Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself. — Nawal El Saadawi

I have triumphed over both life and death because I no longer desire to live, nor do I any longer fear to die. — Nawal El Saadawi

Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies. — Nawal El Saadawi

In history, the millions win; that is democracy. — Nawal El Saadawi

When we live in a world that is very unjust, you have to be a dissident. — Nawal El Saadawi

Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies. — Nawal El Saadawi

Home to me is the world because my books have been translated into more than 30 languages. — Nawal El Saadawi

The family code in Egypt is one of the worst family codes in the Arab world. Polygamy. The husband is having absolute power over the family. — Nawal El Saadawi

We never know the reality of things: we see only what we are aware of. It is our consciousness that determines the shape of the world around us––its size, motion and meaning. — Nawal El Saadawi

My three husbands were afraid of me. I am a very powerful woman. — Nawal El Saadawi

You cannot have dignity or social justice or freedom without women. — Nawal El Saadawi

Man … put himself in a tight corner when he decided that woman was innately passive. — Nawal El Saadawi

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

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

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

You poor, deluded woman…do you believe there is any such thing as love. — Nawal El Saadawi

I knew I hated him as only a woman can hate a man, as only a slave can hate his master. — Nawal El Saadawi

They said, ‘You are a savage and dangerous woman.’ I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous. — Nawal El Saadawi

The feminists who are aware of the effects of patriarchy realize that we are all in the same boat from the dangers of patriarchy, and that the oppression of women is universal. — Nawal El Saadawi

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

Unity is power; without unity women cannot fight for their rights anywhere. — Nawal El Saadawi

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

We cannot be liberated as women in a society built on class oppression or gender oppression or religious oppression. — Nawal El Saadawi

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

Solidarity between women can be a powerful force of change, and can influence future development in ways favourable not only to women but also to men. — Nawal El Saadawi

You know, I look to myself mainly as a creative writer all my life and a medical doctor. — Nawal El Saadawi

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

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

I am very much against makeup and high heels and all that we inherit as ‘beauty.’ — Nawal El Saadawi