What makes revolutionary thought unique is its clarity and dignity, and its clear grasp of freedom and justice: simple, clear words that are understood without the need for any help from elite writers or thinkers.
Nawal El SaadawiRead
I've participated in many demonstrations since I was a child. When I was at medical college, I was fighting King Farouk, then British colonization, against Nasser, against Sadat who pushed me into prison, Mubarak who pushed me into exile. I never stopped.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects unwavering courage and commitment to activism despite facing oppression.
Nawal El Saadawi's quote speaks to the enduring spirit of resistance against authoritarian regimes and colonization. It highlights a life dedicated to fighting for justice and equality, showing that activism often comes with personal sacrifices, including imprisonment and exile. Her experiences exemplify the challenges faced by those who oppose oppression, emphasizing the importance of perseverance in the struggle for freedom.
Themes
ActivismResistanceOppressionJusticeCourage
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing youth activism, one might say, 'Just like Nawal El Saadawi, we must never stop fighting for our rights.'
More from Nawal El Saadawi
All quotes →Yet not for a single moment did I have any doubts about my own integrity and honour as a woman. I knew that my profession had been invented by men, and that men were in control of both our worlds, the one on earth, and the one in heaven. That men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife. All women are prostitutes of one kind or another.
Nawal El SaadawiRead
To be creative means to connect. It's to abolish the gap between the body, the mind and the soul, between science and art, between fiction and nonfiction.
Nawal El SaadawiRead
When you have increasing power of religious groups, oppression of women increases. Women are oppressed in all religions.
Nawal El SaadawiRead
My skin is soft, but my heart is cruel, and my bite is deadly.
Nawal El SaadawiRead
Interviewer: What would you say to a woman in this country who assumes she is no longer oppressed, who believes women's liberation has been achieved? el Saadawi: Well I would think she is blind. Like many people who are blind to gender problems, to class problems, to international problems. She's blind to what's happening to her.
Nawal El SaadawiRead
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Thus thought I, as by night I read Of the great army of the dead, The trenches cold and damp, The starved and frozen camp,-- The wounded from the battle-plain, In dreary hospitals of pain, The cheerless corridors, The cold and stony floors. Lo! in that house of misery A lady with a lamp I see Pass through the glimmering gloom And flit from room to room. And slow, as in a dream of bliss, The speechless sufferer turns to kiss Her shadow, as it falls Upon the darkening walls.
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