Nawal El Saadawi - Creativity, women, dissidence - Part 1/3

- English transcription - "Creativity, Women, Dissidence" Gothenburg - october 2011 My name is Patricia Lorenzoni. It's a great pleasure to introduce the first of four lectures on "revolution and dissidence". And you can find informations of the following lectures on the web pages of Clandestino. Today we have here Nawal El Saadawi, and in the beginning of Arab's Spring we could see her on Tahrir Square, in Cairo, together with the masses of people demanding democratic change, and resign of them president Mubarak. Nawal El Saadawi has five decades of intense feminist, political and social commitment. She is a physician, psychiatrist, university teacher, and always an uncompromising writer, speaking out against political, patriarchal and neocolonial oppression. Over the years, several of times to have been made to silence that voice. In 1972 she lost her job at the egyptian Ministry of Health, after publishing her book "Woman and sex", which spoke out against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and political and economic oppression. In the 80's , she was imprisoned by the Sadat's regime, and in the 90's the egyptian government closed down her Arab Women's Solidarity Association (AWSA). She had to spend several years on exile for political persecutions and death threats from radical islamist groups. There have been several of times in Egypt, to bann her books and legal torture of apostasy or heresy. She is the author of more than fourty books, including short stories, fictions, novels and work. Her work has been translated into more than 13 languages. She has been teaching at numbers prestigious universities in Egypt and abroad. She has received several Awards, including the 2004 North-South Prize by the Council of Europe. I cannot think of anyone more so able to talk to us, about the theme of today on "creativity, women and dissidence" : she has lived her life under those signs. It's a great privilege and honour to sit here today and together with you. Welcome her to Gothenburg ... ( Before we welcome her and applause, i just wish to remind you, please, to turn off your cell phones ... ) Let's listen to Nawal El Saadawi, and afterwards we'll have a moment for questions from the audiance. [ applause ... ] Thank you very much ! [ laugh ] Thank you very much for inviting me to this wondeful Gothenburg which i like very much. I came here serveral of times ... it's a very famous city ! [ laugh ] Very famous ... even more famous than Stockholm ! [ laugh ] Because people come here ... the usually literary festival, there is a lot of intellectual activities in Gothenburg, so, there is something special about Gothenburg, i don't know what. But anyway, i'm very happy to be here today, though i'm extremely exhausted, but still, when i'm speaking, my energy comes back, and when i sit on state like that, energy comes. It is the communicaton between people ... and that's what we need, in fact, specially now ! The revolution in Egypt is not only in Egypt or in Tahrir Square. It's universal ! Everywhere ! Maybe you read about revolution in New-York, in Wisconsin, in Wall street, Square Union, in Spain, in Italy. Everywhere ! Not only in Egypt or Tunisia or Bahrain or Riyadh! It's everywhere ! Maybe the revolution will come to Gothenburg and Sweden. [laugh] Hopefully, i hope. Because, we are living in one world, and in fact ... it is not a world ... it's not a human world ! It's a jungle ! Really ! And we have to be clear on that. The universal law ... is not just ! A super-power can go an invade another country, like Irak, or Palestine, or Egypt, or any. We are still colonized ! And they can come, kill you, take your oil, your ressources and be heroes ... and they take a Nobel Prize ... for invading you ! Obama took a Nobel Prize : i don't know for what ? I don't know, he took a Nobel Prize, Obama. So, what i would like to say, that we are living in one world, dominated by the same system : the capitalist, patriarchal, military, racist ... system against women and against the poor. And we are living in this world, so we have to revolt together. I'm not astonished that the revolution is everywhere. From the United States to Cairo. Everywhere ! Of course, the degree of oppression in Gothenburg or in Sweden is not like the degree of oppression in Egypt, in relation to women or the poor. But here in Sweden, the immigrants suffer a lot ! If we look at the laws of immigration here, we can see, how many many people, in Sweden, in Europe, in France ... how many people immigrating, suffer ! Economically ... sexually ... socially ... That's why we have to feel, that we are ALL in the same boat ! i'm not speaking you as somebody coming from Egypt, to somebody living in Sweden. No, we are living in one world, and we have to fight together. We need to fight together, we need the revolution together ! We need to revolt and change the system together. And without working together we will never succeed. And that's why i'm very optimistic. Though, i came from Cairo yesturday, and you may be read about situation in Egypt. What's happening ? The burning of the church ... the killing of christians ... by some of the army, power, etc. What's happening in Egypt is a counter-revolution. When we went to Tahrir Square, in january, we were millions, men and women ! Christians and muslims, children and adults, were living together in Tahrir Square. In tents ... i was moving bewteen the tents. And we felt ONE ! Not a single church was burned ! Not a single girl or woman was harrased by any man ! So we were a very peaceful community together, with no discrimination by class, or gender, or religion, or anything. And we were living like that, day and night ! And till Mubarak left. And now ? what's happening ? Harrasment of girls, by gangs, and not by our revolutionary collegues, men. No ! By gangs: the police of Mubarak's regime. They are still in power ... In fact, we succeeded in removing only the head of the regime, that's Mubarak ... but the body of the regime is still there ! In the military, in the temporary government, in the media, in Education, in NGOs. Even the NGOs in Egypt are invaded by the Mubarak's regime, men and women. So, what's happening in Egypt is very dangerous. But who is after this ? Who is harrasing women ? Who is secluding women ? We are now secluded. There is a tendancy, to exclude us from public activities ! So, now we are re-organizing ourselves ! We are re-establishing the Egyptian Women's Union (EWU) which was banned, by Mubarak's regime and Suzanne his wife. So, we are feeling the danger that we should unite. Without unity ? We cannot win ! So we are now re-organizing ourselves as women and men. Because many young men who were with us in Tahrir Square are joining the Egyptian Women's Union. So the point is not a difference biologically between men and women. When i'm saying i'm a feminist or i'm fighting for women rights, in fact, i'm fighting for Human Rights, for men and women rights. Not only for women, because in our Arab Women's Solidarity Association banned by the government in 1991, because we stood against the Golf's war, 45 % were men. And maybe 50% in this hall are men, i don't know ... So we cannot divide the country or the people, biologically by men and women ... and say this is a man and this is a woman and the rights of men are different. We cannot say that ! There are many women who are more patriarchal and more agressive, and more military ... than men ! And you know them : from Thatcher to Merkel to Hillary Clinton. You know those women : who work for patriarchy and for capitalism. And there are many men who are fighting against class oppression, and against gender or race oppression. So, in our Egyptian Women's Union we have a lot of young men and old men, with us, in the Egyptian Women's Union !