New York University will host Egyptian activist and author Dr. Nawal El Saadawi, whose outspokenness against her country’s government began in the early 1970s and continued through recent protest marches in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, for two events in March.
New York University will host Egyptian activist and author Dr. Nawal El Saadawi, whose outspokenness against her country’s government began in the early 1970s and continued through recent protest marches in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, for two events in March.
El Saadawi, whom New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently called “one of the most famous advocates of women in the Arab world,” will deliver a public lecture, “Creativity, Dissidence, and Women,” on Tuesday, March 22, 6:00 p.m., at NYU’s Kimmel Center for University Life, Eisner and Lubin Auditorium, Fourth Floor (60 Washington Square South at La Guardia Place). The lecture will be followed by a panel discussion on the Egyptian Revolution and will include El Saadawi and the founders of the International Action Center. This event, sponsored by the Paul McGhee Division at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS), is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, contact Professor Julia Keefer at julia.keefer@nyu.edu or 212.734.1083. Subways: N, R (8th Street); 6 (Astor Place); A, B, C, D, E, F, M (West 4th Street).
The NYU Bookstore will host El Saadawi, a physician, psychiatrist, and author of more than 40 fiction and non-fiction books, for a reading and book signing on Thursday, March 24, 6:30-8 p.m. (726 Broadway, between Waverly Place and Washington Place). The free event is part of the NYU Bookstore’s Event Series and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call 212.998.4667 or go to www.bookstores.nyu.edu. Subways: Subways: N, R (8th Street); 6 (Astor Place).
El Saadawi, whose works have been translated into more than 30 languages and whose novels, God Dies by the Nile and Women at Point Zero, have been banned in many Arab countries, has been outspoken against female genital mutilation. Her writing on the subject led to her dismissal from the Egyptian Ministry of Health in the early 1970s. Later imprisoned by President Anwar Sadat for “crimes against the state,” El Saadawi authored Memoirs from the Women’s Prison during her incarceration, using only toilet paper and a smuggled eyebrow pencil to write the manuscript.
Reporters wishing to attend either event must RSVP to James Devitt, NYU’s Office of Public Affairs, at 212.998.6808 or james.devitt@nyu.edu.