Egypt-Leading woman novelist condemned for ‘insulting Islam’
Barely a week after an Egyptian blogger was sentenced to four years for inciting hatred towards Islam, the distinguished novelist Nawal El Saadawi faces similar threats from the
Al Azhar, one of the leading religious centres in the Muslim world, is threatening legal action against the celebrated Egyptian writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi.
At a meeting this week, the Islamic Research Council agreed to present a petition against El Saadawi to the prosecutor general for her attacks on ‘God, the prophets and the heavenly religions’, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al Misry al Yom.
Dr El Saadawi is one of Egypt’s most celebrated writers and activists. She was a candidate in the last presidential election and believes that the current action against her is politically motivated. Al Azhar’s threats are just the latest in a number of attempts to intimidate the author.
The head of Al Azhar, Sheikh Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi has condemned El Saadawi’s play God Resigns at the Summit Meeting for allegedly offending Islam. Five of El Saadawi’s books – including the play - were banned at the Cairo bookfair in January. All copies of the play have been destroyed.
‘Political groups want to threaten writers and freethinkers,’ El Saadawi told Index on Censorship. ‘It’s a backlash. The whole of Egyptian society is going backwards.’
Nawal El Saadawi told Index that she was summoned to the prosecutor general’s office in January, with her daughter, the writer Mona Helmi, following a case lodged against her in 2006 - also on the grounds that she had insulted Islam.
El Saadawi believes that religious groups were particularly incensed by interviews she had given to the Egyptian press, in which she said that God was a spirit and therefore neither male nor female.
She was previously accused of apostasy in 2001, when an attempt was made to force her to divorce her husband on the grounds that she had insulted Islam. Both cases were filed against her under the Sharia law of hisba.
In the wake of the accusations, El Saadawi has decided to leave the country for the next six months. She has not yet been charged. She told the Egyptian newspaper Al Misry al Yom that she was fed up with the complacency and cowardice of Egyptian intellectuals and their unwillingness to stand up to intimidation.
On 22 February a court in Alexandria handed down a four-year prison sentence on blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman for 'inciting hatred of Islam' and insulting President Hosni Mubarak. Known on line under the pseudonym of 'Kareem Amer', he had been in detention since November.
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Egyptian Feminist’s Book is Recalled and Destroyed for ‘Offending Religion’
All copies of Egyptian feminist writer, activist and medical doctor Nawal Al Saadawi's latest book, God Resigns in the Summit Meeting, were removed from circulation and destroyed last week by her publisher Mahmoud Madbouli, according to German news service Deutsche Press Agenter. Madbouli said he withdrew the book once he learned it "offended readers' religious sensitivities." Claiming his decision to remove and shred all copies of the text was not political, Madbouli admitted to Deutsche Press Agenter that security police witnessed the destruction.
"My book contains nothing offensive to religion," Saadawi said to Gulf News. "A work of art should be judged by the critics, not religious clerics or government bureaucrats." According to Saadawi, the book examines current socio-economic and religious issues in Egypt.
Saadawi, a former political prisoner who lived in exile in the US for five years before returning to Egypt, is currently being prosecuted for supporting her daughter's suggestion last year that children be named after their mothers, not fathers. Saadawi and her daughter, Dr. Mona Helmi, were interrogated by a general prosecutor on January 28 after being accused of renouncing religion, according to an essay published on her website.
The author of over 30 books - many banned - Saadawi was the Director General of Public Health in Egypt until being dismissed in 1972 for authoring Women and Sex, a groundbreaking discussion of the sexual exploitation of women, including prostitution, the trauma of female circumcision, incest and sexually transmitted diseases.
(Source: Feminist Digest)
Egypt Nawal El Saadawi Kareem Amer
Al Azhar, one of the leading religious centres in the Muslim world, is threatening legal action against the celebrated Egyptian writer and activist Nawal El Saadawi.
At a meeting this week, the Islamic Research Council agreed to present a petition against El Saadawi to the prosecutor general for her attacks on ‘God, the prophets and the heavenly religions’, according to the Egyptian newspaper Al Misry al Yom.
Dr El Saadawi is one of Egypt’s most celebrated writers and activists. She was a candidate in the last presidential election and believes that the current action against her is politically motivated. Al Azhar’s threats are just the latest in a number of attempts to intimidate the author.
The head of Al Azhar, Sheikh Mohammed Sayyid Tantawi has condemned El Saadawi’s play God Resigns at the Summit Meeting for allegedly offending Islam. Five of El Saadawi’s books – including the play - were banned at the Cairo bookfair in January. All copies of the play have been destroyed.
‘Political groups want to threaten writers and freethinkers,’ El Saadawi told Index on Censorship. ‘It’s a backlash. The whole of Egyptian society is going backwards.’
Nawal El Saadawi told Index that she was summoned to the prosecutor general’s office in January, with her daughter, the writer Mona Helmi, following a case lodged against her in 2006 - also on the grounds that she had insulted Islam.
El Saadawi believes that religious groups were particularly incensed by interviews she had given to the Egyptian press, in which she said that God was a spirit and therefore neither male nor female.
She was previously accused of apostasy in 2001, when an attempt was made to force her to divorce her husband on the grounds that she had insulted Islam. Both cases were filed against her under the Sharia law of hisba.
In the wake of the accusations, El Saadawi has decided to leave the country for the next six months. She has not yet been charged. She told the Egyptian newspaper Al Misry al Yom that she was fed up with the complacency and cowardice of Egyptian intellectuals and their unwillingness to stand up to intimidation.
On 22 February a court in Alexandria handed down a four-year prison sentence on blogger Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman for 'inciting hatred of Islam' and insulting President Hosni Mubarak. Known on line under the pseudonym of 'Kareem Amer', he had been in detention since November.
Latest
Egyptian Feminist’s Book is Recalled and Destroyed for ‘Offending Religion’
All copies of Egyptian feminist writer, activist and medical doctor Nawal Al Saadawi's latest book, God Resigns in the Summit Meeting, were removed from circulation and destroyed last week by her publisher Mahmoud Madbouli, according to German news service Deutsche Press Agenter. Madbouli said he withdrew the book once he learned it "offended readers' religious sensitivities." Claiming his decision to remove and shred all copies of the text was not political, Madbouli admitted to Deutsche Press Agenter that security police witnessed the destruction.
"My book contains nothing offensive to religion," Saadawi said to Gulf News. "A work of art should be judged by the critics, not religious clerics or government bureaucrats." According to Saadawi, the book examines current socio-economic and religious issues in Egypt.
Saadawi, a former political prisoner who lived in exile in the US for five years before returning to Egypt, is currently being prosecuted for supporting her daughter's suggestion last year that children be named after their mothers, not fathers. Saadawi and her daughter, Dr. Mona Helmi, were interrogated by a general prosecutor on January 28 after being accused of renouncing religion, according to an essay published on her website.
The author of over 30 books - many banned - Saadawi was the Director General of Public Health in Egypt until being dismissed in 1972 for authoring Women and Sex, a groundbreaking discussion of the sexual exploitation of women, including prostitution, the trauma of female circumcision, incest and sexually transmitted diseases.
(Source: Feminist Digest)
Egypt Nawal El Saadawi Kareem Amer
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11:33 PM
1 Comments:
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