写给上帝的英文信

写给上帝的英文信

Our first guest today is the famous Egyptian psychiatrist-turned-writer Nawal el-Saadawi. 50 years ago, she wrote a novel that shocked the establishment and really thrust her into the forefront of the fight for womens rights in the Middle East. The book was called Woman At Point Zero and tells the true life story of a woman sentenced to death for murder. Its sold over a million copies, and been translated into 21 languages. The English version has just been republished. In the five decades in between, Nawal has been a fearsome campaigner on many fronts. And now in her 80s, its clear that shes still a force to be reckoned with. When she came into the Outlook studio, she told me about her life as a writer, starting with one of the first thing she wrote as a little girl.

The first letter in my life, I wrote to God. I was a child, about seven, eight years. And I was a very naughty child, like all children who are healthy. You know, when you are healthy, you are naughty. My brother who was older than me, he had many privileges as a boy. So I felt that this is unfair and I asked my parents why. They said because he is a boy. I said: “So what?” And then when they are cornered and didnt know how to answer, they said thats what God said.