Nawal El Saadawi ( ar, نوال السعداوي, , 22 October 1931 – 21 March 2021) was an Egyptian feminist writer, activist and

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. She wrote many books on the subject of

women in Islam The experiences of Muslim women ( ''Muslimāt'', singular مسلمة ''Muslimah'') vary widely between and within different societies. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree ...

, paying particular attention to the practice of female genital mutilation in her society. She was described as "the Simone de Beauvoir of the Arab World", and as "Egypt's most radical woman". She was founder and president of the Arab Women's Solidarity Association and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights. She was awarded honorary degrees on three continents. In 2004, she won the

North–South Prize The North–South Prize is awarded annually by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe to two public figures who are recognised for their deep commitment, outstanding achievements and hope they have generated in the field of protection of h ...

from the Council of Europe. In 2005, she won the Inana International Prize in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

,"PEN World Voices Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture by Nawal El Saadawi"
YouTube. 8 September 2009. and in 2012, the

International Peace Bureau The International Peace Bureau (IPB) (french: Bureau international de la paix), founded in 1891, is one of the world's oldest international peace federations. The organisation was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910 for acting "as a link be ...

awarded her the 2012 Seán MacBride Peace Prize.

Early life

The second-eldest of nine children, Saadawi was born in 1931 in the small village of Kafr Tahla, Egypt. Saadawi was "

circumcised Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. Topic ...

" (her clitoris cut off) at the age of six, though her father believed that both girls and boys should be educated. Her

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient E ...

ian father was a government official in the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

, who had campaigned against the

British occupation of Egypt The history of Egypt under the British lasted from 1882, when it was occupied by British forces during the Anglo-Egyptian War, until 1956 after the Suez Crisis, when the last British forces withdrew in accordance with the Anglo-Egyptian agree ...

during the

Egyptian Revolution of 1919 The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 ( ''Thawra 1919'') was a countrywide revolution against the British occupation of Egypt and Sudan. It was carried out by Egyptians from different walks of life in the wake of the British-ordered exile of the r ...

. 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. Both her parents died at a young age, leaving Saadawi with the sole burden of providing for a large family. Her mother, Zaynab, was partially descendant from a wealthy Ottoman family; Saadawi described both her maternal grandfather, Shoukry, and her maternal grandmother as having Ottoman origin. 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.

Career

Saadawi graduated as a medical doctor in 1955 from

Cairo University Cairo University ( ar, جامعة القاهرة, Jāmi‘a al-Qāhira), also known as the Egyptian University from 1908 to 1940, and King Fuad I University and Fu'ād al-Awwal University from 1940 to 1952, is Egypt's premier public 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. 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.Feminism in a nationalist century
Her second husband was a colleague, Rashad Bey. 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 Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

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 A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although n ...

for 13 years. They married in 1964 and have a son. Saadawi and Hatata lived together for 43 years and divorced in 2010. Saadawi attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, earning a master's degree in public health in 1966. In 1972, she published ''Woman and Sex'' (), confronting and contextualising various aggressions perpetrated against women's bodies, including female circumcision. The book became a foundational text of

second-wave feminism Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades. It took place throughout the Western world, and aimed to increase equality for women by building on previous feminist gains. ...

. 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 Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving chronic distress, but neither delusions nor hallucinations. The term is no longer used by the professional psychiatric community in the United States, having been eliminated from th ...

in Ain Shams University's Faculty of Medicine. From 1979 to 1980, she was the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Advisor for the Women's Programme in Africa (ECA) and the Middle East (ECWA).

Court Cases against her

In 2002 a legal attempt was made by Nabih el-Wahsh in an Egyptian Court to legally divorce el-Saadwai from her husband on account of hesba, a 9th century principal 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. 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.

Imprisonment

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 The president of Egypt is the executive head of state of Egypt and the de facto appointer of the official head of government under the Egyptian Constitution of 2014. Under the various iterations of the Constitution of Egypt following the E ...

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

. 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. 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." In 1982, she founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association. She described her organization as "historical, socialist, and feminist". 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'' ( 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 ''Woman at Point Zero'' ( ar, امرأة عند نقطة الصفر, ) is a novel by Nawal El Saadawi written in 1975 and published in Arabic in 1977. The novel is based on Saadawi's meeting with a female prisoner in Qanatir Prison and is the fi ...

'' ( ar, امرأة عند نقطة الصفر, 1975).

Further persecution, teaching in the US, and later activism

In 1993, when her life was threatened by

Islamists Islamism (also often called political Islam or Islamic fundamentalism) is a political ideology which posits that modern states and regions should be reconstituted in constitutional, economic and judicial terms, in accordance with what is c ...

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 North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

,Dr Dora Carpenter-Latiri
"The Reading Room: A review of ‘Memoirs of a woman doctor
''BMJ'' Blog, 11 November 2015. as well as at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...

. She later held positions at a number of prestigious colleges and universities including Cairo University, Harvard,

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, Columbia, the Sorbonne, Georgetown, Florida State University, and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. In 1996, she moved back to Egypt. Saadawi continued her activism and considered running in the

2005 Egyptian presidential election Presidential elections were held in Egypt on September 7, 2005, the first to feature more than one candidate. Incumbent president Hosni Mubarak was re-elected for a fifth consecutive six-year term in office, with official results showing he won 8 ...

, before stepping out because of stringent requirements for first-time candidates. She was among the protesters in

Tahrir Square Tahrir Square ( ar, ميدان التحرير ', , English: Liberation Square), also known as "Martyr Square", is a major public town square in downtown Cairo, Egypt. The square has been the location and focus for political demonstrations in Cai ...

in 2011. She called for the abolition of religious instruction in Egyptian schools. Saadawi was awarded the 2004

by the Council of Europe. 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. At the

Göteborg Book Fair The Gothenburg Book Fair (also known as ''Göteborg Book Fair'', ''Bok & Bibliotek'', ''Bok- och biblioteksmässan'' or ''Bokmässan'') is an annual event held in Gothenburg, Sweden, since 1985. Overview It started primarily as a trade fair (for ...

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 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 Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

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. Nawal El Saadawi held the positions of Author for the Supreme Council for Arts and Social Sciences,

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

; 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''.

Writing

Saadawi began writing early in her career. Her earliest writings include a selection of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

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, including English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Italian,

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

, Indonesian, Japanese, Persian, Turkish,

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' non-fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with b ...

, ''Women and Sex'', which evoked the antagonism of highly placed political and

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...

authorities. It also led to her 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 ''The Fall of the Imam'' is a novel by Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi published in Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by S ...

'' (described as "a powerful and moving exposé of the horrors that women and children can be exposed to by the tenets of faith"), and ''

''. Many have criticised her work ''The Hidden Face of Eve'' on claims that she was writing for the "critical foreigner". 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 Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, activist, journalist, lecturer and former child actor. Since the early 1960s, she has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the ...

, and was a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, ...

'', edited by Margaret Busby, which included her essay "About Me in Africa—Politics and Religion in my Childhood". 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. Saadawi spoke fluent

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

in addition to her native

Egyptian Arabic Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...

. 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."

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.

Views

Opposition to genital mutilation

At a young age, Saadawi underwent the process of female genital mutilation. 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?" 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.

Socialism and Feminism

Saadawi describes herself as a "socialist-feminist", believing the feminist struggle cannot be won under capitalism. This socialist belief has emerged from the injustices she witnessed in her own life. In ''The hidden Face of Eve'' she writes about how peoples 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. In an interview she stated that she is not a Marxist, having read his works which she found problems with.

Religion

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". When hundreds of people were killed in what has been called a "stampede" during the 2015 pilgrimage ( Hajj) of Muslims to

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow ...

, 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 The Black Stone ( ar, ٱلْحَجَرُ ٱلْأَسْوَد, ', 'Black Stone') is a rock set into the eastern corner of the Kaaba, the ancient building in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is revered by Muslims as an ...

, had pre-Islamic pagan roots. Saadawi was involved in the academic exploration of

Arab identity Arab identity ( ar, الهوية العربية ) is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as an Arab and as relating to being Arab. Like other cultural identities, it relies on a common culture, a traditional lineage, the com ...

throughout her writing career. Saadawi described the Islamic veil as "a tool of oppression of women".

Objectification of women

She was also critical of the objectification of women and female bodies in patriarchal social structures common in Europe and the US, upsetting fellow feminists by speaking against make-up and revealing clothes.

United States

In a 2002 lecture at the University of California, 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". Saadawi held the opinion that Egyptians are forced into poverty by US aid.

Film

Saadawi is the subject of the film ''She Spoke the Unspeakable'', directed by Jill Nicholls, broadcast in February 2017 in the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

television series ''

Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...

''.

Death

Saadawi died on 21 March 2021, aged 89, at a hospital in

. Her life was commemorated on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

's obituary programme ''

Last Word ''Last Word'' is an obituary BBC radio series broadcast weekly on Radio 4. Each week the lives of several famous people who have recently died are summarised with narration, and interviews with people who knew them. The programme is normally pr ...

''.

Selected awards and honours

*2004:

from the Council of Europe *2005: Inana International Prize, Belgium *2007: Honorary Doctorate,

Vrije Universiteit Brussel The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) () is a Dutch and English-speaking research university located in Brussels, Belgium.The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is one of the five universities officially recognised by the Flemish government. listof all ...

, Belgium *2007: Honorary Doctorate, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium *2010: Honorary Doctorate, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico *2011:

Stig Dagerman Prize The Stig Dagerman Prize ( sv, Stig Dagermanpriset) is a Swedish award given since 1996 by the Stig Dagerman Society and Älvkarleby municipality.

*2012: Seán MacBride Peace Prize *2015: BBC's 100 Women *2020: ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

''s 100 Women of the Year (1981)

Selected works

Saadawi wrote prolifically, placing some of her works online. Novels and novellas *''Mudhakkirat tabiba'' (Cairo, 1958). ''Memoirs of a Woman Doctor'', trans.

Catherine Cobham Catherine Cobham is a scholar and translator of Arabic literature. Biography She obtained a BA from Leeds University and an MA from Manchester University and presently teaches at the University of St Andrews. She has translated numerous literary ...

(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 'Sharif Hatata ( ar, شريف حتاتة; 13 September 1923 – 22 May 2017) was an Egyptian doctor, author and communist activist.Gikandi, p. 308. Early life Hatata was born in Egypt on 13 September 1923 to an Egyptian father,Botman, 1988, p. ...

(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). ''

'', 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). ''

'', 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 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, )

References

External links

Nawal El Saadawi's website
at archive.org * Adele Newson-Horst
"Remembering Nawal El Saadawi"
''

World Literature Today ''World Literature Today'' is an American magazine of international literature and culture, published at the University of Oklahoma. The stated goal of the magazine is to publish international essays, poetry, fiction, interviews, and book revie ...

'', 24 March 2021. *

Ernest Emenyonu Chief Sir Ernest Emenyonu is a Nigerian academic, who is an African literature critic and professor. He was formerly head of the department of English and Literary Studies, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the Universit ...

"NAWAL EL SAADAWI: A Life in Writing (Oct. 27, 1931 – March 21, 2021)"
Boydell and Brewer, 13 May 2021. {{DEFAULTSORT:Saadawi, Nawal 1931 births 2021 deaths 20th-century Egyptian women politicians 20th-century Egyptian politicians 20th-century Egyptian women writers 20th-century essayists 20th-century novelists 20th-century short story writers 21st-century Egyptian women writers 21st-century novelists Activists against female genital mutilation African feminists African writers BBC 100 Women Cairo University alumni Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty Egyptian dissidents Egyptian feminists Egyptian physicians Egyptian socialists Egyptian novelists Egyptian people of Turkish descent Egyptian psychiatrists Egyptian public health doctors Egyptian short story writers Egyptian women's rights activists Feminist writers Women's rights in Egypt Women public health doctors