El Saadawi, Nawal (1931–)

Egyptian feminist, physician, journalist and novelist. Name variations: el Sad'adawi, el-Saadawi, al-Saadawi. Pronunciation: Na-WAA-l el SA-a-da-we. Born in Kafr Tahla, Egypt, 1931 (some sources cite 1930); Cairo University School of Medicine, MD, 1955; m. 3rd husband, Sherif Hetata (physician); children: daughter Mona Helmi (writer); son Atef Hetata (film director).

Leading contemporary radical feminist, forceful and outspoken critic of women's oppression in the Middle East and globally, whose writings address the impact of misogynist social structures on Egyptian women, especially the sexual abuse Egyptian women undergo, such as the practice of female genital mutilation; practiced medicine in rural and urban areas; promoted to director of Health Education and editor-in-chief of the magazine Health; dismissed from her positions (Aug 1971) and blacklisted by the Egyptian government because of her controversial book, Women and Sex (1972); practiced medicine part-time and wrote novels depicting the universe of Egyptian women; researched women's neuroses while on the Faculty of Medicine at Ain Shams University (1973–76); served as United Nations' advisor for the Women's Program in Africa (ECA) and the Middle East (ECWA, 1979–80); imprisoned for 3 months (1981) by President Sadat; established the Arab Women's Solidarity Association (AWSA, 1982); fought the banning of AWSA (early 1990s); accepted a visiting professorship at Duke University (1993); served as president of Arab Women's Solidarity Association. Nonfiction works (trans.) include: The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World (1980), Memoirs from the Women's Prison (1983), My Travels Around the World (1991); selected fiction (trans.) include: The Circling Song (1989), Death of an Ex-Minister (1987), The Fall of the Imam (1989), God Dies by the Nile (1985), The Innocence of the Devil (1994), Memoirs of a Woman Doctor: A Novel (1989), Searching (1991), She Has No Place in Paradise (1987), Two Women in One (1990), The Well of Life (1993) and Woman at Point Zero.

See also Women in World History.