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Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words QUOTES

Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words QUOTES

1 " In our country we use different words [than feminism] which mean the liberation or the emancipation of women. Of course I believe in the emancipation of women. It will change a lot of things in society for the better.
But, you know, the class patriarchal system under which we live oppresses men too and the discrimination from which women suffer is not good for the life of men. Don’t you think so? "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

2 " Words should not seek to please, to hide the wounds in our bodies, or the shameful moments in our lives. They may hurt, give us pain, but they can also provoke us to question what we have accepted for thousands of years. "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

3 " Ever since I was a child I used to hear my father say: ‘If the price we pay for freedom is high, we pay a much higher price if we accept to be slaves. "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

4 " There is a proverb that says, ‘Talk so that I may know who you are.’ But I say, ‘Show me your eyes and I will know who you are. "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

5 " Motherhood goes back in history to a time when a father had no way of knowing his children. Fatherhood only became known when class patriarchal society had established itself and imposed monogamous marriage on women. Motherhood is like sun and rain and plants, a quality and product of nature which does not require laws or systems in order to exist. "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

6 " Inciting women to rebel against the divine laws of Islam.’ This became the accusation that was leveled against me whenever I wrote or did anything to defend the rights of women against the injustices widespread in society. It followed me wherever I went, step by step, moved through the corridors of government administrations year after year, irrespective of who came to power, or of the regime that presided over the destinies of our people. It was only years later that I began to realized that the men and women who posed as the defenders of Islamic morality and values were most often the ones who were undermining the real ethics and moral principles of society. "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

7 " One day when I woke up I found him reading my papers. It was as though he were violating my body. Maybe if he had violated my body it would have been less painful. I said: ‘Those are my papers and you have no right to read them.’

His answer was to pick up the pile of papers and throw them out of the window. I jumped out of the window thinking I would be able to save them from being lost. I would have killed myself, broken my head on the tarmac road. It was not a moment of madness. I was perfectly aware of what I was doing. I had worked on my novel day and night for months, and then had covered three hundred pages with my handwriting. To me, rescuing the novel was like saving my life. "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

8 " Thus, after a period of about two thousand years the greatest crime became to worship a god other than the God of Moses, whereas injustice became a minor sin. I began to ask myself how this change had come about. Was it linked to a new order in which the female goddesses had been replaced by one male god? "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

9 " Throughout the thirty years of our life together the authorities have given us no respite. They were after us all the time. If we published a magazine, they closed it down. If we started a project they prevented us from carrying it through. If we established an association they told us we were breaking the laws and banned its activities. Now they were driving us out of the country. "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

10 " How could I say to my father that what attracted me to living creatures was the shine in their eyes. Not any shine. The eyes of a wild cat or a tiger were shining. What I was looking for was a special shine that could be found only in the eyes of some human beings. I felt that Dr Rashad’s eyes were full of cruelty, that now and then I could spot a glimmer, but it was always sharp and short and calculating despite the soft, delicate way in which he was saying things to my father. "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words

11 " I stood without moving, like a statue, swallowing the humiliation and the dust raised by the demonstrators as they went on their way. I was no longer the doctor who treated them when they were sick, no longer the freedom fighter ready to go off to the front. I was a mere woman, a hussy, a bitch. I was just a nitaya to be reviled like all other women in this world. I was a word shooting out from the mouths of the boys like a gob of spit. "

― Nawal El Saadawi , Walking through Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi, In Her Own Words