Campus Times
March 7, 2005
Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian presidential candidate, spoke to a room of approximately 150 people last Tuesday at Scripps College. Her speech focused on women’s advancement for equality and what forums are proper to accomplish such a task.
“We can’t let anger and fear destroy us inside,” El Saadawi said.
El Saadawi discussed ideas for using alternative forms of media to get a message across to the public. She had appeared on a KPFK radio talk show earlier that morning.
“We have to create our own media,” El Saadawi said. “Newspapers, magazines, different schools and different universities.”
Carol Hughes, who attended the event, agreed with El Saadawi’s points about media effectiveness.
“I don’t think that it is enough media coverage to really make that much of a difference,” Hughes said referring to the media attention of today’s feminist groups.
Hughes heard of the event through listening to KPFK on her way to work and decided to stop by and hear her in person.
“It’s amazing, when you think about it, that she could be the president of Egypt,” Hughes said.
El Saadawi said writing is one of the best ways to get important points and feelings across.
“We write because we look for freedom,” she said. “Writing is our own integration for body, mind and spirit.”
Even after publishing numerous books on women’s rights, however, El Saadawi said she still finds it hard to get her ideas across.
She said that many people around the world are wondering about the reasons in running for the presidency of Egypt.
“I think it very brave of her to run for that position, especially with how they treat women in that country,” Hughes said.
El Saadawi talked about how lucky United States citizens are to have a media free from government censorship. In Egypt, the television stations are all Government censored.
El Saadawi said that she believes that if women want to gain equality in the world they have to do three things: Uncover the mind, be creative and organize.
“Women have to use creativity as a weapon,” she said. “Why do so few people create? Because the mind is veiled.”
El Saadawi suggested that women go back and study exactly why women were oppressed so we can change it now.
“We have to re-educate ourselves to understand why all of this happened,” she said. “We must organize and have creativity, knowledge and love,” she said.
Despite all of the talk of changing this and what women need to do about it, El Saadawi explained that none of this would be possible without unity among women.
“We have to come out together, we are all one,” she said.
This event was sponsored by the Intercollegiate Women’s Studies program of the Claremont Colleges.
Steven Falls can be reached at sfalls21@msn.com.