Nawal El Saadawi

Gulf Today Report

Legendary Egyptian Feminist activist, author, novelist, physician and psychiatrist Nawal El Saadawi passed away on Sunday.

Saadawi championed women's rights for decades. She was 89.

Saadawi was in the hospital for quite sometime. She was battling a health crisis.

Saadawi is considered the pioneering voice on women’s identity and role in society, gender equality and women’s place in Islam.

Aysha A. Taryam, Editor in Chief of Gulf Today wrote on her Twitter account, “We lost a warrior who spoke for freedom, gender equality before the law, and against female genital mutilation. You will remain savage and dangerous as will the truth you spoke #RestInPower #NawalElSaadawi…”

A prolific author who shot to fame with widely translated novel "Women at Point Zero" (1975), Saadawi was a fierce advocate for women's empowerment in Egypt's deeply conservative and patriarchal society.

With more than 55 books to her name including the taboo-breaking work "Women and Sex", she was briefly jailed by late president Anwar Sadat.

Saadawi's outspoken brand of feminism -- including campaigning against women wearing the veil, inequality in Muslim inheritance rights between men and women, polygamy and female circumcision — gained her as many critics as admirers in the Middle East.

In 1993, after constant deaths threats from firebrand preachers, Saadawi moved to Duke University in the US state of North Carolina, where she was a writer-in-residence at the Asian and African languages department for three years.

She returned to Egypt and in 2005 ran for president but abandoned her bid after accusing security forces of not allowing her to hold rallies.