Revolutionary Men With Principles Were Not Really

Women Are Suffering Because They Are Being Excluded. The High Military Council Excluded Women From The Committee To Change The Constitution [of Egypt]. We Cannot Be Liberated As Women In A Society Built On Class Oppression Or Gender Oppression Or Religious Oppression.

Truth Is Relative, And There Is Always Something Missing In Truth That Prevents It From Being Perfect.

Here The Oppression Of Women Is Very Subtle. If We Take Female Circumcision, The Excision Of The Clitoris, It Is Done Physically In Egypt. But Here It Is Done Psychologically And By Education. So Even If Women Have The Clitoris, The Clitoris Was Banned; It Was Removed By Freudian Theory And By The Mainstream Culture.

Interviewer: What Would You Say To A Woman In This Country Who Assumes She Is No Longer Oppressed, Who Believes Women's Liberation Has Been Achieved? El Saadawi: Well I Would Think She Is Blind. Like Many People Who Are Blind To Gender Problems, To Class Problems, To International Problems. She's Blind To What's Happening To Her.

Words Should Not Seek To Please, To Hide The Wounds In Our Bodies, Or The Shameful Moments In Our Lives. They May Hurt, Give Us Pain, But They Can Also Provoke Us To Question What We Have Accepted For Thousands Of Years.