Articles

Message from Dr. Mahgoub El-Tigani
Mahgoub El-Tigani Sudanese Writers' Union (in exile)

The message by the human rights leader and women's activist Dr. Nawal el-Saadawi is indeed a masterpiece. Her human rights concern is a universal one that already crossed the frontiers of States as it occupied the hearts and minds of millions of readers every where through her multi-langual translated works. Discrimination by country or race or gender will never stop the dissemination of her honest ideas all over the world. Interpretations of religion that aim to silence her thought will never work.

I have tremendous respect to the Sufi spiritual religiosity of Dr. Saadawi as she explained in her message. The ethos of religion is not simply based on formal duties of a believer. The essence of religion for Saadawi is "providing for the family and the good upbringing of its members, that a simple life, and sensitivity to the plight of the poor was more important in the teachings of the Prophet than prostrating oneself before God day and night, to believe that hard work was more important than worship, and that which was needed to feed the home should not be given to the mosque" to use the words of Prophet Muhammad, and was more important than buying a plane ticket to go on pilgrimage and kiss the black stone to use my own words in the interview."

Dr. Nawal's righteous view for the realization of equality and social justice between females and males is based on the eradication of poverty as a key factor and the need for a continuous struggle to insure the enjoyment of the right to free expression and creative works for all citizens. Her independent thinking, strong belief in the ability of People to realize social justice, the strong critic she consistently placed on the aggression and colonial atrocities of Israel versus the Palestinians and other peoples of the region, and her lifetime struggle with story writing as an ascetic expression to glorify these values are the real strength of her personality.

Equally, these are the real causes of the attack she and her husband have been facing even to the level of separating them from one another as was earlier enforced -by court decision - on their intellectual fellows, Dr. Hamid and his wife. Dr. Abou Zeid and Dr. Ibtihal Younes were further compelled to live abroad, in exile. Dr. Saadawi and her husband now decided to continue the struggle from the Homeland.

This morning, the Egyptian human rights movement also received another blow when Dr. Ibrahim Saadeldeen was sentenced to prison for seven years and many of Ibn Khaldun crew was also imprisoned by court decision. In the case of Dr. Ibrahim, however, it was not a gender case or an Islamic fundamentalist group that mainly launched the accusation. Rather, it was the State Prosecution that initiated and pursued the case against Ibrahim and the Ibn Khaldun Institute.

The fact remains, nonetheless, that Dr. Ibrahim's human rights activities, especially his intellectual work for the defense of the rights of minority groups in his country and elsewhere, especially Sudan, Iraq, Algeria, etc., figured out as an intellectual background of the development of his case. All this adds up to the previous cases of Dr. Abu Zeid and his wife and Dr. el-Saadawi and her husband. It casts a gloomy picture on the relations between State and the human rights movement.

Hope is that the Right of Appeal as granted in Egyptian law would do justice to the case of Dr. Ibrahim and the Ibn Khaldun researchers. Hope is that the Constitution of Egypt would guarantee the means to Dr. Saadawi to continue her profound mission without family separation. Hope is that Dr. Abou Zeid and Dr. Ibtihal return to the free academia that is missing them, for sure.

Egypt has always been a country most influenced by universal civilizations, including the great civilization of Islam, and has thus largely benefited than most of the other countries of the Arab and Muslim regions had from these civilizations. It is important that Egypt maintains this distinguished status, keeps up the worth and concern for human rights as Egyptian activists suggest, and endorses fully the agenda Dr. el-Saadawi - as bravely as ever - posted towards a healthy society and advanced life in Egypt and the whole world.