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 SaadawiRead
When you have increasing power of religious groups, oppression of women increases. Women are oppressed in all religions.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that as religious authority grows, so does the oppression of women.
Nawal El Saadawi highlights a critical perspective on the relationship between religious power and gender inequality. She argues that throughout history, the strengthening influence of religious groups has often correlated with the diminishing rights and freedoms of women, indicating a systemic issue within various religious doctrines that perpetuates female oppression. This observation invites a broader discussion on the intersection of religion, authority, and gender dynamics, emphasizing the need for reform within religious contexts to foster equality.
Themes
ReligionWomenOppressionPowerInequality
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on women's rights, one might use this quote to emphasize the need for change in religious interpretations.
More from Nawal El Saadawi
All quotes βYet not for a single moment did I have any doubts about my own integrity and honour as a woman. I knew that my profession had been invented by men, and that men were in control of both our worlds, the one on earth, and the one in heaven. That men force women to sell their bodies at a price, and that the lowest paid body is that of a wife. All women are prostitutes of one kind or another.
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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.
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My skin is soft, but my heart is cruel, and my bite is deadly.
Nawal El SaadawiRead
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.
Nawal El SaadawiRead
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 SaadawiRead
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