It was a relief but not a surprise to Nawal El Saadawi that the Islamic countries appear to have decided not to back Ayatollah Khomeini's death threat to Salman Rushdie for his 'blasphemous' book The Satanic Verses. She believes Khomeini is wrong, even within the terms of Muslim fundamentalism.
Dr Saadawi, the Egyptian writer with 11 novels or non-fiction books published in English, including The Children's Song, Two Women in One, and Memoirs of a Woman Doctor, knows about censorship.
Formerly director-general of health education in the Egyptian Ministry of Health, she was purged because of her 'historical Socialist feminist' writings; saw all her books banned; and was jailed by President Sadat a month before his assassination.
Let out two months later, she wrote Memoirs From the Women's Prison. Even now her feminism and socialism make her, at 54, an insecure writer.
Dr Saadawi, here to visit her British publishers Zed Books, Methuen, Women's Press, and Al Saqi and to explain her support for the petition on freedom of expression, said: 'My parents are Muslims and I am a Muslim, but my conception of Islam is that it is like all religions, one of justice, freedom and love. It is not a veil, a restriction. Religions are not for divisions between peoples, war, and religious strifes.'
Dr Saadawi, a psychiatrist married to another doctor and with two grown-up children, went on: 'Islam is very flexible. I am for Igtihad, meaning that you work with your brain to adapt the religion to society, to social benefits. But these fanatic groups do not use Igtihad. What Khomeini said is against Mohammed, against the fundamental teaching of Islam.'
She calls herself an 'historical' Socialist and feminist because 'I discovered that feminism is in our history, it is not a Western invention. We inherited in Egypt a very wide culture - our female goddess was of justice, of knowledge, not of fertility and the body. I discovered in history that women's oppression is not a divine law.'
She is president of the Arab Women's Celebratory Association, which is against feudalism, capitalism, and patriarchy in the state and in the family. It has 2,000 members in the Arab countries.
The other part of her life goes into a new novel based on her experiences as a psychiatrist in a Cairo mental hospital, showing the developing relationship between a woman doctor and a patient who proclaims himself the devil.
'The novel is based on the constitution of love and how it changes the doctor's mind. At another level, it deals with why the devil became the devil: there are many positive elements in his character.'
It was a relief but not a surprise to Nawal El Saadawi that the Islamic countries appear to have decided not to back Ayatollah Khomeini's death threat to Salman Rushdie for his 'blasphemous' book The Satanic Verses. She believes Khomeini is wrong, even within the terms of Muslim fundamentalism.
Dr Saadawi, the Egyptian writer with 11 novels or non-fiction books published in English, including The Children's Song, Two Women in One, and Memoirs of a Woman Doctor, knows about censorship.
Formerly director-general of health education in the Egyptian Ministry of Health, she was purged because of her 'historical Socialist feminist' writings; saw all her books banned; and was jailed by President Sadat a month before his assassination.
Let out two months later, she wrote Memoirs From the Women's Prison. Even now her feminism and socialism make her, at 54, an insecure writer.
Dr Saadawi, here to visit her British publishers Zed Books, Methuen, Women's Press, and Al Saqi and to explain her support for the petition on freedom of expression, said: 'My parents are Muslims and I am a Muslim, but my conception of Islam is that it is like all religions, one of justice, freedom and love. It is not a veil, a restriction. Religions are not for divisions between peoples, war, and religious strifes.'
Dr Saadawi, a psychiatrist married to another doctor and with two grown-up children, went on: 'Islam is very flexible. I am for Igtihad, meaning that you work with your brain to adapt the religion to society, to social benefits. But these fanatic groups do not use Igtihad. What Khomeini said is against Mohammed, against the fundamental teaching of Islam.'
She calls herself an 'historical' Socialist and feminist because 'I discovered that feminism is in our history, it is not a Western invention. We inherited in Egypt a very wide culture - our female goddess was of justice, of knowledge, not of fertility and the body. I discovered in history that women's oppression is not a divine law.'
She is president of the Arab Women's Celebratory Association, which is against feudalism, capitalism, and patriarchy in the state and in the family. It has 2,000 members in the Arab countries.
The other part of her life goes into a new novel based on her experiences as a psychiatrist in a Cairo mental hospital, showing the developing relationship between a woman doctor and a patient who proclaims himself the devil.
'The novel is based on the constitution of love and how it changes the doctor's mind. At another level, it deals with why the devil became the devil: there are many positive elements in his character.'
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