The voice of Nawal El Saadawi: The woman who turned pain into resistance

The voice of women that never fell silent

Nawal El Saadawi turned pain into words and words into struggle. Her voice lives on in every woman who refuses to be silenced.

There are moments when literature and life blur into one another, as if reality itself needed the written word in order to exist. It was like that with Nawal El Saadawi, whose story struck me not only for the horror she endured, but for the courage with which she chose to speak of it.

At the age of six, she underwent female genital mutilation—and what a horror, my friends, at six years old. And it was precisely this wound that ignited in her a consciousness of the oppression pressing upon women in Egypt, and in truth, upon women across the world. Daughter of an exiled father and an indulgent mother, she grew up among orders and contradictions, learning early that a woman’s life is often shaped by demands imposed by others.

As a doctor in rural Egyptian villages, she witnessed prostitution, honor killings, sexual abuse, everything so many prefer to sweep under rugs of silence. It was this experience that turned her writing into a weapon: Women and Sex (1972), a work of denunciation that cost her positions of prestige, but did not silence her voice.

She kept writing, teaching, receiving awards, honorary doctorates, crossing both physical and intellectual borders. And then came Woman at Point Zero, the portrait of Firdaus, a prisoner condemned to death, who faced her execution without submitting to anyone’s plea for mercy. Firdaus, denied education, forced to marry an old and violent man, enters the world of prostitution in search of autonomy.

What fascinates me, what fascinates us, is this righteous anger, this feminine revolt that turns into strength, refusing to bow before a society determined to see women as objects or as the arithmetic of someone else’s honor.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Nawal El Saadawi became an international reference, leading UN programs, founding the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association, writing memoirs clandestinely from prison. She received death threats, was exiled to the United States, taught at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, the Sorbonne and never ceased to question power, religion, and tradition.

She returned to Cairo in 1996, confronted conservative forces, ran for president, took part in the protests at Tahrir Square, and wrote plays that challenged even religious authorities.

What remains extraordinary about Nawal El Saadawi is her legacy of critical thought lived in practice. She exposed that female genital mutilation is not rooted in religion, but upheld by patriarchal and capitalist structures tied to family honor and control over women’s sexuality.

She challenged discriminatory laws, domestic violence, inheritance inequality, and the requirement of paternal consent for marriage. Her work continues to inspire women such as Mona Eltahawy to fight for social, economic, and familial rights.

Nawal El Saadawi died in 2021, but left behind daughters who would never know the blade that cuts both flesh and spirit.

And among us, she leaves the lesson that when sharpened, the word becomes both shield and sword against oppression. She reminds us that freedom is built with courage, and that silence is always an accomplice to suffering.

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