Off Limits

Nawal El Saadawi was born in 1931. She is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist, whose writings focus on the subject of women in Islam. She is well known for her exploration of female genital mutilation in Egyptian society and has been described as "the Simone de Beauvoir" of the Arab world. She is founder and president of the Arab Women's Solidarity Association, and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights. In addition to having been awarded honorary degrees on three continents, she has won the North-South Prize from the Council of Europe (2004), the Inana International Prize in Belgium (2005), and the International Peace Bureau's Sean MacBride Peace Prize (2012).

“Nawal El Saadawi writes with directness and passion.”

• Publisher’s Note viiGravity and the Forbidden Apple 1The Most Pious Men in the World 5How Far from My Parents Have We Come? 9A Sweet Murderous Woman 13My Life’s Companion 17My Cousin Naima’s Son 20No Virtue Without Freedom 21A Letter from a Woman Prisoner 23The Girl Outside the Court 27A Girl’s Death 31Can We Not Even Wonder? 33Not an Ideal Woman 37Religion, Women and Cinema 41Absolute Certainty and the Virus of Doubt 45Taleq, Professor! 48Hercules and Antaeus 52Defamation of Religion and Al-Gama‘a in Ramadan 56Reading Patriarchy in Egyptian History 60Psychiatry and Atheism 64Economics, Sex and Personal Status Law 68How Costly is the Service of Religion? 71Memories in the Mother Tongue 74No Objectivity in a Violent World 78Equality in Oppression 82Political Islam 85Between Two Seas 89When Does the Fall Begin? 93With Knowledge Comes Pleasure 97The Price of Writing 101An Old Friend 107Nour’s Buried Memories 120A Study of Philosophy and Change 128