Latest Nawal El Saadawi Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• You cannot have dignity or social justice or freedom without women.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Justice, Social Justice, Dignity

  Source: progressive.org

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Military, Suffering, Revolution

  Source: progressive.org

• We cannot be liberated as women in a society built on class oppression or gender oppression or religious oppression.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Religious, Class, Oppression

  Source: progressive.org

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Christian, Religious, Egypt

  Source: progressive.org

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Strong, Islamic, Men

  Source: progressive.org

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Country, Israel, Egypt

  Source: progressive.org

• There is not a revolution that succe Women were everywhere in the revolution. Women participated in it, and many women were killed.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Revolution, Succes

  Source: progressive.org

• All revolutions in history have obstacles.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Revolution, Obstacles

  Source: progressive.org

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Children, Egypt, People

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Educational, Taken, Book

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• I had to educate myself about female circumcision, about the clitoris, about sexology. We studied gynecology only. Pregnancy, maternal care, etc.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Pregnancy, Gynecology, Female

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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!

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Writing, Egypt, Practice

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Writing, Years, Age

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Medicine, Doctors, Practice

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Book, Important, Prison

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Zero, Years, Differences

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Cutting, Doctors, People

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Cutting, Men, Doctors

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Doctors, Mixtures, Inspired

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Writing, Self, Firsts

  Source: muse.jhu.edu

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Fighting, Years, Goal

  Interview with Joseph Mayton, progressive.org. December 12, 2011.

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Democracy, Half, Revolution

  Interview with Joseph Mayton, progressive.org. December 12, 2011.

• The slogan of the revolution was dignity, social justice, and freedom. You cannot have dignity or social justice or freedom without women.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Justice, Revolution, Dignity

  Interview with Joseph Mayton, progressive.org. December 12, 2011.

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Religious, Military, Egypt

  Interview with Joseph Mayton, progressive.org. December 12, 2011.

• 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.

  Nawal El Saadawi

  Religious, Strong, Islamic

  Interview with Joseph Mayton, progressive.org. December 12, 2011.