Nawal El Saadawi is feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. Born in Egypt, she trained as a doctor, has worked as a psychiatrist and university lecturer, and has published nearly 50 plays, novels and short story collections. Much of her writings focus on the subject of women in Egypt, refusing to shy away from controversial issues such as prostitution, domestic violence and religious fundamentalism.

In addition to her writings Nawal El Saadawi is the founder and president of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights. In 2004 she was awarded the North-South prize from the Council of Europe and the following year was the recipient of the Inana International Prize in Belgium.

Nawal el Saadawi was an Author with the Supreme Council for Arts and Social Sciences, Cairo and is the founder of Health Education Association and the Egyptian Women Writers Association.

In a 2010 interview with The Guardian, Ms. El Saadawi stated, “For me feminism includes everything.” “It is social justice, political justice, sexual justice . . . It is the link between medicine, literature, politics, economics, psychology and history. Feminism is all that. You cannot understand the oppression of women without this.”