Nawal El Saadawi (Arabic: ) was born in 1931, in a small village outside Cairo. Unusually, she and her brothers and sisters were educated together, and she graduated from the University of Cairo Medical School in 1955, specializing in psychiatry. For two years, she practiced as a medical doctor, both at the university and in her native Tahla.
From 1963 until 1972, Saadawi worked as Director General for Public Health Education for the Egyptian government. During this time, she also studied at Columbia University in New York, where she received her Master of Public Health degree in 1966. Her first novel Memoirs of a Woman Doctor was published in Cairo in 1958. In 1972, however, she lost her job in the Egyptian government as a result of political pressure. The magazine, Health, which she had founded and edited for more than three years, was closed down.
From 1973 to 1978 Saadawi worked at the High Institute of Literature and Science. It was at this time that she began to write, in works of fiction and non-fiction, the books on the oppression of Arab women for which she has become famous. Her most famous novel, Woman at Point Zero was published in Beirut in 1973. It was followed in 1976 by God Dies by the Nile and in 1977 by The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World.
In 1981 Nawal El Saadawi publicly criticized the one-party rule of President Anwar Sadat, and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned. She was released one month after his assassination. In 1982, she established the Arab Women's Solidarity Association, which was outlawed in 1991. When, in 1988, her name appeared on a fundamentalist death list, she and her second husband, Sherif Hetata, fled to the USA, where she taught at Duke University and Washington State University. She returned to Egypt in 1996.
In 2004 she presented herself as a candidate for the presidential elections in Egypt, with a platform of human rights, democracy and greater freedom for women. In July 2005, however, she was forced to withdraw her candidacy in the face of ongoing government persecution.
Nawal El Saadawi has achieved widespread international recognition for her work. She holds honorary doctorates from the universities of York, Illinois at Chicago, St Andrews and Tromso. Her many prizes and awards include the Great Minds of the Twentieth Century Prize, awarded by the American Biographical Institute in 2003, the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe and the Premi Internacional Catalunya in 2004. Her books have been translated into over 28 languages worldwide. They are taught in universities across the world.
She now works as a writer, psychiatrist and activist. Her most recent novel, entitled Al Riwaya was published in Cairo in 2004.
What a book! I absolutely loved it! Such an empowering book 鈥榖out feminism, literature, politics and the rich life of this eccentric interesting woman Nawal! Her storytelling is what kept me going throughout the book, feeling enriched and learning 鈥榖out all kind of places and people in the process. What I loved 鈥榖out her views, is that she is reasonable and rational not a kind of an extreme biased and opposing writer.
This book has a big amount of articles, ones which I liked, loved and other ones which I disliked. The rating is for the feeling the book gave me, whether I agree or disagree with the articles I will always admire madame Nawal, for what she does and how much she fights for women and how she refused to be silenced in any way possible, and how she fights any stereotype against women by simply being herself. These articles embody that fight, that growth of strength, that growth of a writer, a feminist, a woman and an artist, so the rating is for that. I am planning to read her other books soon, hopefully re-read this one to study it. And I've been trying to find an English version of this book to buy it for my friends and loved ones, it's a rich read, which is always, always good.
Underbart poetisk, v盲lskriven och sorglig. De ramar vi fastnar i som kan skada oss p氓 s氓 m氓nga s盲tt beskrivs v盲ldigt bra i denna bok. Man vill upp p氓 barrikaderna! F枚r盲ndra v盲rlden.