Foto/photo: Marwan Naamani/AFP
Nawal Al Sadawi, Egyptian writer, doctor, passionate feminist, often called the “Simon de Beauvoir of the Arab world”. The woman from Tahrir Square, one of the most quoted and translated Arab writers, winner of numerous awards.
She grew up with nine brothers and sisters. She expressed her first rebellion on the day she was supposed to meet the young man with whom her parents arranged her marriage. Ten-year-old Naval’s father told her to wear a nice dress because she will have a special guest. The girl, realizing what it was about, painted her teeth with raw eggplant, knowing that her future fiancé would not like it.
She graduated in medicine in 1955 at Cairo University. Through her medical practice, she investigated the physical and psychological problems of women and linked them to repressive cultural customs, patriarchal circumstances, class differences and imperialist oppression.
She was the founder and president of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights. She wrote over 50 novels, plays, memoirs and essays.
In 1972, she published the book “Woman and Sex” ar.المراة والجنس, in which she draws attention to illegal acts committed on women’s bodies, including circumcision.
As a result of the book and her political activities, she was fired from her top position in the Ministry of Health.
Through her other works “Woman at Zero Point”, “Daughter of Isis”, “Hidden Face of Eve” she showed the Arab woman’s rebellion towards society and her oppressed situation towards her husband and boss.
In 1981, she ended up in prison for opposing the regime of Anwar Al Sadat, shortly after she was dismissed from the position of editor-in-chief of a professional medical journal.
In 1993, she was forced to leave Egypt due to death threats. This was one of the most difficult moments during the exile she taught at numerous universities in America, as well as at Harvard.
The most prominent figure of Egyptian feminism continues to inspire and educate women all around the world.