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What We Require Is Not A Formal Return To Tradition And Religion, But A Rereading, A Reinterpretation, Of Our History That Can Illuminate The Present And Pave The Way To A Better Future. For Example, If We Delve More Deeply Into Ancient Egyptian And African Civilisations We Will Discover The Humanistic Elements That Were Prevalent In Many Areas Of Life. Women Enjoyed A High Status And Rights, Which They Later Lost When Class Patriarchal Society Became The Prevalent Social System.

-Nawal El Saadawi

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What We Require Is

Nawal El Saadawi

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What We Require Is Not A Formal Return To Tradition And Religion, But A Rereading, A Reinterpretation, Of Our History That Can Illuminate The Present And Pave The Way To A Better Future. For Example, If We Delve More Deeply Into Ancient Egyptian And African Civilisations We Will Discover The Humanistic Elements That Were Prevalent In Many Areas Of Life. Women Enjoyed A High Status And Rights, Which They Later Lost When Class Patriarchal Society Became The Prevalent Social System.

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Solidarity Between Women Can Be A Powerful Force Of Change, And Can Influence Future Development In Ways Favourable Not Only To Women But Also To Men.

Unity Is Power; Without Unity Women Cannot Fight For Their Rights Anywhere.

All Revolutions In History Have Obstacles.

We Cannot Be Liberated As Women In A Society Built On Class Oppression Or Gender Oppression Or Religious Oppression.

There Is Not A Revolution That Succe Women Are Suffering Because They Are Being Excluded. The High Military Council Excluded Women From The Committee To Change The Constitution.

Women Are Half The Society. You Cannot Have A Revolution Without Women. You Cannot Have Democracy Without Women. You Cannot Have Equality Without Women. You Can't Have Anything Without Women.

First Of All, All Writing Includes Some Part Of The Self. The Relationship Of The Self And The Other Exists In Writing, Whether Autobiographical Or Novel. There Is A Self And An Other.

The Slogan Of The Revolution Was Dignity, Social Justice, And Freedom. You Cannot Have Dignity Or Social Justice Or Freedom Without Women.

Men Impose Deception On Women And Punish Them For Being Deceived, Force Them Down To The Lowest Level And Punish Them For Falling So Low, Bind Them In Marriage And Then Chastise Them With Menial Service For Life, Or Insults, Or Blows.

When We Live In A World That Is Very Unjust, You Have To Be A Dissident.

There Is Not A Revolution That Succeeded In A Few Months. It Takes Years, Even Decades, To Fulfill Its Goals. I Am Very Hopeful Because I Trust The Revolution And Feel Nobody Can Really Conquer A Nation That Has Decided To Be United And To Fight, And We Decided To Fight. The Revolution Is There, Inside The Egyptians By The Millions.

Home To Me Is The World Because My Books Have Been Translated Into More Than 30 Languages. People Feel They Know Me And The Minute They Talk About My Life Or Books I Feel At Home. Home Is Where You Are Appreciated, Safe And Protected, Creative, And Where You Are Loved – Not Where You Are Put In Prison.

Democracy Is Not Just Freedom To Criticize The Government Or Head Of State, Or To Hold Parliamentary Elections. True Democracy Obtains Only When The People - Women, Men, Young People, Children - Have The Ability To Change The System Of Industrial Capitalism That Has Oppressed Them Since The Earliest Days Of Slavery: A System Based On Class Division, Patriarchy, And Military Might, A Hierarchical System That Subjugates People Merely Because They Are Born Poor, Or Female, Or Dark-skinned.

Love Has Made Me A Different Person. It Has Made The World Beautiful.

During The '80s I Wrote Memoirs From The Women's Prison. This Is One Of My Most Important Books. It Came Out In Arabic In '83. About My Experience In Prison.

If You Are Creative, You Must Be Dissident.

Prostitution Means Sexual Intercourse Between A Man And A Woman Aimed At Satisfying The Man's Sexual And The Woman's Economic Needs. It Is Obvious That Sexual Needs, Even In A Male Dominated System, Are Not As Urgent And Important As Economic Needs Which, If Not Satisfied, Lead To Disease And Death. Yet Society Considers The Woman's Economic Need As Less Vital Than The Man's Sexual One.

Disease And Death

In History, The Millions Win; That Is Democracy.

First Of All, I Hated The Medical Profession. Medical Education In Egypt Was Taken From The British, French, Colonial Educational System. And It's Very, Very Lacking - There Is No Sexology. I Never Read The Word Clitoris In Any Medical Book When I Was Educated.

If You Do Not Love Yourself, Well, You Cannot Do Anything Well, That's My Philosophy.

I Now Knew That All Of Us Were Prostitutes Who Sold Themselves At Varying Prices, And That An Expensive Prostitute Was Better Than A Cheap One.

Life Is Very Hard. The Only People Who Really Live Are Those Who Are Harder Than Life Itself.

Man ... Put Himself In A Tight Corner When He Decided That Woman Was Innately Passive.

Doubt Is The First Step Towards Knowledge, Not Faith.

Many People Come Here And They Think My Apartment Is A Poor Relative To My Name. But You Cannot Be Radical And Have Money, It’s Impossible.

Thus, After A Period Of About Two Thousand Years The Greatest Crime Became To Worship A God Other Than The God Of Moses, Whereas Injustice Became A Minor Sin. I Began To Ask Myself How This Change Had Come About. Was It Linked To A New Order In Which The Female Goddesses Had Been Replaced By One Male God?

I Knew I Hated Him As Only A Woman Can Hate A Man, As Only A Slave Can Hate His Master.

You Poor, Deluded Woman...do You Believe There Is Any Such Thing As Love?...you're Living An Illusion. Do You Believe The Words Of Love They Whisper In The Ears Of Penniless Women Like Us?

The Family Code In Egypt Is One Of The Worst Family Codes In The Arab World. Polygamy. The Husband Is Having Absolute Power Over The Family.

But I Feel That You, In Particular, Are A Person Who Cannot Live Without Love." "yet I Am Living Without Love." "then You Are Either Living A Lie Or Not Living At All.

Plastic Surgery Is A Postmodern Veil.

When You Are Intelligent And Beautiful You Face A Lot Of Problems. If You Are Beautiful And Stupid Then It's Easy.

All The Men I Did Get To Know, Every Single Man Of Them, Has Filled Me With But One Desire: To Lift My Hand And Bring It Smashing Down On His Face.

Woman At Point Zero I Wrote During The '70s In Arabic. It Came In English In '82. So, Almost Ten Years' Difference Between The Arabic And The English.

Nothing Is More Perilous Than Truth In A World That Lies.

You Cannot Have Dignity Or Social Justice Or Freedom Without Women.

To Have Arrived At The Truth Means That One No Longer Fears Death. For Death And Truth Are Similar In That They Both Require A Great Courage If One Wishes To Face Them.

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.

There Is Not A Revolution That Succe Women Were Everywhere In The Revolution. Women Participated In It, And Many Women Were Killed.

We Never Know The Reality Of Things: We See Only What We Are Aware Of. It Is Our Consciousness That Determines The Shape Of The World Around Us -- Its Size, Motion And Meaning.

When My Second Husband Shouted, 'me Or Your Writing!' I Replied, 'my Writing.' We Separated.

The Salafists Are Trying To Abort The Revolution And Make It Religious, Though The Revolution Started Secular. There Was Not A Single Islamic Slogan. It Was Secular Men And Women, And In Fact, They Were Unified. Now They Want To Divide The Revolution, And Religion Is A Very Strong Weapon.

People Like [memoirs Of A Woman Doctor], Whether Young People, Young Women, Even Critics - Male Critics - They Were Not Shocked By It. Of Course, Some Parts Were Cut.

We See Our Homeland More Clearly When We Are Away From It Than When We Are In It.

The Feminists Who Are Aware Of The Effects Of Patriarchy Realize That We Are All In The Same Boat From The Dangers Of Patriarchy, And That The Oppression Of Women Is Universal.

I've Lived Here [in Egypt] Among Christians And Muslims, And We Never Had A Conflict. Now You Have A Conflict Between Christians And Muslims And Baha'is And Sunni And Shia. The Salafists Are Trying To Abort The Revolution And Make It Religious, Though The Revolution Started Secular.

Memory Is Never Complete. There Are Always Parts Of It That Time Has Amputated. Writing Is A Way Of Retrieving Them, Of Bringing The Missing Parts Back To It, Of Making It More Holistic.

To Me, 'beauty' Means To Be Natural, Creative, Honest - To Say The Truth.

Language, Journalism, Food, Sex. All Is Politics. Even Innocent Love Stories Are Politics. ... There Is No Such Thing As Neutrality.

I Was Inspired By My Life. I Was Inspired By The Lives Of Many Women Doctors Around Me. So [memoirs Of A Woman Doctor ] Is A Mixture.

War Criminals In The U.s. And Israel Are Not Punished: No International Court Has The Courage To Put Them On Trial.

We Here In Egypt Are Fed Up With U.s. Colonialism.

When I Am In Egypt, I Am Phoned Because I Am Listed In The Medical Directory Under "mental Health And Psychiatry." And Of Course, I See Very Few People, Because I Give Much More Time To Writing. So I Cannot Say That I Really Stopped Medicine, But I Practice Medicine - Or Psychiatry - In A Very Different Way. In An Artistic Way!

Women Were Everywhere In The Revolution. Women Participated In It, And Many Women Were Killed. Then We Had The Right To Speak Up And Gain Some More Rights, But What Happened Was There Was A Backlash. Why? Because We Have The Salafists, Muslim Brothers, Religious Groups.

She Is Free To Do What She Wants, And Free Not To Do It.

All Revolutions In History Have Obstacles. There Is Not A Revolution That Succes.

What Makes Revolutionary Thought Unique Is Its Clarity And Dignity, And Its Clear Grasp Of Freedom And Justice: Simple, Clear Words That Are Understood Without The Need For Any Help From Elite Writers Or Thinkers.

Something I Tried To Hold Onto, To Touch If Only For A Moment, But It Slipped Away From Me Like The Air, Like An Illusion, Or A Dream That Floats Away And Is Lost. I Wept In My Sleep As Though It Was Something I Was Losing Now; A Loss I Was Experiencing For The First Time, And Not Something I Had Lost A Long Time Ago.

Truth Is Relative, And There Is Always Something Missing In Truth That Prevents It From Being Perfect.

There Was Not A Single Islamic Slogan [in Egypt]. It Was Secular Men And Women, And In Fact, They Were Unified. Now They Want To Divide The Revolution, And Religion Is A Very Strong Weapon.

My Three Husbands Were Afraid Of Me. I Am A Very Powerful Woman.

Everybody Has To Die, Firdaus. I Will Die, And You Will Die. The Important Thing Is How To Live Until You Die.

Important Things

Yet Not For A Single Moment Did I Have Any Doubts About My Own Integrity And Honour As A Woman. I Knew That My Profession Had Been Invented By Men, And That Men Were In Control Of Both Our Worlds, The One On Earth, And The One In Heaven. That Men Force Women To Sell Their Bodies At A Price, And That The Lowest Paid Body Is That Of A Wife. All Women Are Prostitutes Of One Kind Or Another.

To Be Creative Means To Connect. It's To Abolish The Gap Between The Body, The Mind And The Soul, Between Science And Art, Between Fiction And Nonfiction.

Creative Nonfiction

They Said, “you Are A Savage And Dangerous Woman.” I Am Speaking The Truth. And The Truth Is Savage And Dangerous.

Interviewer: What Would You Say To A Woman In This Country Who Assumes She Is No Longer Oppressed, Who Believes Women's Liberation Has Been Achieved? El Saadawi: Well I Would Think She Is Blind. Like Many People Who Are Blind To Gender Problems, To Class Problems, To International Problems. She's Blind To What's Happening To Her.

My Skin Is Soft, But My Heart Is Cruel, And My Bite Is Deadly.

Moral Codes And Standards In Our Societies Very Rarely Apply To All People Equally. This Is The Most Damning Proof Of How Immoral Such Codes And Standards Really Are.

I Am Very Much Against Makeup And High Heels And All That We Inherit As 'beauty.'

Here The Oppression Of Women Is Very Subtle. If We Take Female Circumcision, The Excision Of The Clitoris, It Is Done Physically In Egypt. But Here It Is Done Psychologically And By Education. So Even If Women Have The Clitoris, The Clitoris Was Banned; It Was Removed By Freudian Theory And By The Mainstream Culture.

Mainstream Culture

Who Said To Kill Does Not Require Gentleness?

What We Require Is Not A Formal Return To Tradition And Religion, But A Rereading, A Reinterpretation, Of Our History That Can Illuminate The Present And Pave The Way To A Better Future. For Example, If We Delve More Deeply Into Ancient Egyptian And African Civilisations We Will Discover The Humanistic Elements That Were Prevalent In Many Areas Of Life. Women Enjoyed A High Status And Rights, Which They Later Lost When Class Patriarchal Society Became The Prevalent Social System.

Women Are Suffering Because They Are Being Excluded. The High Military Council Excluded Women From The Committee To Change The Constitution [of Egypt]. We Cannot Be Liberated As Women In A Society Built On Class Oppression Or Gender Oppression Or Religious Oppression.

The Parts In Which I Elaborated On The Sexual Life Of The Doctor Herself, The Personal Life, Her Relation With Men [in Memoirs Of A Woman Doctor]. All This. They Left Only Some Very, Very Minute Parts. And Also The Political, The Political Element In It. So In A Way, They Cut Pieces That To My Mind Were Very Important.

There Is Not A Revolution That Succe Saudi Arabia Paid $7 Billion For The Salafists To Come, And The United States And Israel Are Pouring A Lot Of Money Into Egypt. Why? To Divide The Country By Religion.

I Am Becoming More Radical With Age. I Have Noticed That Writers, When They Are Old, Become Milder. But For Me It Is The Opposite. Age Makes Me More Angry.

Fearing Servility, People Become Servile.

Home Is Where You Are Appreciated, Safe And Protected, Creative, And Where You Are Loved - Not Where You Are Put In Prison.

I Never Stopped Writing. I Started Writing When I Was Twelve Years Of Age. And I Was Writing All The Time. But Nothing Was Translated Until Thirty Years After I Started Writing, When The Hidden Face Of Eve Was Translated In 1980.

I Have Triumphed Over Both Life And Death Because I No Longer Desire To Live, Nor Do I Any Longer Fear To Die.

Revolutionary Men With Principles Were Not Really Different From The Rest. They Used Their Cleverness To Get, In Return For Principles, What Other Men Buy With Their Money.

I Had To Educate Myself About Female Circumcision, About The Clitoris, About Sexology. We Studied Gynecology Only. Pregnancy, Maternal Care, Etc.

Home To Me Is The World Because My Books Have Been Translated Into More Than 30 Languages.

The Trilogy Composed Of Politics, Religion And Sex Is The Most Sensitive Of All Issues In Any Society.

I Practiced Medicine Up 'til Now. I Practice Psychiatry. I Shifted From Different Specialties. I Started As A Village Doctor - Community Doctor, Public Health Preventive Medicine.

Motherhood Goes Back In History To A Time When A Father Had No Way Of Knowing His Children. Fatherhood Only Became Known When Class Patriarchal Society Had Established Itself And Imposed Monogamous Marriage On Women. Motherhood Is Like Sun And Rain And Plants, A Quality And Product Of Nature Which Does Not Require Laws Or Systems In Order To Exist.

You Know, I Look To Myself Mainly As A Creative Writer All My Life And A Medical Doctor.

The Tracing Of A Child's Lineage And Its Name With Reference To The Father, Though It Has Lasted For Many Thousands Of Years, Has Not Become Any The More Natural Or Reasonable As A Result.

The Medical Profession [in Egypt] Is Also Very Commercial. Health Is Not Given To The Poor. You Know, If You Have Money, You Have Medical Care; If You Do Not, Then You Are In Trouble. I Was Not Ready At All To Build My Economic Security On The Diseases Of People, On Suffering, Especially Of Women And Children. So, In A Way, I Rebelled Against It.

There Is A Proverb That Says, ‘talk So That I May Know Who You Are.’ But I Say, ‘show Me Your Eyes And I Will Know Who You Are.

I've Lived In Egypt Among Christians And Muslims, And We Never Had A Conflict. Now You Have A Conflict Between Christians And Muslims And Baha'is And Sunni And Shia.

Words Should Not Seek To Please, To Hide The Wounds In Our Bodies, Or The Shameful Moments In Our Lives. They May Hurt, Give Us Pain, But They Can Also Provoke Us To Question What We Have Accepted For Thousands Of Years.

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