–1250.{{Cite web |title=El Saadawi, Nawal (1932–) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/international/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/el-saadawi-nawal-1932 |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}

In 1972, she published her first work of non-fiction, Women and Sex, which evoked the antagonism of highly placed political and theological authorities. It also led to her dismissal at the Ministry of Health. Other works include The Hidden Face of Eve,{{cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/924716956 |via=worldcat.org |title=The hidden face of Eve : women in the Arab world |oclc=924716956 |access-date=22 March 2021}} God Dies by the Nile,{{cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/12583064 |via=worldcat.org |title=God dies by the Nile |oclc=12583064 |access-date=22 March 2021}} The Circling Song,{{cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/18587928 |via=worldcat.org |title=The circling song |oclc=18587928 |access-date=22 March 2021}} Searching,{{cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24707056 |via=worldcat.org |title=Searching |oclc=24707056 |access-date=22 March 2021}} The Fall of the Imam (described as "a powerful and moving exposé of the horrors that women and children can be exposed to by the tenets of faith"),{{cite journal |first=Philip |last=Womack |author-link=Philip Womack |url=http://newhumanist.org.uk/2119/the-fall-of-the-imam-by-nawal-el-saadawi |title=The Fall of the Imam by Nawal El Saadawi (review) |journal=New Humanist |date=20 August 2009}} and Woman at Point Zero.{{cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10887569 |via=worldcat.org |title=Woman at point zero |oclc=10887569 |access-date=22 March 2021}}

Many have criticised her work The Hidden Face of Eve on claims that she was writing for the "critical foreigner".{{Cite journal |last=Amireh |first=Amal |date=2000 |title=Framing Nawal El Saadawi: Arab Feminism in a Transnational World |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/495572 |journal=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=215–249 |doi=10.1086/495572 |s2cid=143010343 |issn=0097-9740}} The original title of the book, directly translated into English was "The Naked Face of the Arab Woman" and many chapters have been removed from the English edition of the book, when compared to the Arabic original.

She contributed the piece "When a woman rebels" to the 1984 anthology Sisterhood Is Global, edited by Robin Morgan,{{cite web |url=https://catalog.vsc.edu/lscfind/Record/154795/TOC#tabnav |title=Sisterhood Is Global: Table of Contents |publisher=Catalog.vsc.edu |access-date=15 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208065459/https://catalog.vsc.edu/lscfind/Record/154795/TOC#tabnav |archive-date=8 December 2015 |url-status=dead }} and was a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby, which included her essay "About Me in Africa—Politics and Religion in my Childhood".Perry, Imani (29 March 2019), [https://www.ft.com/content/2a4e64a8-508a-11e9-8f44-fe4a86c48b33 "New Daughters of Africa — a new anthology of a groundbreaking book"], Financial Times.Rocker-Clinton, Johnna (August 2019), [https://sanfranciscobookreview.com/product/new-daughters-of-africa-an-international-anthology-of-writing-by-women-of-african-descent/ "Margaret Busby does it again!"] (review of New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent), San Francisco Book Review.

Saadawi's novel Zeina was published in Lebanon in 2009. The French translation was published under the pseudonym Nawal Zeinab el Sayed, using her mother's maiden name.{{cite news|title=Radical writer back with vengeance|url=http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/africa/radical-writer-back-with-vengeance|work= The National|access-date=17 November 2014|date=7 September 2009}}

Saadawi spoke fluent English in addition to her native Egyptian Arabic.{{cite web|first=Hans Ulrich |last=Obrist|url=http://www.e-flux.com/journal/42/60256/in-conversation-with-nawal-el-saadawi/ |title=In Conversation with Nawal El Saadawi|website=e-flux Journal|number=42|date= February 2013}} As she wrote in Arabic, she saw the question of translation into English or French as "a big problem" linked to the fact that

"the colonial capitalist powers are mainly English- or French-speaking.... I am still ignored by big literary powers in the world, because I write in Arabic, and also because I am critical of the colonial, capitalist, racist, patriarchal mindset of the super-powers."{{cite web|first=Dele Meiji |last=Fatunla|url=http://newafricanmagazine.com/nawal-el-saadawi-identity-not-fixed/ |title=Nawal El Saadawi: 'My identity is not fixed'|magazine=New African|date= 30 June 2016}}

Her book Mufakirat Tifla fi Al-Khamisa wa Al-Thamaneen (A Notebook of an 85-year-old Girl), based on excerpts from her journal, was published in 2017.{{cite web|first=Mahmoud |last=El-Wardani|url=http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/18/62/273741/Books/Review/At-,-Nawal-ElSaadawi-writes-about-Nawal-ElSaadawi.aspx |title=At 85, Nawal El-Saadawi writes about Nawal El-Saadawi|website=Ahram Online|date= 5 August 2017}}

At a young age, Saadawi underwent the process of female genital mutilation.el-Saadawi, Nawal, The Hidden Face of Eve, Part 1: The Mutilated Half. As an adult, she wrote about and criticized this practice. She responded to the death of a 12-year-old girl, Bedour Shaker, during a genital circumcision operation in 2007 by writing: "Bedour, did you have to die for some light to shine in the dark minds? Did you have to pay with your dear life a price ... for doctors and clerics to learn that the right religion doesn't cut children's organs?"Michael, Maggie, [http://www.physorg.com/news102393179.html "Egypt Officials Ban Female Circumcision"], Phys.org, 30 June 2007. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070702171148/http://www.physorg.com/news102393179.html |date=2 July 2007 }}. As a doctor and human rights activist, Saadawi was also opposed to male circumcision. She believed that both male and female children deserve protection from genital mutilation.{{cite web|url=http://www.theglobaldispatches.com/articles/nawal-al-saadawi|first=Allston|last=Mitchell|title=Nawal al Saadawi|work=The Global Dispatches|date=16 May 2010|access-date=12 February 2014|archive-date=7 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170707223358/http://www.theglobaldispatches.com/articles/nawal-al-saadawi|url-status=dead}}

Saadawi describes herself as a "socialist-feminist", believing the feminist struggle cannot be won under capitalism.{{Cite web |last=Fawzy |first=Mary |date=2021-05-07 |title=The socialist feminism of Nawal El Saadawi |url=https://www.newframe.com/the-socialist-feminism-of-nawal-el-saadawi/ |access-date=2022-12-22 |website=New Frame}} This socialist belief has emerged from the injustices she witnessed in her own life. In The Hidden Face of Eve she writes about how people's sexual and emotional lives cannot be separated from their economic lives and their productivity, and therefore the personal status laws in Arab countries must be a priority for socialists.{{Citation |title=Introduction |date=2015 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350251076.0006 |work=The Hidden Face of Eve |publisher=Zed Books |doi=10.5040/9781350251076.0006 |isbn=978-0-90576-251-7 |access-date=2022-12-22}} In an interview she stated that she is not a Marxist, having read his works which she found problems with.{{Cite web |title=Nawal El Saadawi on feminism, fiction and the illusion of democracy |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djMfFU7DIB8 |language=en |publisher=Channel 4 News|via=YouTube|date=13 June 2018|access-date=2022-12-22}}

In a 2014 interview, Saadawi said that "the root of the oppression of women lies in the global post-modern capitalist system, which is supported by religious fundamentalism".{{Cite web|title = They don't want any really courageous people!|url = http://en.qantara.de/content/interview-with-nawal-el-saadawi-they-dont-want-any-really-courageous-people|website = Qantara.de - Dialogue with the Islamic World|access-date =5 November 2015|last = Fariborz|first = Arian|date =5 July 2014}}

When hundreds of people were killed in what has been called a "stampede" during the 2015 pilgrimage (Hajj) of Muslims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, she said:

"They talk about changing the way the Hajj is administered, about making people travel in smaller groups. What they don’t say is that the crush happened because these people were fighting to stone the devil. Why do they need to stone the devil? Why do they need to kiss that black stone? But no one will say this. The media will not print it. What is it about, this reluctance to criticize religion? ... This refusal to criticize religion ... is not liberalism. This is censorship."

She said that elements of the Hajj, such as kissing the Black Stone, had pre-Islamic pagan roots.Fiona Lloyd-Davies, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/correspondent/1619902.stm "No compromise"], Correspondent, BBC News, 26 October 2001. Saadawi was involved in the academic exploration of Arab identity throughout her writing career.{{cite book|last1=Hanadi|first1=Al-Samman|title=Diasporic Na(rra)tions: Arab Women Rewriting Exile|date=2000|publisher=Indiana University|page=25}}

Saadawi described the Islamic veil as "a tool of oppression of women".

She was also critical of the objectification of women and female bodies in patriarchal social structures common in Europe and the US,{{cite book|last1=El Saadawi|first1=Nawal|title=The Nawal El Saadawi Reader|publisher=Zed Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r9SPVEG3cv0C|date=1997|isbn=9781856495141|access-date=8 April 2015}} upsetting fellow feminists by speaking against make-up and revealing clothes.

In a 2002 lecture at the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Saadawi described the US-led war on Afghanistan as "a war to exploit the oil in the region", and US foreign policy and its support of Israel as "real terrorism".{{cite web|last1=Pasquini|first1=Elaine|title=El Saadawi Calls U.S. Foreign Policy 'Real Terrorism'|url=https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P3-110120822/el-saadawi-calls-u-s-foreign-policy-real-terrorism|via=|work=Washington Report on Middle East Affairs|date=March 2002|access-date=|archive-date=9 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160409040731/https://www.questia.com/magazine/1P3-110120822/el-saadawi-calls-u-s-foreign-policy-real-terrorism|url-status=dead}} Saadawi held the opinion that Egyptians are forced into poverty by US aid.{{cite web|last1=Nielsen|first1=Nikolaj|title=Nawal El Saadawi: 'I am against stability. We need revolution'|url=http://chronikler.com/middle-east/egypt/nawal-el-saadawi-interview/|access-date=19 November 2014|work=The Chronikler|date=11 July 2013}}

Saadawi is the subject of the film She Spoke the Unspeakable, directed by Jill Nicholls, broadcast in February 2017 in the BBC One television series Imagine.[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g7hr8 "She Spoke the Unspeakable"], BBC One, Imagine, Winter 2017. [http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5cu7f1 Via] Dailymotion.

Saadawi died on 21 March 2021, aged 89, at a hospital in Cairo.{{cite web|url=https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/407474.aspx|title=Renowned Egyptian feminist, author Nawal El-Saadawi dies at the age of 89|website=Ahram Online|first=Mohammed |last=Saad |date=21 March 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://egyptianstreets.com/2021/03/21/pioneering-egyptian-feminist-nawal-el-saadawi-dies-aged-89/|title=Pioneering Egyptian Feminist Nawal El Saadawi Dies Aged 89|website=Egyptian Streets|date=21 March 2021}}{{cite web |url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/1829281/offbeat |title=Arab author, women's rights icon Nawal El-Saadawi dies in Cairo |website=Arab News |date=21 March 2021 }} Her life was commemorated on BBC Radio 4's obituary programme Last Word.{{cite episode| title=

Nawal El Saadawi (pictured), Brigadier Jack Thomas, President John Magufuli, Ion Mihai Pacepa| series= Last Word| credits=

Producer: Neil George; Interviewed guests: Mona Eltahawy, Sally Nabil| station= [BBC Radio 4| airdate= 26 March 2021| url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000tg67 | access-date= 28 March 2021 }}

• 2004: North–South Prize from the Council of Europe{{cite web|url=https://www.coe.int/en/web/north-south-centre/previous-laureates-of-the-north-south-prize|title=Previous laureates of the North-South Prize|publisher=Council of Europe|website=coe.int}}
• 2005: Inana International Prize, Belgium
• 2007: Honorary Doctorate, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium{{cite book|chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-1-137-58730-5_4|publisher=Nawal El Saadawi|doi=10.1007/978-1-137-58730-5_4|title=Diary of a Child Called Souad|year=2016|last1=El Saadawi|first1=Nawal|chapter=Nawal el Saadawi and a History of Oppression: Brief Biographical Facts |pages=153–158|isbn=978-1-137-58936-1}}
• 2007: Honorary Doctorate, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium{{cite web|url=https://www.ulb.be/en/about-ulb/ulbs-honorary-doctorates|title=ULB's honorary doctorates|website=ulb.be|publisher=Université libre de Bruxelles}}
• 2010: Honorary Doctorate, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico{{cite web|url=https://www.barrons.com/news/author-physician-nawal-el-saadawi-egypt-s-critic-of-taboos-01616337305?tesla=y|title=Author, Physician Nawal El-Saadawi, Egypt's Critic Of Taboos|website=barrons.com|first=Farid|last= Farid|publisher=Barron's|date=21 March 2021}}
• 2011: Stig Dagerman Prize{{cite web |url=http://blog.svd.se/kultur/2012/01/09/motvillig-el-saadawi-far-dagermanpriset/ |title=Motvillig El Saadawi får Dagermanpriset |work=SvD |language=sv |date=9 January 2012 |access-date=27 October 2012}}{{cite web |url=http://www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/article14833794.ab |title=Lydnad är ett dödligt gift |work=Kultur |language=sv |date=15 May 2012 |access-date=27 October 2012}}
• 2012: Seán MacBride Peace Prize
• 2015: BBC's 100 Women{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-34745739|title=BBC 100 Women 2015: Who is on the list?|date=17 November 2015|work=BBC News|access-date=3 August 2019|language=en-GB}}
• 2020: Time{{'}}s 100 Women of the Year (1981){{cite magazine |url=https://time.com/5793662/nawal-el-saadawi-100-women-of-the-year/ |title=1981: Nawal El Saadawi |magazine=Time |date=5 March 2020 }}

Saadawi wrote prolifically, placing some of her works online.{{Cite journal |last=Amireh |first=Amal |date=2000 |title=Framing Nawal El Saadawi: Arab Feminism in a Transnational World |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3175385 |journal=Signs |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=215–249 |doi=10.1086/495572 |jstor=3175385 |s2cid=143010343 |issn=0097-9740}}{{Cite journal |last1=Saiti |first1=Ramzi |last2=Salti |first2=Ramzi M. |date=1994 |title=Paradise, Heaven, and Other Oppressive Spaces: A Critical Examination of the Life and Works of Nawal el-Saadawi |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4183334 |journal=Journal of Arabic Literature |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=152–174 |doi=10.1163/157006494X00059 |jstor=4183334 |issn=0085-2376}}

Novels and novellas

• Mudhakkirat tabiba (Cairo, 1958). Memoirs of a Woman Doctor, trans. Catherine Cobham (Saqi Books, 1988)
• Al ghayib (Cairo, 1965). Searching, trans. Shirley Eber (Zed Books, 1991)
• Imra'tani fi-Imra'a (Cairo, 1968). Two Women in One, trans. Osman Nusairi and Jana Gough (Saqi Books, 1985)
• Maut ar-raǧul al-waḥīd ʿala ‚l-arḍ (1974). God Dies by the Nile, trans. Sherif Hetata (Zed Books, 1985)
• Al-khait wa'ayn al-hayat (Cairo, 1976). The Well of Life and the Thread: Two Short Novels, trans. Sherif Hetata (Lime Tree, 1993)
• Ughniyat al-atfal al da iriyah (Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 1977). The Circling Song, trans. Marilyn Booth (Zed Books, 1989)
• Emra'a enda noktat el sifr (Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 1977). Woman at Point Zero, trans. Sherif Hetata (Zed Books, 1983)
• Mawt Ma'ali al-Wazir Sabiqan (1980). Death of an Ex-Minister, trans. Shirley Eber (Methuen, 1987)
• Suqūṭ al-imām (Cairo, 1987). The Fall of the Imam, trans. Sherif Hetata (Methuen, 1988)
• Jann āt wa-Iblīs (Beirut, 1992). The Innocence of the Devil, trans. Sherif Hetata (Methuen, 1994)
• Ḥubb fī zaman al-naf̣t (Cairo, 1993). Love in the Kingdom of Oil, trans. Basil Hatim and Malcolm Williams (Saqi Books, 2001)
• Al-Riwayah (Cairo: Dar El Hilal, 2004). The Novel, trans. Omnia Amin and Rick London (Interlink Books, 2009)
• Zeina (Beirut: Dar Al Saqi, 2009). Zeina, trans. Amira Nowaira (Saqi Books, 2011)

Short story collections

• Ta'allamt al-hubb (Cairo, 1957). I Learned Love
• Lahzat sidq (Cairo, 1959). Moment of Truth
• Little Tenderness (Cairo, 1960)
• al-Khayt wa-l-jidar (1972). The Thread and the Wall
• Ain El Hayat (Beirut, 1976)
• Kānat hiya al-aḍʻaf ["She Was the Weaker"] (1979). She Has No Place in Paradise, trans. Shirley Eber (Methuen, 1987). Includes three additional stories: "She Has No Place in Paradise", "Two Women Friends", and "'Beautiful'".
• Adab Am Kellet Abad (Cairo, 2000)

Plays

• Ithna 'ashar imra'a fi zinzana wahida (Cairo, 1984). Twelve Women in a Cell
• Isis (Cairo, 1985)
• God Resigns in the Summit Meeting (1996), published by Madbouli, and four other plays included in her Collected Works (45 books in Arabic), Cairo: Madbouli, 2007
• Twelve Women in a Cell: Plays by Mediterranean Women (Aurora Metro Books, 1994)

Memoirs

• Mudhakkirat fi Sijn al-Nisa (Cairo, 1983). Memoirs from the Women's Prison, trans. Marilyn Booth (The Women's Press, 1986)
• Rihlati hawla al-'alam (Cairo, 1986). My Travels Around the World, trans. Shirley Eber (Methuen, 1991)
• Memoirs of a Child Called Soad (Cairo, 1990)
• Awraqi hayati, first volume (Cairo, 1995). A Daughter of Isis, trans. Sherif Hetata (Zed Books, 1999)
• Awraqi hayati, second volume (Cairo, 1998). Walking Through Fire, trans. Sherif Hetata (Zed Books, 2002)
• My Life, Part III (Cairo, 2001)

Non-fiction

• Women and Sex (Cairo, 1969)
• Woman Is the Origin (Cairo, 1971)
• Men and Sex (Cairo, 1973)
• The Naked Face of Arab Women (Cairo, 1974)
• Women and Neurosis (Cairo, 1975)
• Al-Wajh al-'ari lil-mar'a al-'arabiyy (1977). The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, trans. Sherif Hetata (Zed Press, 1980)
• On Women (Cairo, 1986)
• A New Battle in Arab Women Liberation (Cairo, 1992)
• Collection of Essays (Cairo, 1998)
• Collection of Essays (Cairo, 2001)
• Breaking Down Barriers (Cairo, 2004)

Compilations in English

• North/South: The Nawal El Saadawi Reader (Zed Books, 1997)
• Off Limits: New Writings on Fear and Sin (Gingko Library, 2019, {{ISBN|978-88-87847-16-1}})

• List of Egyptian authors
• Feminism in Egypt
• Islamic literature

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book |title=Writing the prison in African literature |first=Rachel |last=Knighton |author-link= |location=Oxford; New York |publisher=Peter Lang Ltd |year=2019 |isbn=9781788746489 |oclc=1105200004 }}
• {{cite book |title=Men, women, and God(s) : Nawal El Saadawi and Arab feminist poetics |first=Fedwa |last=Malti-Douglas |author-link=Fedwa Malti-Douglas |location=Berkeley |publisher=University of California Press |year=1995 |isbn=9780585222332 |oclc=44959359 }}
• {{cite book |title=Juju fission : women's alternative fictions from the Sahara, the Kalahari, and the oases in-between |first=Chikwenye Okonjo |last=Ogunyemi |author-link=Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi |location=New York |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2007 |isbn=9781433100895 |oclc=132585078 }}
• {{cite book |title=Voicing the voiceless : feminism and contemporary Arab Muslim women's autobiographies |first=Taghreed Mahmoud Abu |last=Sarhan |author-link= |location=Bowling Green, Ohio |publisher=Bowling Green State University |year=2011 |isbn= |oclc=773292851 }} Thesis/dissertation.

{{Wikiquote|Nawal El Saadawi}}

• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140517/http://nawalsaadawi.net/ Nawal El Saadawi's website]}} at archive.org
• Adele Newson-Horst, [https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/literary-tributes/remembering-nawal-el-saadawi-adele-newson-horst "Remembering Nawal El Saadawi"], World Literature Today, 24 March 2021.
• Ernest Emenyonu, [https://boydellandbrewer.com/blog/african-studies/nawal-el-saadawi-a-life-in-writing-oct-27-1931-march-21-2021/ "NAWAL EL SAADAWI: A Life in Writing (Oct. 27, 1931 – March 21, 2021)"], Boydell and Brewer, 13 May 2021.

{{Female genital mutilation}}

{{Stig Dagerman Prize winners}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saadawi, Nawal}}

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