She also described herself as a socialist the usual comment that she makes is that “I stand for structural transformation”. She described herself as a feminist with a strong emphasis on a feminist perspective of both life and work.
She has been a feminist activist and organiser, a physician and a psychiatrist, a public intellectual, a human rights defender, a world-famous novelist and writer who was deeply concerned with a variety of issues that we are currently grappling with. We are remembering her as one who stood in the forefront of the feminist movements of the global south.
Her influence on the issues concerning the Arab world has been an important part of our own understanding of the region from a bottom-up approach. Her name is one that has lived with me in my adult life and I was lucky enough to teach about her contributions in my classes in various universities. She left this world on March 21, 2021, at the age of 89.
Nawal el-Saadawi was a quintessential political being who traversed the path of resistance against dictatorship and against the ills of contemporary capitalism. She was surrounded by students and young women and they hailed her as a guiding force. She stood with the younger generation in their struggle. Nawal el-Saadawi was there to participate in the movement against the Mubarak dictatorship demanding democratic transition. In January 2011, in the Tahrir Square in Egypt, an important event in the history of contemporary social movements was unfolding. Until such work, much of the feminist discussions in the Arab world were centred on issues within each national boundary
Dr Saadawi's famous book The Hidden Face of Eve provided a broad conceptual template in which Arab women's issues and Arab women's identity itself could be discussed in a much more systematic manner.
0 kommentar(er)
