afrikanwomen:

Nawal El Saadawi is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. She has written many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of female genital mutilation in her society.

In 1972 she published Al-Mar’a wa Al-Jins (Woman and Sex), confronting and contextualising various aggressions perpetrated against women’s bodies, including female circumcision, which became a foundational text of second-wave feminism. As a consequence of the book as well as her political activities, Saadawi was dismissed from her position at the Ministry of Health.

 From 1979 to 1980 she was the United Nations Advisor for the Women’s Programme in Africa and the Middle East.

Long viewed as controversial and dangerous by the Egyptian government, Saadawi was imprisoned in September 1981, along with many other objectors to the Jerusalem Peace Treaty, by President Anwar al-Sadat. She was released later that year, one month after his 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 1988, when her life was threatened by Islamists 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 1996, she moved back to Egypt.

She has continued her activism and considered running in the 2005 Egyptian presidential election, before stepping out due to stringent requirements for first-time candidates.

She was among the protesters in Tahrir Square in 2011. She has called for the abolition of religious instruction in the Egyptian schools.

(via karnythia)