Their story
Nawal El Saadawi was one of the most fearless feminist voices to emerge from the Arab world and Africa. A physician who worked in rural Egypt in the 1950s, she witnessed first-hand the toll of poverty, patriarchy, and female genital mutilation on women's lives. Her book Woman at Point Zero and her landmark non-fiction work The Hidden Face of Eve were banned in Egypt, cost her job at the Ministry of Health, and put her on extremist death-threat lists — but were translated into more than 30 languages. She continued writing and fighting until her death in 2021 at age 89.