El Saadawi was known as a defender of women’s rights and fought strongly against the widespread practice of female sex mutation.
She was sent to prison and prosecuted and all her life received threats from conservatives for her daring views.
El Saadawi was the founder and president of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights. In 1981, she founded a feminist magazine called ‘Al-Moawgaha’ (which translates to ‘The Confrontation’).
El Saadawi’s most popular books are “Women & Sex” and “Memoirs from a Women’s Prison.”
“Women and sex” has been banned in Egypt for almost two decades and after it was published, El Saadawi lost her job as director of public health at the Ministry of Health in Egypt.
“Women cannot be liberated in a class society or a male-dominated patriarchal society. That is why we must get rid of, fight class oppression, gender oppression and religious oppression,” El Saadawi said in a 2011 interview with CNN. “We can not talk about revolution without women,” she said.
There is an outpouring of grief over the news of El Saadawi’s death, with some prominent activists expressing their condolences on social media.
“Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi has died. Until I gather my thoughts: rest in power, Nawal,” she added in a tweet.