News

A New Battle between Al Azhar and Nawal El Saadawi

Cairo - Egypt 29 May 2004

" As long as the government continues to talk of reform but does nothing to change things , and as long as there are people who seek to curry favour with the Islamic fundamentalists including people within the institutions of the state such as Al Azhar , creative writers will continue to be hunted down " .

These are the words with which Doctor Nawal El Saadawi commented on the recent decision of the " Centre for Islamic Studies " to ban her well known novel entitled " The Fall of the Imam " published in Arabic for the first time almost twenty years ago by " Dar Al Mostakbal Al Arabi " in Cairo , and later translated into fourteen other languages . Two years ago an Arabic edition was republished by " Al Saqi Books " ( London and Beirut ) . This new battle between Al Azhar and Nawal El Saadawi has once again brought to the forefront the issue of censorship and banning of books in Egypt .

Saadawi did not evince surprise at this new campaign directed against her . She drew attention to the fact that her novel had been banned from circulation in the Cairo Annual International Book Fair organized two years ago .
" Almost every year " she said " they launch a campaign against me in order to draw peoples attention away from crucial issues and to frighten creative writers . These attacks have included attempts to forcibly divorce me from my husband by accusing me of apostasy , to vilify my opposition to what is happening in our region and women`s problems or to distort what I write in my novels and other books . She believes that fundamentalist forces have infiltrated into the state and Al Azhar and that there are people who seek to curry favour with the fundamentalists for different reasons such as winning votes in the elections , or protecting themselves from harm or violence . That attacks against creative writers are being used by governments and by fundamentalist forces to exchange blows in the struggle between them " She expressed her conviction that campaigns against creative thinkers and writers who believe in freedom of thought as a necessary condition to move the country out of the dark shadows which surround it , into a more enlightened and progressive atmosphere will continue "

She explained that she had written a part of her novel The Fall of the Imam in prison after Sadat had arrested her together with hundreds of writers , intellectuals and public figures during the month of September 1981 , that the Imam in her novel was Sadat . " He described himself as the President Believer " but I did not think that he was a " believer " at all . I wanted " she added " to unmask what corrupt rulers actually do " , and described the position taken by Al Azhar as " a threat to her life , an instigation towards her assassination .