*This interview with the late Dr. Nawal El Saadawi was published in Arabic on March 18, 2020.

From a young age, it was obvious for Nawal El Saadawi to be accustomed to controversy and rebellion. This writer always takes her press meetings, her sessions, and every aspect of her life seriously. She walks a line of thought that she does not lose track of, her intellectual approach with its complications is the tube that pumps blood into her veins and one of the most important reasons for her survival. Dr. Nawal El Saadawi! A name, if mentioned in any phrase or sentence, cannot end with a normal point; it ends either with an exclamation mark (!) or a question mark (?). Hence the value of this unique encounter with Dr. El Saadawi for Muwatin.

Dr. El Saadawi was interviewed by Mohamed Hisham

• It is difficult to find a single sentence or word to fully represent my cherished literary and academic achievements that I am very proud of.
• I have been subjected to severe medical neglect, with no attention for my well-being, and no official has contacted me to offer support.
• Many sheikhs and clerics who claim perfect infinite virtue have removed their masks.
• We need an elite that works to foster ideas and innovation rather than simply establishing and paving ways.
• The current dilemma in the feminist movements stems from the separation of issues of thought, poverty, creativity, education, and worker persecution, particularly of women.

The dialogue:

1. Dr Nawal, first of all, what is the secret to this disappearance, especially that you used to have many intellectual meetings and TV appearances?

My recent illness and regressive health prevents me from having the meetings I was used to dealing with. As well as the sessions that intellectuals, thinkers, and young people were attending, and the Nawal El Saadawi forum. I am receiving nearly daily numerous calls to continue my forum in Cairo and the governorates. However, I apologise every time for not being able to come. I have no energy and my health does not help. I hope it will be back soon, mostly I think, for the sake of young people who call me and yearn for such meetings.

2. Nawal El Saadawi, without going into the repetitive questions of your childhood and the decisions you chose that nearly everyone now knows about, if we want to sum up your life path in a sentence, what would it be?

I have wrote a lot, taught at several universities, organised hundreds of meetings and lectures, I was honoured by world leaders and presidents, and global universities, and the world’s largest intellectual and creative institutions. That is why I see no point in answering such a question. It is difficult to find a sentence or word that could contain the literary and intellectual trajectory that I am very proud of.

3. Regarding your health condition, can you assure all your readers and fans, especially amid many rumours?

I am still dealing with a health crisis, but I am regularly improving with physiotherapy sessions and medication prescribed by my doctor.

4. Many spoke of the medical neglect that a great intellectual personality like you is experiencing.  Can you tell us how true this is?

Yes, I am being subjected to huge medical neglect; no one seemed to be worried about my health. No official has contacted me or offered help, as is the case with many people who gave so much of themselves for Egyptian life for years, which is strange and surprising. I recently experienced several complications following my Cataracts medical operation in Egypt.

5. Dr. Nawal El Saadawi Forum, or Nawal El Saadawi’s monthly intellectual forum, is one of the most important cultural and intellectual events in Egypt in the last 10 years. What are the reasons for its suspension?

Yes, the Nawal El Saadawi forum had a great success in Egypt and became prominent in the Arab world in general. No one expected it to succeed. I also could not have imagined it. The Intellectual Forum has spread among young people of both sexes, and I imagine the main reason for this is that young people are keen to read the works and literature that I have produced over the decades. I have delivered my work in a language that suits the younger generation, and in a form that reaches the reader no matter the level of education and culture they have. Young people did not find it difficult to absorb the literature and the ideas contained therein, even though they contained ideas that shocked their minds and unusual opinions that urged rebellion, criticism, extrapolation, suspicion and controversy.

In addition, there is a diversity of literature and books, such as psychological and social studies on the status of women in Egypt and throughout the world, the history of religions, the relations of men and women, the dissection of societies, patriarchy, etc. I wrote over 80 books, I was surprised at every seminar and meeting at the huge number of men, women, and young people that read so many of my writings.

6. Do you have much hope that the current intellectual, religious, and social criticism will spread among youngsters, especially concerning the social and cultural norms that changed after the Arab Spring revolutions among the younger generation? Will they be able to overcome the dark and extremist movements?

Yes, young people of both sexes can become aware, not lose hope, continue and renew science and knowledge. When young people re-read history, they will find that such movements and ideas dig up their graves in their own hands. When the average individual studies these ideas with the balance of consciousness and reality, they will find that there is no place for applying such ideas, and governing and conducting people with them is pure imagination, myth, unreality. Proof of this is the response to the representatives of these movements by young people, and the fall of masks of clerics who claim absolute infinite virtue. Young people have discovered by reading that they are liars and hypocrites.

7. When will Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries become secular and civil States in which the words of clerics have no effect and only movements of thought and science prevail? 

This question has many answers, and tomes could be written about it. But there is a key point in my view that Egypt and the Arab region can be lifted out of their intellectual and cultural crisis. The first spark can be for Egypt to move forward politically, culturally, and socially in all areas when we change and replace the elites in our country. Other elites would come to encourage ideas and creativity, who do not only establish and prepare roads with all the governing authorities and institutions, and work only for themselves, forgetting their messages, role, and duty towards young people. They should awaken minds and encourage them to revolt, create and innovate. When the opposite happens and this elite we hope for comes, Egypt and the Arab countries will inevitably change and become civil and democratic States.

8. Nowadays, is it possible that new feminist movements, based on the serious ideas put forward by Nawal El Saadawi in her writings, could crystallise into active entities on the ground?

New generations of feminists need more awareness and devotion to women’s issues. I see the potential for more powerful and influential movements to forge and emerge at the existence of two main elements: The first one is to not segregate women’s issues and separate them from other political, social and cultural issues. The current crisis of feminist movements is the segregation of issues of thought, poverty, creativity, education, and the persecution of workers, especially women. Not all these issues can be unique in defending themselves and presenting themselves separately, and I hope that women will learn the lesson in which many pioneers, thinkers, and elites still fall. The other element is the lack of attention to the study of women’s and gender trends in the world and the lack of solidarity with them, while the issue is one and almost all of them calling separately for the same rights that are abused and violated in all societies. The solidarity of all women and women’s movements in the world is therefore imperative if they are to achieve positive and effective results and bring about serious change on the ground.

9. Could we soon see a youth intellectual movement sponsored by you, similar to the highly successful Nawal El Saadawi forum?

I do not entirely rule out the possibility of this, as I have stated in more than one interview and written in more than one book that I am not closing the door to anything. These meetings can be reorganised anytime but only when my health condition gets better, as it is my only stipulation of continuity.

10. What about the next book of the Nawal El Saadawi? Did you write the book that you had previously stated you had not written, in which you could discuss all your ideas so boldly?

Of course not, I have not written the book of my dreams, which is more bold in its critique and uses other methods to refute the mechanisms of change and challenging the forbidden areas of thought that people fear to approach, as well as raise forbidden questions in all areas.