Top 83 Nawal Quotes

#1. Everybody has to die, Firdaus. I will die, and you will die. The important thing is how to live until you die.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #5629
#2. But I feel that you, in particular, are a person who cannot live without love." "Yet I am living without love." "Then you are either living a lie or not living at all.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #13666
#3. I've participated in many demonstrations since I was a child. When I was at medical college, I was fighting King Farouk, then British colonization, against Nasser, against Sadat who pushed me into prison, Mubarak who pushed me into exile. I never stopped.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #39431
#4. We never know the reality of things: we see only what we are aware of. It is our consciousness that determines the shape of the world around us
its size, motion and meaning.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #40229
#5. My work is not worthy of respect. Why then do you join in it with me?

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #50740
#6. The trilogy composed of politics, religion and sex is the most sensitive of all issues in any society.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #63482
#7. We see our homeland more clearly when we are away from it than when we are in it.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #66040
#8. The slogan of the revolution was dignity, social justice, and freedom. You cannot have dignity or social justice or freedom without women.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #66695
#9. We here in Egypt are fed up with U.S. colonialism.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #88070
#10. The mask of secularism may differ in thickness, may be less visible, but religion is always there hidden under hallowed big beautiful words

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #88384
#11. There is a proverb that says, 'Talk so that I may know who you are.' But I say, 'Show me your eyes and I will know who you are.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #103157
#12. Women in most countries have not achieved much, because they can't be liberated under the patriarchal, capitalist, imperialist and military system that determines the way we live now, and which is governed by power, not justice, by false democracy, not real freedom.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #153310
#13. Doubt is the first step towards knowledge, not faith.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #186627
#14. Life is very hard. The only people who really live are those who are harder than life itself.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #194748
#15. The tracing of a child's lineage and its name with reference to the father, though it has lasted for many thousands of years, has not become any the more natural or reasonable as a result.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #300112
#16. Revolutionary men with principles were not really different from the rest. They used their cleverness to get, in return for principles, what other men buy with their money.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #309655
#17. Living in a small town [in India] was like living in a glass house!

Mallika Nawal

Nawal Quotes #314399
#18. Whenever I go to New York or any European country, they say: 'Nawal, why don't you get a facelift?' I tell them, 'I am proud of my wrinkles. Every wrinkle on my face tells the story of my life. Why should I hide my age?'

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #327728
#19. Education should be totally secular. I am not telling people not to believe in God, but it should be a personal matter which should be done at home.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #349620
#20. How many were the years of my life that went by before my body, and my self became really mine, to do with them as I wished? How many were the years of my life that were lost before I tore my body and my self away from the people who held me in their grasp since the very first day?

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #362646
#21. All the men I did get to know, every single man of them, has filled me with but one desire: to lift my hand and bring it smashing down on his face.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #369413
#22. If you are creative you must be dissident.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #395000
#23. All revolutions in history have obstacles. There is not a revolution that succes.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #408095
#24. She turned and bolted out the door. She had learnt an important lesson - "When a man paid 'for' you ... you paid 'to' him." It was her first Valentine slaughter.

Mallika Nawal

Nawal Quotes #415858
#25. I've lived in Egypt among Christians and Muslims, and we never had a conflict. Now you have a conflict between Christians and Muslims and Baha'is and Sunni and Shia.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #427353
#26. Love has made me a different person. It has made the world beautiful.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #455795
#27. To be creative means to connect. It's to abolish the gap between the body, the mind and the soul, between science and art, between fiction and nonfiction.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #469566
#28. Men impose deception on women and punish them for being deceived, force them down to the lowest level and punish them for falling so low, bind them in marriage and then chastise them with menial service for life, or insults, or blows.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #489847
#29. You know, I look to myself mainly as a creative writer all my life and a medical doctor.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #502752
#30. I now knew that all of us were prostitutes who sold themselves at varying prices, and that an expensive prostitute was better than a cheap one.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #519670
#31. The family code in Egypt is one of the worst family codes in the Arab world. Polygamy. The husband is having absolute power over the family.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #542197
#32. He gave a wry smile. With all this vigilant vigils on virginity, you would think the country would have controlled its population by now.

Mallika Nawal

Nawal Quotes #557555
#33. When my second husband shouted, 'Me or your writing!' I replied, 'My writing.' We separated.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #646114
#34. Home is where you are appreciated, safe and protected, creative, and where you are loved - not where you are put in prison.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #667664
#35. You poor, deluded woman ... do you believe there is any such thing as love? ... You're living an illusion. Do you believe the words of love they whisper in the ears of penniless women like us?

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #667779
#36. Danger has been a part of my life ever since I picked up a pen and wrote. Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #705679
#37. Man ... put himself in a tight corner when he decided that woman was innately passive.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #757527
#38. I am very much against makeup and high heels and all that we inherit as 'beauty.'

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #772482
#39. Moral codes and standards in our societies very rarely apply to all people equally. This is the most damning proof of how immoral such codes and standards really are.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #789383
#40. Many people come here and they think my apartment is a poor relative to my name. But you cannot be radical and have money, it's impossible.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #822119
#41. To say she was attractive would be an understatement. Calling her 'attractive' would be like calling the Taj Mahal a marble grave.

Mallika Nawal

Nawal Quotes #823525
#42. Women were everywhere in the revolution. Women participated in it, and many women were killed. Then we had the right to speak up and gain some more rights, but what happened was there was a backlash. Why? Because we have the Salafists, Muslim Brothers, religious groups.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #838235
#43. I am becoming more radical with age. I have noticed that writers, when they are old, become milder. But for me it is the opposite. Age makes me more angry.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #842454
#44. Ever since I was a child I used to hear my father say: 'If the price we pay for freedom is high, we pay a much higher price if we accept to be slaves.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #855505
#45. There is nothing more heartbreaking than to see the woman you love, the one woman you would do anything to protect, is the woman who is afraid of you.
It broke his heart.

Mallika Nawal

Nawal Quotes #902736
#46. When we live in a world that is very unjust, you have to be a dissident.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1023707
#47. Language, journalism, food, sex. All is politics. Even innocent love stories are politics ... There is no such thing as neutrality.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1048305
#48. War criminals in the U.S. and Israel are not punished: no international court has the courage to put them on trial.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1135315
#49. Fearing servility, people become servile.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1147351
#50. The feminists who are aware of the effects of patriarchy realize that we are all in the same boat from the dangers of patriarchy, and that the oppression of women is universal.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1165234
#51. The questions came ... hurling at him ... like the balls from a baseball pitching machine ... just one after the other without a care or concern of where they went - but he couldn't hit them, he didn't have a baseball bat - he only had a toothpick!

Mallika Nawal

Nawal Quotes #1190404
#52. She is free to do what she wants, and free not to do it.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1230467
#53. A lot of women are afraid of loneliness, so when they see a woman who can live alone, then they think, 'Hmm, I can do that.' But you need an example, and that is why I am proud to say I have divorced three husbands.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1234410
#54. That is when time stands still - when you watch the one you love, walk away.

Mallika Nawal

Nawal Quotes #1251210
#55. Memory is never complete. There are always parts of it that time has amputated. Writing is a way of retrieving them, of bringing the missing parts back to it, of making it more holistic.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1312387
#56. Truth is relative, and there is always something missing in truth that prevents it from being perfect.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1315893
#57. What makes revolutionary thought unique is its clarity and dignity, and its clear grasp of freedom and justice: simple, clear words that are understood without the need for any help from elite writers or thinkers.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1325023
#58. The Salafists are trying to abort the revolution and make it religious, though the revolution started secular. There was not a single Islamic slogan. It was secular men and women, and in fact, they were unified. Now they want to divide the revolution, and religion is a very strong weapon.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1365442
#59. Now i had learnt that honor required large sums of money to protect it, but that large sums of money could not be obtained without losing one's honor. An infernal circle whirling round and round, draggng me up and down with it.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1366434
#60. I don't think that people in power can be convinced by words or articles. They will never give it up by choice.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1374703
#61. To me, 'beauty' means to be natural, creative, honest - to say the truth.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1428773
#62. Who said to kill does not require gentleness?

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1444450
#63. In history, the millions win; that is democracy.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1449715
#64. My three husbands were afraid of me. I am a very powerful woman.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1460831
#65. 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.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1476617
#66. Plastic surgery is a postmodern veil.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1481002
#67. Solidarity between women can be a powerful force of change, and can influence future development in ways favourable not only to women but also to men.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1484893
#68. When you have increasing power of religious groups, oppression of women increases. Women are oppressed in all religions.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1601996
#69. She replied that it was precisely men well versed in religion who beat their wives. The precepts of religion permitted such punishment. A virtuous woman was not supposed to complain about her husband. Her duty was perfect obedience.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1630715
#70. To have arrived at the truth means that one no longer fears death. For death and truth are similar in that they both require a great courage if one wishes to face them.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1634147
#71. A good lawyer, just like a good poker player, must always keep his cards close to his chest.

Mallika Nawal

Nawal Quotes #1638703
#72. My heart faltered, overcome by its frightened, almost frenzied beating because of something I had just lost, or was on the point of losing for ever. My fingers grasped at his hand with such violence that no force in the world, no matter how great, could take it away from me.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1673476
#73. Unity is power; without unity women cannot fight for their rights anywhere.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1676203
#74. God was just and that the head of the state in Egypt wielded his power fairly. If God deprived a child of family or wealth, He might bless him with intelligence, music, or the love of God and the homeland. A poor person might still be morally rich.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1716341
#75. My skin is soft, but my heart is cruel, and my bite is deadly.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1766224
#76. When you are intelligent and beautiful you face a lot of problems. If you are beautiful and stupid then it's easy.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1775203
#77. I knew I hated him as only a woman can hate a man, as only a slave can hate his master.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1789266
#78. 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.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1791070
#79. They said, "You are a savage and dangerous woman."
I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1829137
#80. Women are half the society. You cannot have a revolution without women. You cannot have democracy without women. You cannot have equality without women. You can't have anything without women.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1831868
#81. I have triumphed over both life and death because I no longer desire to live, nor do I any longer fear to die.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1835100
#82. If you do not love yourself, well, you cannot do anything well, that's my philosophy.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1860859
#83. Home to me is the world because my books have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Nawal El Saadawi

Nawal Quotes #1861460

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