Leading Islamic Feminist Writer To Speak At Penn State

March 16, 2001

University Park, Pa. --- Dr. Nawal el Saadawi, often described as the leading feminist writer in the Islamic world, will speak on "Creativity, Politics and Women" on Monday, April 9, at 4 p.m. in Heritage Hall of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.

A psychiatrist by training, Dr. el Saadawi is the author of many studies and novels dealing with the condition of women in her country, Egypt, and in the Islamic world. A former director of the Educational Health Management unit in the Egyptian Ministry of Health, she published "Women and Sex" in 1972, the first book in Arabic to discuss, in detail, customs viewed as harmful to women. Her 1974 study "Female is the Origin" won the Literary Award of the Supreme Council for Arts and Social Sciences in Egypt.  "Two Women in One" (1975) is her account of her experience as a medical student. "A Daughter of Isis," her autobiography, appeared in 1999.

Among her novels are "Memoirs of a Woman Doctor" (1960),  "Woman at Point Zero(1975),"  "She Has No Place in Paradise" (1987), and "The Fall of the Imam" (1988).  

Her books, both scientific and fictional, were banned in Egypt for 11 years during the Sadat regime. In 1981, she was jailed for several months along with 1,000 other dissidents. Freed after the death of Sadat, she founded the Arab Women's Solidarity Association in 1982. Since then, she has taught and lectured widely on the situation of women today.

In addition to her talk at 4 p.m., she will speak to students in the Masterpieces of Literature from Africa course, address the Comparative Literature Luncheon, and meet with graduate students.

Her visit to Penn State is sponsored by the Comparative Literature Department, the Women's Studies Program, the College of the Liberal Arts, the Humphrey Fellowship Program, the Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies, the Speakers Series of the Office of International Programs, and the Paul Robeson Cultural Center.

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