Women and Sex by Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal El Saadawi was born in 1931, in a village called Kafr Tahla, which is located in Cairo, Egypt. She was born into a poor family being the second eldest of nine other children, and as a result when growing up, money was always scarce in her household. Her father, who was a government official, had always encouraged Nawal to study the Arabic language. He also strove the teach the young lady about self-respect, and at the same time told her that it was okay to speak her mind, and that she should always stand up for what she believed in. As is fairly common in Egypt, at the age of six Nawal was circumcised by the midwife of the family. After her circumcision, she bled for several days, until finally the wound healed and the midwife rejoiced, but she claims to have always felt like a part of her was missing from that point on, as if she was never able to fully heal her wound. Her parents died when she was at a very young age, causing her to be forced into supporting a large family with little to no assistance, but despite all of the hardships she faced growing up, and the walls that were in her way due to religious oppression of women, Nawal El Saadawi attended the University of Cairo, which had been very male-centric, and graduated in the year of 1955 with a degree in psychiatry. After this large moment in her life, Nawal went on to become the director of Public Health in Egypt, in which she then met her Husband, due to the situation at the office where they shared the same office space. Her husband, Sherif Hetata, shared her leftist views of Egypt, and had been imprisoned for 13 years prior to their meeting, due to his participation in a left-wing opposition party. During the time she worked as the director of Public Health, she...

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...come-generating projects for the women who were struggling financially in rural areas. In 1991, the Association was banned after criticizing the United States’ involvement in the Gulf war, because Nawal believed that it should have been solved by the Arabs, and that the United States should not have intervened as they did. After Nawal’s release from prison, and her work involving the association, her life was in danger of assassination from Islamic Fundamentalists and all who opposed her work. As a result, she required armed guards to be outside of her house for several years, until she finally was forced to leave the country. Even now, after all of the dangers that she has been subjected to, Nawal El Saadawi continues to speak on women’s issues, and is currently working on her autobiography, in an attempt to bring the struggle of females to light in a different way.