The late Nawal El-Saadawi from Egypt, from Qalyubia Governorate, born in 1931
A pulmonologist, psychiatrist, writer, novelist and feminist activist.
Her father had adored and appreciated science and because of this he insisted to teach all of his children
He had 10 boys.
Her father used to work as a government official at the Ministry to Education and he was also one of the patriotic revolutionaries.
She was born in Cairo and graduated from the college of Medicine at the University of Cairo in 1954.
In 1955 she worked in at Al-Qasr Al-Aini Hospital.
in 1956 She moved to Columbia (University in New York City) to study (for her) master's in Health Sciences
She returned to Egypt after she finished to the same work in 1966.
But she was fired from the work after a period of time because she wrote "Women and Sex" which attacked female circumcision and talked about human rights in general and women's rights in particular.
So, there were many enemies, not just the government and the religious (people)also. those who exposed her a lot and threatened to kill and accused her of insulting religions and they called her an *infidel.*
In 1981, she was imprisoned with some intellectuals and journalists who were opposed to the regime of Egyptian President (Anwar Sadat) and they released her from prison 3 months after the assassination of Saddat.
But her books were banned in Egypt and one of the stories happened to her in the prison:
The jailer told her, "if I see a pen and paper with you, it is more dangerous than if I see a weapon with you." But she was writing a diary on toilet paper with a kohl pen (eyeliner pencil).
After she left the prison in 1983 she wrote the famous book "My memories in the Women's Prison" and she said she was hoping to send a letter of thanks to Saddat to say (to him) thank you because you turned my pain and suffering (in)to creativity.
In 1987 she wrote "The Fall of the Imam," she wrote the first chapter from it in prison. After this book her ideas became more rejected and she said that she was inspired by the person Anwar Saddat, the hero of her novels.
She decided to go outside of Egypt to be able to express her opinions without the pressures from the society. She traveled to America in 1988 and worked at the universities of Duke in North Carolina and Washington.
While her ideas and opinions were free in principle, the idea because of this was also rejected by some groups because she criticized Western society.
Saadawi described marriage as a "slavery and an unjust institution" even though she was married 3 times.
The first was to a colleague and friend Dr. Ahmed Helmy for two years but the reason for their separation was his addiction to alcohol and attempted murder (of her). She has a daughter from him named Mona Helmy and she is a journalist and writer, she has the same ideas as her mother in literature exactly.
in terms of her second husband she was with a person (who) was working in the law but when he told her "me or your writings," she told him my writings, of course they separated from one another after a very short period of time of marriage.
She married a third time to the novelist and politician Sherif Hatata, who was arrested for 13 years under the president Gamal Abdel Nasser.
She (Saadawi) has a boy and a girl from him and they separated in 2010 after 43 years of marriage.
Some of Saadawi's achievements, in addition to what we spoke about above:
She worked as a consultant at the United Nations with the Women's Program in Africa and the Middle East.
In 1957 she made her first story collection titled "I learned love" and in the book she talked about her self and experiences as a doctor and as a novelist. She explained about how much society needs to love and the love not just the familiar love that we know but also the doctor of the people who gives his whole life for people not just for money.
She worked in the health magazine,She was spreading her thoughts without limits or fear, and worked in it as an editor-in-chief.
Nawal al Saadawi worked in the Ministry of Health as a health official and as an assistant secretary in the Physicians Syndicate, and she was expelled in 1972 after she wrote (Women and Gender) and her magazine was closed in the same year.
She worked at the Higher Institute of Sciences and Letters and continued to write about the oppression of Arab women, which made her (Nawal) famous in 1973, when her most famous novel, “The Woman at Point Zero” was published in Beirut.
And in the year 1976, “God’ dies by the Nile.” In 1977, she published "The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World."
In 2008 she published the book "Zeina" and the two books "Men, Women, and God(s)" and "A Woman Staring at the Sun" in 2012 and "On Women, Religion and Morals" in 2018.
Nawal El-Saadawi received many Arab and international awards, including the North and South Prize from the European Council, the Stig Dagerman Prize from Sweden, the African Literature Association Prize and the Gibran Literary Prize.
And an award from the French-Arab Friendship Association and an award from the Supreme Council of Arts and Social Sciences, in addition to honorary doctorates from many foreign universities.
(She won) the North and South Prize in 2004.
(She won) the "Inana International Prize" in 2005.
(She won) the Stig Dagerman Prize in 2011.
She won the Inana International Prize from Belgium, and in 2012 she won the Sean McBride Peace Prize from the International Peace Office in Switzerland.
Nawal El Saadawi criticized beliefs and religious postulates about her faith; until the question became, “Nawal El-Saadawi, an atheist or an intellectual?” associated with her name and literature;
Forty books have been published and her writings are translated into more than 20 languages.
The main idea of Nawal El Saadawi's writings (is) around the link between the liberation of women and human beings on the one hand, and the liberation of the homeland on the other hand, in cultural, social and political aspects.
She suffered from some health problems in the stomach and throat and passed away in 2021.