Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi نوال السعداوى
Nawal El Saadawi
Born	(1931-10-27) October 27, 1931 Kafr Tahla, Egypt
Occupation(s)	Physician, author, feminist
Spouse	Sherif Hatata

Nawal El Saadawi (Arabic: نوال السعداوى) (born October 27, 1931) is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist and physician. She was born in Kafr Tahla village on the banks of the Nile. She has written many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of female genital mutilation in her society.

Early life

Saadawi was born in a small village called Kafr Tahla to a large family with eight other children. Her father was a government official in the Ministry of Education who had fought against the British in the revolution of 1919. He was relatively progressive and taught her self-respect and to speak her mind.

Advocacy against female genital mutilation

At a young age, Saadawi underwent the process of female genital mutilation. As an adult she has written about and criticized this practice. She responded to the death of a 12-year old girl, Bedour Shaker, during a genital circumcision operation 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."

Adulthood and career

Saadawi studied medicine at the Cairo University, graduating in 1955.

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 the domestic violence, Saadawi was summoned back to Cairo. She eventually became the Director of Public Health and met her third husband, Sherif Hetata, while sharing an office in the Ministry of Health. Hetata had been a political prisoner for 13 years.

Saadawi was dismissed from her position at the Ministry of Health as a consequence of her political activities. Similar pressures cost her a later position as chief editor of a health journal and as Assistant General Secretary in the Medical Association in Egypt. From 1973 to 1976 she worked on researching women and neurosis in the 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 Middle East (ECWA).

Long viewed as controversial and dangerous by the Egyptian government, Saadawi was imprisoned in September 1981, along with many other objectors to the Jerusalem Peace Treaty, by President Anwar al-Sadat. She was released later that year, one month after his 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."

In 1991, when her life was threatened by Islamists, Saadawi moved from Egypt to North Carolina and taught in Duke and Washington State Universities. In 1996 she moved back to Egypt. She has continued her activism and considered running in the 2005 Egyptian presidential election, before stepping out due to steep requirements for first-time candidates.

She was awarded the 2004 North-South Prize by the Council of Europe.

Writing

Saadawi began writing early in her career. Her earliest writings include a selection of short stories entitled I Learned Love (1957) and the novel Memoirs of a Woman Doctor (1958). She has since written numerous novels and short stories. Saadawi has been published in a number of anthologies, and translated into over 20 languages.

In 1972 she published her first work of non-fiction, Women and Sex, which evoked the antagonism of highly placed political and theological authorities and led to a dismissal at the Ministry of Health. Other works include The Hidden Face of Eve, God Dies by the Nile, The Circling Song, Searching, The Fall of the Imam and Woman at Point Zero.

Bibliography

Saadawi has written prolifically, placing some of her works online. Her works include:

• Memoirs of a Woman Doctor (1960, 1980; translated by Catherine Cobham, 1989)
• Searching (1968; translated by Shirley Eber, 1991)
• The Death of the Only Man in the World (1974; translated by Sherif Hetata, 1985) Published in English under the title God Dies by the Nile
• The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World (1977; transl. by Sherif Hetata, 1980)
• The Circling Song (1978; transl. by Marilyn Booth, 1989)
• Death of an Ex-Minister (1980; transl. by Shirley Eber, 1987)
• She Has No Place in Paradise (1979; transl. by Shirley Eber)
• Woman at Point Zero (1979)
• Two Women in One (1983; transl. by Osman Nusairi and Jana Gough, 1985)
• The Fall of the Imam (1987; transl. by Sherif Hetata, 1988)
• Memoirs from the Women's Prison (1984; transl. by Marilyn Booth, 1994)
• North/South: The Nawal El Saadawi Reader (1997)
• A Daughter of Isis
• Dissidenza e scrittura (2008)
• L'amore ai tempi del petrolio, translated by Marika Macco, introduction by Luisa Morgantini, Editrice il Sirente, Fagnano Alto, 2009. ISBN 9788887847161

See also

• List of Egyptian authors

External links

• Nawal El Saadawi's website
• Nawal El Saadawi's Zed Books page
• Nawal El Saadawi speaks to Forward Magazine