Nawal El Saadawi
War criminals in the U.S. and Israel are not punished: no international court has the courage to put them on trial.Collection: Courage
Education should be totally secular. I am not telling people not to believe in God, but it should be a personal matter which should be done at home.Collection: Home
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.Collection: Art
Women in most countries have not achieved much, because they can't be liberated under the patriarchal, capitalist, imperialist and military system that determines the way we live now, and which is governed by power, not justice, by false democracy, not real freedom.Collection: Freedom
You know, I look to myself mainly as a creative writer all my life and a medical doctor.Collection: Medical
I've participated in many demonstrations since I was a child. When I was at medical college, I was fighting King Farouk, then British colonization, against Nasser, against Sadat who pushed me into prison, Mubarak who pushed me into exile. I never stopped.Collection: Medical
Whenever I go to New York or any European country, they say: 'Nawal, why don't you get a facelift?' I tell them, 'I am proud of my wrinkles. Every wrinkle on my face tells the story of my life. Why should I hide my age?'Collection: Age
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.
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.
When you are intelligent and beautiful you face a lot of problems. If you are beautiful and stupid then it's easy.
When we live in a world that is very unjust, you have to be a dissident.
Home is where you are appreciated, safe and protected, creative, and where you are loved - not where you are put in prison.
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.
When you have increasing power of religious groups, oppression of women increases. Women are oppressed in all religions.
Unity is power; without unity women cannot fight for their rights anywhere.
If you do not love yourself, well, you cannot do anything well, that's my philosophy.
We here in Egypt are fed up with U.S. colonialism.
Plastic surgery is a postmodern veil.
I don't think that people in power can be convinced by words or articles. They will never give it up by choice.
A lot of women are afraid of loneliness, so when they see a woman who can live alone, then they think, 'Hmm, I can do that.' But you need an example, and that is why I am proud to say I have divorced three husbands.
I am very much against makeup and high heels and all that we inherit as 'beauty.'
To me, 'beauty' means to be natural, creative, honest - to say the truth.
My three husbands were afraid of me. I am a very powerful woman.
In history, the millions win; that is democracy.
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.
Home to me is the world because my books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
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.Collection: Democracy
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.Collection: Lying
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.Collection: Powerful
Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies.Collection: Motivational
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.Collection: Mean
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.Collection: Integrity
Doubt is the first step towards knowledge, not faith.Collection: Doubt
We cannot be liberated as women in a society built on class oppression or gender oppression or religious oppression.Collection: Religious
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.Collection: Men
She is free to do what she wants, and free not to do it.Collection: Want
They said, “You are a savage and dangerous woman.” I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous.Collection: Independent
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.Collection: Truth
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.Collection: Reality
My skin is soft, but my heart is cruel, and my bite is deadly.Collection: Heart
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.Collection: People
If you are creative, you must be dissident.Collection: Creative
The trilogy composed of politics, religion and sex is the most sensitive of all issues in any society.Collection: Sex
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.Collection: Fall
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.Collection: Class
I have triumphed over both life and death because I no longer desire to live, nor do I any longer fear to die.Collection: Life And Death
Who said to kill does not require gentleness?Collection: Doe
I had to educate myself about female circumcision, about the clitoris, about sexology. We studied gynecology only. Pregnancy, maternal care, etc.Collection: Pregnancy
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.Collection: Dream
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.Collection: Memories