A thought drops into the pool of wishes
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A wish sinks in to the great all there
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Pen International Award
NYC 2009
Doctor, writer and militant advocate of Arab women's rights - is an internationally renowned Egyptian writer and feminist. Born in 1931 in Kafr Thala, a village on the banks of the Nile, she has always been controversial.
Despite the considerable limitations facing rural women of her generation, she studied psychiatry in Cairo, qualified as a doctor and became Egypt's Director of Public Health in 1972.
However, due to her writing and her political activities she was later dismissed from her post.
Despite the considerable limitations facing rural women of her generation, she studied psychiatry in Cairo, qualified as a doctor and became Egypt's Director of Public Health in 1972.
However, due to her writing and her political activities she was later dismissed from her post.
From then on, there was no respite: imprisonment under the late President Anwar Sadat in 1981 was the culmination of the long struggle she had fought for Egyptian women's social and intellectual freedom.
In 1992 her name appeared on a death list issued by an Islamic fundamentalist group, prompting her to flee Egypt for five years.
When Dr.Saadawi was seven years old,
she "felt there was something wrong on earth and in heaven. At that age, I was ready to fight, to die for my country but I ended up in jail.”
Despite her books being banned, and the period of detention under the Sadat regime, she continues to write about the problems and struggles of Arab women.
Artur Miller Freedom Award from PEN International
(60 minutes)
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February 4th 2011
She is with the Egyptian people in Cairo
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